One of the many unique characteristics of our amazing team is that in a male-dominated industry, we have so many women on Team CTE.
Even more impressive? Many of these hard-working women are also mothers. They come into CTE every day, often after hours of already working on getting their children fed and off to school or daycare. Their multi-tasking skills, sharp communication, resilience, and ability to pivot at a moment’s notice are excellent because of the work they do as mothers.
We’ve found that our CTE moms are among some of our best team members. They are worth celebrating today and every day.
“We love the women at CTE who also happen to be moms!” said Co-Founder and Vice President Kimm Lytle. “When Todd and I started CTE, we wanted to create a business that worked for our young family. It had to give us the ability to make a living, but primarily, it needed to be family-centric, so we could be active and present parents in our children’s lives.”
As the business grew over the years, Kimm and Todd Lytle’s intention turned into a cultural hallmark that today permeates throughout the CTE culture. Team members constantly point to the family-feel atmosphere as the number 1 reason they love working at CTE. For the team members who also happen to be moms, the CTE culture is an amazing way to get the work-life balance they need.
Flexibility, understanding when issues come up, and family-friendly companywide events are all major reasons why CTE moms say the business supports them.
“CTE has always been flexible when it comes to the many ’emergencies’ that come up when raising children,” said Janel Garton, accounting manager, who started at CTE when her kids were 12 and 6. “It’s obvious CTE truly values work/life balance.”
Several of the moms experienced CTE’s support when they were expecting.
“I was in my fifth year here at CTE when I found out I was pregnant,” said Client Service Representative Kolbi Nilsen. “CTE has always been understanding in the situation of having to leave due to a daycare issue or sickness.”
Transportation Specialist Katie Espinoza, who is due with her first baby around Christmas, said it has been amazing to receive support from job and co-workers during this exciting time.
“CTE really does have a great support system, and with all the working moms, there has been a lot of great advice and stories that have helped try to prepare for a baby,” Katie said. “CTE really takes care of all of us even after maternity leave to try to make the transition back to working as soon as possible.”
Client Service Representative Eliza Stanton said she remembers this transition back well when she had her third baby in 2019.
“Family comes first at CTE, and I’ve always felt comfortable requesting time off for my family’s needs,” Eliza said. “Just knowing they respect my family’s needs as much as possible is a good feeling.”
For Tosiha Corcoran, client services representative and mom of a 7-year-old and 3-year-old, she said she really discovered how deep CTE’s support for parents ran when daycares started closing due to COVID-19. She was able to take time off, with CTE’s full support, to transition her kids to online school and to daycare when it reopened. Another plus? Tosiha never feels like she has to miss conferences, school functions and field trips because of her job.
Transportation Supervisor Jamie Hunt echoed the same support during 2020.
“They are super supportive, and not that I am homeschooling and working, they have been very patient,” she said. “During the beginning of COVID, when the kids went to virtual learning, I was able to work from home on Mondays so that I could assist with school work.”
At CTE, we love our working moms, the contributions and unique set of skills they bring to their job.