NJ tech gathering highlights work-life balance

Creating a culture of greatness was the topic of a lunch-and-learn presentation held Aug. 10, 2023 at Bell Works Campus in Holmdel, N.J. Jointly hosted by CoLab at Bell Works, NextTech Communications, and Momentum Technology, the interactive workshop was the latest offering in the ongoing NJ Women in Tech series.

Janine Savarese, founder and CEO of NextTech Communications, introduced Amanda Pietrocola, president and CEO of Momentum Technology, mentioning she was honored by JPMorgan Chase as one of the “100 Women to KNOW in America.” In addition, she noted, Pietrocola is active in philanthropic initiatives and the tech community, most recently as a panelist in the inaugural NJ Women in Tech event, held in April 2023 at Bell Works Campus and cohosted by TechUnited and NextTech Communications.

“Whether you’ve just started in your career or are a founder and CEO, you are an integral part of building your company’s culture,” Savarese said, encouraging the audience to participate in the discussion by raising a hand or by submitting a question through the event’s digital app.

Key takeaways

Thanking Savarese for the opportunity, Pietrocola shared highlights from her tech career, which began with a college internship and led to her establishing Momentum Technology eight years later, a company focused on data privacy and protection. Believing that good product design begins with how businesses manage teams and support customers, Pietrocola stated her company’s ethos is to love what you do and change the world for the better while doing it, but cautioned against burnout, which she noted is a common challenge in the tech community.

Momentum Technology encourages employees to use all of their paid time off and fully unplug from the company while away, she stated, by instituting a semi-hybrid workplace environment and even going as far as disconnecting vacationing employees from the company’s email server. I know this may sound harsh, she added, but we prioritize employee health and quality of life.

Too many companies view employees as cogs in a machine rather than as vibrant individuals, Pietrocola stated, offering the following five ways to inculcate a great culture within an organization:

1. Be a person of your word.

2. Be solution minded, not problem oriented by viewing the workplace through a lens of “how to make it better.”

3. Grow your emotional IQ.

4. Be a thermostat, not a thermometer by setting the right workplace temperature versus just reading it.

5. Make work-life balance something to live by, not just an aspirational concept.

Giving vs. taking

“Give true work-life balance to your employees,” she said, by protecting their time off and celebrating when they leave their laptops at home when they embark on vacations. When asked how she maintains work-life balance at her company, Pietrocola acknowledged that it’s a work in progress marked by incremental improvements along the way.

Employees also enjoy participating in charitable activities, she said, noting that giving back to the community is one of the company’s proudest achievements. The company recently helped Together We Rise, for example, a 501(c)3 non-profit focused on helping children in foster care. Momentum employees gathered, decorated and filled duffle bags to be given to children transitioning through the system, personalized luggage for each child to own.

“Delegation has been key,” she said. “I bring in people I trust to write guidebooks for different departments. And more importantly, we measure our KPIs not by how much we made but by how much we gave.”

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