She recently returned to work after a year’s maternity leave and is committed to a work/life balance including making the most of time with her son Heron and progressing further with her career.
Furthermore – she and the team have worked hard to ensure she can work part-time – something she never thought would be possible and which will not only set an example for women returning to work in the future but for men too if sharing parental responsibilities is an option.
She says: “I can’t wait for the day when my son Heron starts to play with diggers and trucks and I can say to him: ‘That’s where mummy works – on a building site.’ And he perhaps goes into this industry because of his mum.”
Gemma started her career with aspirations to be an interior designer and after considering university, she happened upon a traineeship.
She says: “I worked in interior design for three years and then thought ‘there must be more’ especially as I really enjoyed the project management side of the work. There happened to be a company close to where I was living that was building 400 flats and I plucked up the courage to approach them. They suggested I work in ‘finishing’ and took me on.”
Gemma’s ambition soon drove her to want to be involved earlier in the build process and not just at the finishing stage. She applied for a trainee site manager position with Bovis Homes, now one of Vistry Group’s brands.
When she found she was pregnant she was worried about her future – like many women – about her career progression and even financial stability. But on reading Vistry’s policies, she discovered that the company offered full pay for 6 months of maternity leave and that she could take 12 months away from her job.
“So many of my friends in parent groups were less fortunate and were concerned about finances. I was in a really good position.”
“We looked into the health and safety of me working on site, and after that they pretty much said that if I was comfortable then so were they. I managed to work on site up until I left for maternity leave, I brought my leave forward 4 weeks as there were problems with Heron’s growth and thankfully I did as I went into labour a week after finishing work.”
And then, when she broached the idea of returning part-time, she found her colleagues supportive in this too.
Now she is back in muddy boots, she is already planning to study for her next level and aiming to become a site manager.