Back in 2014, Kata Sótér-Schneider became Neticle’s first full-time Analyst. This was the company’s true startup era: at the time, only 7 people worked here, and Kata was part of the first wave of new hires besides the founders. Zurvey.io had barely been created, and Neticle Media Intelligence was still only serving the Hungarian market, with significantly fewer features and capabilities than now.
Crammed in a tiny office, the small team worked in a market setting where social listening itself was still quite new. Step by step, they grew the clientele, developed new features and hired more colleagues. However, as Neticle grew, so did Kata’s family: she went on maternity leave with her first child in 2016. Now a mom of three and freshly back in the Analyst team, we looked back on the ten years she has spent with Neticle. She told us about her experience with maternity leave and how she sees the company’s development.
Kata stayed at home with her first child for a year and a half, then returned to work in 2018. She worked part-time for about a year, and then went on maternity leave again, this time spending four years away from work while she had her second and third children. She’s been back with Neticle’s Analyst team since September 2023, working 20 hours a week.
For Kata, knowing that becoming a mother wouldn’t create work issues was a strong argument for choosing Neticle. “I had always planned to come back” – she says. “It was very reassuring to know that at Neticle, it wouldn’t be a problem to return to work part-time, especially since this isn’t a given at many companies. Looking for a new job next to having a small child at home would have been so demanding. I really appreciate the security that Neticle provided.”
Flexibility is one of Neticle’s core values, so it was important to let Kata choose her own terms during the return process both times. She could choose part-time work, define her windows of availability, and have a say in what type of analyses she would start working on.
“Returning to the company was mostly stress-free both times. I mean, I’m not going to lie: having to switch my brain to work-mode from mom-mode was super hard of course, especially the second time, after staying at home for four years. But the team at Neticle was very happy to see me return, and they were easy-going and so helpful during my reintegration. I’m grateful that they let me define a setup that would work for me.”
|
Neticle’s employee-centric approach The wellbeing of employees is a central matter for Neticle, even if it often means becoming the odd yet refreshing exception, especially on the Hungarian market. Our transparent salaries, flexible working hours and human-centric maternity and paternity leave policies are all examples of this approach. We would like to set an example for welcoming mothers back after having children: it is not only beneficial for the employees but for the company as well, since the returning colleagues will be happier, more satisfied, and have long-term, extensive knowledge of our products and services. |
Another thing that helped Kata adjust to work again was Neticle’s work-from-anywhere policy. She still comes to the office about once a week, but having to commute every day would have made it impossible for her to return, since she lives in a different city.
Working from home, she can balance her mom duties with her work duties, and she can even reorganize working hours in case one of her little ones get sick.
With Kata’s career at Neticle spanning ten years, talking to her was a great opportunity to see how far the company culture and the products have come.
“During those early days of building a startup, Neticle also fell into the pit of hustle culture” - she points out. “Everyone would work overtime; I would sometimes continue working even after I went home. We were a bunch of 20-somethings, and it was exciting to see Neticle take off. Now the company culture is so much more mature.”
She highlights the Analyst team’s time and task tracking methods, the clear KPIs, and the policy to avoid sending each other emails after 5PM. Maintaining a healthy work-life balance has become a priority that all managers strive to uphold. “I barely ever work overtime now” – she concludes.
Returning in 2023, Kata was shocked to see how far Neticle Media Intelligence and Zurvey.io had come. Besides having added more than 30 languages since she first started working with the tools, both platforms have significantly widened capabilities and have a more professional look.
“It was cool to see how much faster, more accurate and more stable the system has become” – she says. “When I first started, reach and engagement calculation were not yet part of the platform, for example. There was no automation in reporting, Zurvey.io had also not been integrated at all, and we used to monitor much fewer platforms.”
Like our Head of Analysis, Péter Zelenák highlighted in his interview, Kata also points out the changes in the regulation of social media. “The stricter protection of user rights has changed the social listening landscape. Much less data is public now, which is a good thing, of course. But it affects what we can reveal in analyses. At the same time, we have more competitors, too.”
With Neticle’s Customer Success Management team in place, analysts’ work differs from how it used to be when Kata first started. With less direct involvement with clients, they can have a sharper focus on creating the analyses. It’s another aspect of the company “growing up”, even if she used to enjoy meeting clients in person and holding presentations.
Going forward, Kata already has a few plans on how to continue her reintegration. From early 2025, she’s considering increasing her working hours to 30, and she’s also thinking about doing some of the courses that Neticle offers as part of employee career development.
Even though Kata was the first employee at Neticle to go on maternity leave, and also the first to come back, there are currently three more colleagues at home with their babies. When the time is right for them, we hope to welcome them back to the team as well!