People of DOMO: Adam Skowroń manages his work-life balance quite differently

Yes, shift work is demanding. But not for Adam, whose daily challenges really begin when he gets home from work!?

Adam Skowroń has been working at the Gorzów plant since 2008, and for the last 6 years has been a Production Shift leader at the M4E Plant, successfully implementing the Move4Earth "green" polyamide manufacturing process and managing a team of 3 people.?He combines his professional life at DOMO with a second profession, which couldn't be more different. Adam and his wife Renata have been running the Family Foster Home for 24 years. This means that they always have their house available for up to 8 foster children, who stay with them for a short or long period of time.??

Potential foster parents have to undergo a complicated qualification process before they are able to take care of children in this way. Psychological and psychophysical tests and a number of training courses are the basic requirements for being entrusted with the care of children who have experienced various difficult, often traumatic, situations in their lives. The children are placed in a family foster home for a period of several months while waiting for their legal situation to be settled, but they may also stay there for a couple of years, and the foster parents have the task of creating a home for them during that time.?Running such a home is like running a business: supplies, logistics, planning, school and kindergarten schedules, rehabilitation, doctors' appointments, after-school activities, interviews... Plus a lot of love and care and a sense of security. And it all has to fit in with Adam's work schedule at DOMO!?

That means a lot of work! Sometimes it is difficult to keep the energy of two or three children under control, let alone eight, as is currently the case in Adam and Renata's house!?

Every day is a new adventure. An early wake-up call, getting washed and dressed, breakfast for the whole bunch and a trip to schools and kindergartens. Then Renata has "time for herself": laundry, ironing, shopping, cooking, cleaning — just what she needs to recharge her batteries before picking up the kids from school. Adam, on the other hand, recharges his batteries on his shift with our company. And in the afternoon, family life goes on. The children come home, and with them their questions, problems, homework — everything that happens in a standard household, just multiplied by 8. And when evening comes, the children's bedtime routine lasts for about 1 to 2 hours. Bathing, brushing teeth, cuddling before bedtime and finally sleeping. It's a long time before they all fall asleep, and only then do Adam and Renata have a moment for themselves.?

Adam explains:?"Eight hours working on the shop floor with my coworkers is my 'relaxation time.' I look forward to my 'escapes' to work, because that's where I reset my head. And then, when I come home, my other life begins.?Shopping is quite a challenge. My wife and I do a lot of shopping 2-3 times a week. Sometimes onlookers cannot believe that such quantities of bread, milk or flour are for the daily needs of one household.?

• Every meal is a separate story. Imagine the number of sandwiches for our family meal. Or the pot of soup we share with everyone at dinner. And when we bake something—cakes, cupcakes, cookies—we multiply all the ingredients by 2 or even 3!??
• Tidying up: it's like a swarm of locusts. Depending on how tall and how skilled they are, everyone takes care of their own "section." If, for example, one of the youngest is dusting and cannot reach the highest shelves, there is always a taller child there to continue the work — and it looks great.?
• Watching cartoons together? The living room is full. There are children sitting practically everywhere. Family films with animals are great. The little ones can get emotional; sometimes there are tears and they need to be cuddled until the end of the movie.?
• Vacations: it takes three cars and three drivers to go on a family vacation. That's how we move in an 'organized column' toward the coast, where we rent a whole cottage. And then we take over quite a large part of the beach just for our family.?

However, at some point, there also comes a time to say goodbye. The child gets adopted. Even though we know that this little one will finally have a stable situation and wonderful new parents, and we are happy about that, somewhere deep inside it hurts; after all, he or she was ours, and belonged to our family...??

The Family Foster Home is a lot of work, but what we get in return is priceless.?My wife and I are happy to be part of such a great endeavor. We feel needed and loved, and the children show their gratitude in their own way, too.?We have a big family. Almost a hundred little ones have passed through our house, through our hands. We dream of meeting all our children at the same time one day in the future. What a beautiful meeting that would be!"

Does Adam need any donations or financial support? He says: "We are not a registered institution but run it privately. For now, everything we have is enough, but I have to replace a whole fleet of larger and smaller bikes for our children, for example, and our tumble dryer is very old now and needs to be replaced. Of course, we would also gladly accept used bikes."