Special Days of Hi-gineers, Working Parents

Even with two parents, raising a child can be tough. When both parents have careers, it’s important that the two share the parenting responsibility and support each other. Over the past couple of years, companies who turned to remote work and video meetings found themselves with a first-hand look at the challenges that working parents face. At SK hynix, there’s a history of supporting working parents in different ways. To take into account the women’s right to work, the company is actively looking to introduce systems designed for working parents – not just working moms. That effort grew even larger – and its impact became more evident – during the pandemic.

To celebrate ‘International Women’s Day’ and to better understand what life is like for the moms and dads of SK hynix, we asked team members from around the world to share with us their experiences and their thoughts about the work culture for SK hynix parents.

At work, Hye-jung Choi is a team lead of Revolution DRAM who is responsible for future memory device development at Revolutionary Technology Center (RTC) of SK hynix’s R&D department in Korea. But at home, she is a mother to two children, one in elementary school and another in middle school.

For Choi, the flexible work policy has eliminated early-morning meetings, giving her time to sit down for some breakfast and review documents while she prepares for the day’s meetings – time she otherwise might have spent commuting to the office.

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As her older child enters middle school, she not only benefited from the company’s school entrance gift money but also the years that her child spent at the company’s daycare center, removing a concern that many parents face. She also told us how she recently spoke with a newly pregnant colleague and shared information about company resources for soon-to-be parents, from prenatal diagnosis leave to a Dodami Room, a rest area for pregnant women, as well as details about maternity and childcare leave.

Jeon is a Leader of SoC Development Innovation Team taking charge of solution development. As a father of two children and a husband, flexible working means a lot to him in terms of work-life balance. With this, he is grateful for having a real life and tightening family bond while enjoying the work.

Sometimes, however, the simplest things can make big differences in the life of a working parent. Consider how mornings are hectic for employees like Ailsa Xue, who works on the Wuxi Photo Production Technology/Scanner Team in China. Getting her day started and motivating her child to wake up, eat breakfast and get ready for school while she gets ready for work can sometimes be challenging – and that means she either has to skip her own breakfast or risk fixing a meal that will certainly be cold by the time she’s able to sit down to eat at the office.

If not for the company cafeteria, which always has plenty of tasty options to get her energized for the morning, her physical and mental wellness in those first morning hours will likely be struggling by the time the lunch hour rolls around. As a bonus, she likes being able to step away from her desk in the mid-afternoon for a nice coffee break with her colleagues at an on-site company café.

For Vivian Nguyen, who works for SK hynix America Inc. in the Human Resources department, mornings with an 8-month-old, as well as commute traffic, can be unpredictable. That’s why flexible start times can be such an important perk for working parents. Likewise, because she is still a nursing mother, access to an on-site mother’s room and the flexibility to step away a few times a day provides her with a nice, tranquil setting. Like others, she is grateful for the on-site cafeteria for lunch. After all, making a lunch in the morning is near-impossible, given the challenges of getting out of the house with a baby in-tow.

If not for the flexible schedule and perks for working parents, she might not have the opportunity to thrive in her career while trying to be there for her family. For that, she is grateful to SK hynix for their support and understanding.

And SK hynix is happy to be able to create a working environment where parents can maintain a sense of work-life balance without having to sacrifice either. SK hynix is committed to a workplace that’s better for everyone – including working parents – because the company believes it makes the communities where we live and work that much stronger.