Blue Heart People Series: Carly Scarlett

As a working mum who wants to be there for her young children, Carly Scarlett loves her flexible hours. She's grateful that she is able to balance a meaningful career with her role as a parent, and is particularly thankful that she has an understanding manager.

"I'm supported by my colleagues and I have a very supportive manager, but there's always so much going on when you have kids. Even getting an award at assembly – parents don't want to miss out on that, but if you have a job where you don't have a manager that allows time to just nip out and come back, or work from home for an afternoon, you miss out.

"I've been really lucky because I've had really supportive managers that have allowed me to do that. But I guess you build up that trust– where you do the work and they know you'll make up the hours later – that flexibility makes so much difference in a parent's eyes."

As a working parent, Carly brings a different perspective to her job, and she believes that these different perspectives can make Spark a better place to work. "Being diverse is way more interesting than not."

For Carly, creating a diverse and accepting workplace begins with awareness. "The [Blue Heart Pledge] video is a good start. Some people just aren't aware there are people at Spark who might be feeling excluded.

"The awareness thing is just such a huge component. When people are mindful of what other people are feeling then that can only lead to a better culture at their workplace. And if that can come from the top down, I think a lot of people at my level will feel even more included."

We also took the opportunity to ask Carly her thoughts on Spark's new Flexible Working policy. She believes "this is a great step forward for Spark to show its support for working parents and for all employees who want to improve their work/life balance. I hope we as a company can continue on with this future thinking, it can only lead to a better workplace and culture for us all."