Returning to work after parental leave is challenging enough. But throw in a pandemic, writing a book and a promotion to CEO of one of Australia’s leading independent media agencies, and it seems near impossible.
This was how Claire Fenner became a mother and the head of Atomic 212 all in the space of a year. Despite the juggle of it all, not only is motherhood everything she dreamed, but her business has never been more successful.
“It’s absolutely been challenging,” Claire Fenner, CEO of media agency Atomic 212 said, “but also really exciting.”
‘An intriguing opportunity.’
Fenner was appointed head of Atomic 212, which accrued $100 million in new billings last year, in March 2023 when she returned from parental leave. She had her daughter, Audrey, through IVF treatment and is now raising her on her own.
Fenner began her time at Atomic in 2013. She had worked in the industry for more than five years and was actually leaving her previous employer to take a career break.
“I had in my mind that I’d take a few months off and try to decide what I wanted to do,” she said.
One of the partners of Atomic 212 approached Fenner, asking her to join the team. In the early days of the agency’s life, there were just 20 staff members.
“It was an intriguing opportunity,” she said.
“I didn’t believe in my potential as much as others did at the time, so I was attracted to an opportunity where someone was willing to support me and mentor me and help me grow, when I didn’t necessarily see that potential.”
But since the media agency was just starting out, having the chance to shape Atomic 212 as a business was appealing to Fenner. So after a couple of months, she decided to take the job.
“When I joined, the team were predominantly digital experts,” she said.
“They didn’t have much of the experience I did, which was more traditional media planning and buying.”
Bringing her experience to the company gave Atomic 212 a whole new edge, allowing the organisation to be where it stands today.
The media agency represents clients including Entain Australia, Aware Super, Beyond Blue, Origin Energy, Bupa and so many more.
From the 20 staff members Fenner met a decade ago when she joined, Atomic 212 now has more than 160 staff.
“There’s so many of us that were there in those early days, and are still here, that have shaped and driven what the product is now, the success of Atomic,” she said.
“It’s been an amazing journey.”
Motherhood
In 2020, when she was managing director at Atomic 212, Fenner decided to have a baby.
“It was a very interesting experience, because I made the decision to have a child right before COVID hit – like two or three months before lockdown first happened in 2020 – before I even heard of the word COVID,” she said.
“And I think the experience would have been very different if COVID hadn’t happened at that point. I mean, it possibly would have been better in some ways and worse in other ways.”
Fenner began treatment for IVF mid-2020, when most of the world had transitioned to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
“In some ways, being at home in lockdown was a blessing because there wasn’t pressure to keep up my lifestyle and be out socialising constantly,” she said.
“I didn’t have any demands on my time, so I could actually just relax and rest and look after myself.
“I don’t know what it would be like going through IVF in a normal social environment.”
Fenner said her company’s paid parental leave (PPL) policies are “extremely generous” and made the early days of parenthood much easier for her, particularly as a single mum.
“I honestly don’t know what it would be like as a single person having a child and needing that time off, but not having any salary or minimal salary to fund that. I think that would be incredibly challenging,” she said.
“(PPL) takes a lot of pressure and stress off where you can just focus on your child and learn everything there is about parenting, which is chaos in itself.”
Somewhere in between her IVF treatment, her pregnancy, giving birth, raising Audrey and preparing to return to work, Fenner even managed to co-author a book: How to do Effective Media: Media Planning as a Science.
That’s not to say Fenner’s career success and journey into motherhood wasn’t without sacrifice.
“The mentality that women can have it all is amazing, but I always feel like there’s an undertone that women should do it all… there is an expectation that you should be able to do everything,” she said.
Returning to work
Something that came to a surprise to Fenner was how easy it was to return to work. But Day 1 of work post-maternity leave was also Day 1 in her new role – the CEO of Atomic 212.
“I actually found it easier than I expected,” Fenner said.
“It wasn’t a feeling of coming back into the same role and dealing with the same challenges I previously dealt with prior to parental leave. It was something new to focus on.
“It’s actually nice to have work take my focus for nine hours a day, and not have to worry about my daughter for those nine hours and have her well cared for.”
Overseeing the business as the CEO of Atomic 212, rather than getting her “hands dirty” with the “doing of the business” in her previous roles, has been the hardest part for Fenner’s return to work. But it’s clear she loves a challenge.
“It’s absolutely been challenging, but also really exciting to latch on to as I came back to work,” she said.
Although she said she is “the worst” at routine, Fenner said having some sort of routine, as well as a solid support system, is what makes her juggle with single parenthood and being the CEO of a company all possible.
“If I didn’t have some semblance of a routine, it would be much harder,” she said.
“And I think making sure you’ve got that support in place is really critical… because there are going to be those times when you get a call from daycare and have to pick your child up in the middle of a day full of meetings.”
But the biggest piece of advice from Fenner to single parents? “Don’t lose yourself,” she said.
“It’s literally two jobs – parenting and work. So it’s very hard to find time for yourself in there, especially as a single parent.
“It’s something I’ve really come to realise over the last six months that I haven’t been doing well enough, so I need to find more opportunities to prioritise myself in the mix.”