Separating personal and professional lives
"There are always challenges like the work/life balance," Victoria says. "For example, we’ll often have passionate departmental discussions over Sunday dinner, but it’s only because we care so much."
Luke echoes this sentiment, calling it "a balancing act" and explaining that "while the convenience of being able to update one another whenever we’re together is a huge advantage, we are mindful of 'Sunday Dinner Syndrome.'"
"It’s about knowing when to be colleagues and when to just be a family, though, admittedly, the lines do get a little blurry when we're excited about a successful completion."
"We work hard so that we can enjoy our time outside of the office, so we make a conscious effort to 'take the work hats off' and protect our downtime," Luke says.
"It’s important to respect the need for space," Russell agrees, saying that he and his father "are lucky in that we can work from home, when necessary, just to keep things separate."
"As with any working relationship, there can be challenges," notes Russel. "There’s the added dynamic that you’re also seeing each other outside of work more often than you might with traditional work colleagues, and that can make things more complex at times. But having the mutual respect and love that comes from being part of the same family means it can be managed and overcome."
Vic Jannels notes that "Once business and family matters overlap too heavily, trouble can follow," and that "the balance comes from talking things through, compromising, and remembering that they are family and friends as well as colleagues."
"It is not always easy," Dale agrees, "because the business is naturally a common interest and ‘shop talk’ can creep into family time. However, the separation comes from understanding each person’s role and keeping business and family matters in their own compartments.
"We manage this by not allowing disagreements at work to affect personal relationships. We each have our own responsibilities across OMS, and because those roles are clear, they can complement each other rather than overlap too much."
Similarly, Katherine explains that "sometimes I have to make sure I switch off and keep those boundaries between work and home. I've tried to learn to be more intentional about keeping them separate. It's just a habit where I go, ‘What about this today?’ and Grace is like, 'Mum, we're at home now, please don't talk about work.'"
"At the heart of it, we're always family first, and then we do everything to do with Stagg mortgages when we're at work."
