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Celebrating International Women’s Day at Moorhouse: Susmitha’s story
This International Women’s Day at Moorhouse, we are proud to celebrate our talented female colleagues.
This year, we hear from Susmitha Gunda, Manager in our Digital & Data team. She shares her journey at Moorhouse and how the support she has received has enabled her to thrive in her consulting career.
My journey with Moorhouse hasn’t been a conventional one, or even one that I’d envisioned it to be. However, upon reflecting, it’s the one I needed the most, even if I didn’t realise it back then.
Being a mum to a three-year-old, roughly a year ago, I decided that to prioritise my son’s well-being and manage my workload, the best course of action would be to leave Moorhouse – and consulting! As we all know, a career in consulting is a race for excellence. I was struggling to manage my work-life balance and give the time my three-year-old demanded – given he was going through a transition post-Covid with no social interaction, and that was proving to be tricky. Among the excellent consultants at Moorhouse, I didn’t want my performance to reflect that I wasn’t able to allocate the time, effort, or energy to deliver the capabilities demanded around client delivery, business development, and internal capability. I still remember a late evening call I had with my Talent Lead and my Client Director – key to note both were men. I explained that I needed to prioritise time with my three-year-old over my career and as such I wanted to quit Moorhouse. I expected they would understand where I was coming from and then bid me farewell.
What I didn’t expect, was how the conversation went. They wanted me to talk through what my ideal working arrangement would look like. I didn’t even realise I had unconventional options to choose from, or that the firm would value me enough to support, empower, and nurture me. Two weeks later, I had an agreement to take a step back from any internal work or business development contribution and prioritise time to support my three-year-old. The firm, including the partners, were extremely supportive of this decision. So, I went from wanting to quit Moorhouse to having a flexible working agreement agreed – in just two weeks! Throughout this process, I felt empowered to ask for the support I needed which felt especially significant for me as a non-white person and a woman in a predominantly white, British firm.
So, I went from struggling to manage my work-life balance in late 2021, to one year on being nominated for outstanding client delivery, not once, but twice! And my three-year-old was thriving! What makes this journey even sweeter was that my flexible working agreement has not impacted my career progression in the business. I was encouraged to put myself forward for promotion, was supported through the process, and was promoted! The whole situation made me think that if more women were extended the kind of support that I have received at Moorhouse – where we don’t have to choose career or personal life where we have challenging circumstances – we would not only have more working parents (especially mums) excel at their careers while also supporting their families, but also empower women that all we have to do is put our hand up and ask for help.
I can gladly say, I wouldn’t have achieved the recent accolades I have received or spent that quality time with my three-year-old (who has now graduated nursery with flying colours!) if it wasn’t for that support I received almost a year ago from Moorhouse. I love how flexible principles for career progression have been adopted – one size doesn’t fit all!
