Name: Amy Reilly
Location: Greenwood Village, CO
Professional Industry: Accounting
Company: Wittkop & Wing, LLC
Job Title: Managing Partner
WIXII-ISM™ FROM AMY:
“To my younger self, I would advise: (1) looking at many career opportunities when I was in college, ones that I actually enjoy doing, (2) stay in touch with any professional relationships because I might need them later, (3) start saving early for retirement, (4) have three children instead of two, (5) travel a lot before having children as time is very limited afterwards.”
PERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION:
Meet our featured Wixii™, Amy Reilly. She is 45 years old and mother to a 14 year old daughter and 13 year old son. She and her husband, Jim, were married 3 years before they welcomed their first child into the world. She received her B.S. in Accounting from University of Colorado. Currently, Amy is the managing partner of Wittkop & Wing, LLC and has one client. She works on special projects which include overseeing all tax return preparation (23 companies) and monthly accounting for several of the companies. Her husband, Jim is the Managing Partner of TRG Healthcare Solutions.
As primary caregiver and partial breadwinner (10%), she devotes 7-10 per week to her career and would rate her job satisfaction level as 6 and work-life satisfaction level as 8 on a scale of 1-10 (10 being highest). She describes the policies of her workplace as very family friendly as she works for herself and controls the amount of work. In a typical week, she spends 70-80 hours caregiving, 5-7 hours cooking, 30 hours on cleaning, 7 hours on laundry, 6 hours on shopping, 3 hours supporting her children’s schoolwork and upwards of 30 hours a week on children’s extracurricular.
To maintain her own well-being, daily, Amy finds time to exercise and eat well. On a weekly basis, she pursues hobbies and time with friends and monthly catches up on sleep, connects with loved one and some pampering.
WORK-LIFE MIX:
Describe any choices you have made in arriving at your current work-life mix. If applicable, in what ways did your work-life mix change after having children?
I took a couple of years off from work when I had children. I had started my own business prior to having children so it was easy to scale back on taking clients. My husband travels 2-3 nights a week and it was not feasible for me to have a full time job nor did I want one when they were little. My current situation with work has been roughly the same for the last 13 years and lets me spend the majority of my time with my kids while also keeping one foot in the professional world.
Describe your career path to this point and any envisioned future changes.
I have been working with only one company for the last eight years doing project work. In the future I would like to explore different professions but haven’t really given it any serious thought. I would love to work with a company or in a field that I am passionate about which most likely would be in the not-for-profit industry.
My current work-life mix is possible (manageable) because of…
My current work-life mix is possible because I only work a maximum of ten hours a week and do so while kids are at school. I don’t have set days or hours that I need to work so I can make up some hours on the weekend if needed. My children are older now so it is easier in the summer to work while they are at their activities but when they were little, I had a sitter help our twice a week.
Describe a current “day in your life” from waketime to bedtime:
6:30 am: Wake & get my daughter off to high school.
7:00 – 7:30am: Wake up my son, make him breakfast and lunch and take him to the bus stop
8:00 am – 3:00pm: Workout, shower, coffee and head to work for 3-4 hours. Some sort of errand during the day.
3:00 pm: Pick my son up from school and get him a snack while he starts homework.
5:15pm: Pick up my daughter from lacrosse
6:00pm: Feed the kids dinner as my husband is usually out of town.
7:00 – 9:30pm: Take/Pickup my son to/from baseball. Encourage my daughter to do her homework. Spend some time in my office working on my volunteer commitments with the kids’ school or on accounting for a not-for-profit company that I donate my time to or on our personal finances.
10:30pm: Bedtime; load of laundry at night
Each day is different for me though as I only work two days a week. The other days I will try to fit in some tennis or lunch with a friend or more of the endless errands.
On a daily basis…:
I am energized from exercising either at the gym or playing tennis.
I get a sense of accomplishment when I finish a task (volunteer commitment or project at work) as well as when my daughter and/or son go to bed happy.
I am frustrated that there simply aren’t enough hours in the day.
WIXII™ WISDOM:
Share your key(s) to maintaining order (“managing it all”) and any tools you highly recommend:
Carving out time for you daily is ideal. I just went away on a girl’s spa weekend and I highly suggest doing that once a year. Plus CAR POOLS and SITTERS are a must!
What advice would you give an earlier version of yourself?
I think I would tell myself to look at other career opportunities when I was in college, ones that I actually enjoy doing. I would definitely tell myself to stay in touch with any professional relationships because you might need them later in life. I would tell myself to start saving early for retirement. I would tell myself to have three children instead of two. I would tell myself to travel a lot before having children as time is very limited afterwards.
Is there anything else you would like to share regarding your work-life mix?
I have a very manageable work-life mix and consider myself extremely lucky. I definitely feel overwhelmed by the amount of time that is required of me from my children, husband and work but I realize that it is rare to have the flexibility I have with my work. When the kids were younger it was more challenging, as I needed help caring for them while I was at work. Once they started elementary school and became more active with sports the challenge was to find a sitter to help with after school driving. It seemed like every time I found a sitter everyone liked and was reliable, the sitter would quit. I have now changed my work hours so that I am home when my children get home from school and I can take them to all of their activities.
