HYPERFOCUS MOTION: DEDICATED TO WORKING MOMS.
Hey friend, Drysen here.
Truth be told, I’m probably a little underqualified to be the one writing this article, but I feel it’s an important message to share. Over the past few months, I’ve been fortunate to listen to many talented women, including my business partner and co-founder Courtney Haberl share the struggles of balancing work and being a mom. That’s why our Sioux Falls based design studio Hyperfocus Motion has decided to make a change.
Understanding the need to change:
My "work comes first" mentality has deep roots. Before founding Hyperfocus, my wife and I operated a wedding entertainment and photography company where we went to great lengths to satisfy our clients. As we added children into the mix, we felt that sacrificing weekends and evenings at home was simply part of the path to success. A few years later, while working as a full-time employee, I crossed paths with my future business partner, Courtney. At that time, putting in 50, 60, or even 70-hour work weeks was the norm. It's safe to say we're no strangers to hard work and long hours.
Eventually, our journeys led us away from that company. While I departed to pursue my specific niche in the industry, Courtney sought a better work-family balance to spend quality time with her kids.
As the idea of Hyperfocus Motion first came to be, we knew we had to be committed to the businesses that trusted us to create their content and understood this would require late hours and the occasional weekend. We also needed to find a balance between work and spending time with our families. As any new startup does, the work started to pile up and we began to put in late hours on the regular.
As our workday wrapped up, we’d rush through supper, our kids’ homework, and bedtime routines. Admittedly, my wife did much more of the heavy lifting than I did, but who did Courtney have to turn to?
Burnout became a shared challenge. Courtney felt frustrated due to late nights and the lack of family time, while I grappled with Hyperfocus's lack of clear boundaries. There were evenings when my wife had to shoulder childcare responsibilities while I toiled at my computer.
This year, I attended DashBash in Raleigh, NC, where the speakers' wisdom struck a chord. I realized that while work is essential, Courtney and I risked draining our energy if we overexerted ourselves due to a lack of boundaries. After listening to speakers and other moms across the country, Hyperfocus made a significant decision: implementing a strict daily log-off time of 5 p.m.
A Bold Shift for a Family-Friendly Schedule:
Simultaneously, I had conversations with a few friends of mine - Kaci Smith and Jennie Davis, who launched the “Mothers of Mograph” newsletter and Slack channel. Hearing their stories and the stories of other moms across the country really opened my eyes. I realized that even my wife was left to tend to our kids. Yet, my business partner didn’t have the same resources I did.
However, thanks to the conversations I had with Kaci and Jennie, my perspective shifted, and my mind was open for the conversation. My business partner, whom Hyperfocus could not exist without, had a challenge that I couldn’t truly relate to.
Courtney needed to prioritize her role as a mom, but her family had often taken a back seat to work. In response, she proposed a fresh and bold idea—closing Hyperfocus every day at 4 PM to truly become a family-focused company.
So we’re doing it.
Hyperfocus Motion has adopted new hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. to allow our staff time to get their kids ready for school and not stress about punching the clock by 8.
We’re wrapping up our workday by 4:00 to ensure we have time to spend with our families, helping our kids with homework, and being more committed to raising the next generation of designers.
We’re making a move to invest in family as our number one priority.
A New Work-Life Balance:
So, here we go. Our new operating hours are from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM to prioritize the family lives of our employees, not just conventional workday norms.
At Hyperfocus Motion, we're embarking on this journey to create a better work-life balance for our team. Our dedication to animation, design, and video production remains unwavering, but now it's complemented by our commitment to supporting working moms.
Wish us luck.
