Women’s History Month Interview #3: Carrie Small and Natalie Ciepiela
March is Women’s History Month. Throughout this month, Brown Plus will be featuring interviews between our women mentors and mentees on various topics, including life balance, mentorship and career growth.
For this last week of Women’s History Month, Carrie Small, CPA, MST, Tax Principal, and Natalie Ciepiela, CPA, Tax Supervisor, discuss navigating the benefits and challenges of working remotely.
Meet This Week’s Mentor: Carrie Small, CPA, MST, Tax Principal
Carrie is a Tax Principal at Brown Plus. She has over 20 years of experience providing tax compliance and consulting services to privately held and public companies, with a specialization in insurance taxation. Carrie is a leader within the Brown Plus Insurance Practice, which provides a full range of audit, tax and advisory services to insurance companies across the country. The Brown Plus Insurance Practice is one of the nation’s largest audit practices serving property and casualty (P&C) insurers, as ranked by AM Best. Within the practice, Carrie specializes in providing tax compliance, tax provision and tax consulting services to insurance entities.
Meet This Week’s Mentee: Natalie Ciepiela, CPA, Tax Supervisor
Natalie is a Tax Supervisor at Brown Plus with over three years of experience. Natalie is responsible for supervising tax engagement teams to ensure work is progressing based upon planned timelines, preparing and reviewing tax returns, researching multi-state tax issues and participating in client planning and discussion meetings. She focuses on corporate and partnership returns. Natalie’s industry focuses include financial services, auto dealerships and insurance.
Natalie: Have you found it more difficult to serve as a mentor to team members while working remotely?
Carrie: I have not encountered any significant challenges in mentoring our younger professionals while working remotely. The key to building meaningful relationships in a remote work environment is to be intentional with regular check-ins. I have regularly scheduled meetings where I touch base with my mentees to discuss any questions or concerns they may have about their career or life balance. These check-ins have allowed us to build strong mentor/mentee relationships, based on trust and open dialogue.
Carrie: What advice would you give to young female professionals who are starting their careers in a remote or hybrid work environment?
Natalie: I was fortunate enough to work in the office for three years before transitioning to fully remote work. So, I do have that experience of working in-person with people. One of the biggest things that helped me through this transition was creating a set schedule and making sure to prioritize it. For example, I make sure to log in and log out at certain times. Setting boundaries is crucial, especially when work is just two feet away. Over the past few months of working remotely, I’ve stuck to a set schedule, like getting ready for the day and not logging in while wearing my pajamas. It may sound silly, but putting on shoes really does make a difference in feeling ready to work!
The other piece of advice I would give is to not be afraid to speak up and reach out to other people. It may not be as convenient and as easy as it was in an office setting, since you’re not physically seeing people on a daily basis, but that doesn’t discredit your thoughts and opinions. You may need to put in a little extra effort, but do not isolate yourself, because you are still part of the team. Since I’m no longer seeing the people I supervise every day, I know I need to be more intentional about check-ins, so I started setting calendar reminders to touch baes and make sure they’re doing okay during tax season.
Natalie: How do you set boundaries between work and personal life when leading remotely?
Carrie: My team is very open about our commitment to life balance at all levels. With this shared goal, it is easy to be transparent about personal commitments that others may need to work around. It is also important to me that the team feels empowered to make and keep their own personal commitments. Transparency and open dialogue are key for the team to remain successful in life balance and flexibility.
Carrie: What role has your mentor played in helping you navigate the challenges of remote work?
Natalie: You (Carrie) were the biggest advocate and supporter of me moving, because you work remotely full-time in a different state. You helped me through the decision-making process from the start, and we discussed what working remotely would look like. You recommended I have a set schedule, but also to take time for myself. For example, it’s okay to take breaks throughout the day; you don’t have to sit down at your computer and work for eight hours straight. In life, things come up, and that’s okay. We are lucky that Brown Plus offers a flexible schedule!
I think one of the challenges of working remotely is feeling isolated. I think getting comfortable and finding the confidence to still reach out to people helps with those feelings. You and I have monthly catch-up calls where we don’t prioritize talking about work, but talk about other things. Of course, if I want to talk about work or have a question, I can ask, but it’s up to me to decide. I think having those casual catch-up calls that you’d have with somebody passing by in the office is important. I’ve even started scheduling catch-up calls with some of the associates that I worked with in the Lancaster office to check and see what’s going on in their lives. I think the biggest thing is making sure you still feel like you’re a part of the team. You’ve taught me that remote team members are not any less a part of the team than in-person team members, just because you’re 1,000 miles away or live in a different state. You’re just as valued and important, and you have every right to have your voice heard! That is probably the biggest lesson I have learned from you so far, as a fully remote Principal who is not afraid to speak your mind. I know I still have a lot to learn from you, and I’m thankful for all your guidance, both personally and professionally.