Three Days, Twelve Kids, One Office: Our First Aliz Summer Camp

In recent years, a growing number of Alizers have become parents and are raising young kids. This naturally brings new dynamics and needs into our everyday work and community life, so we wanted to respond to them thoughtfully. That’s why we created the Aliz Family Program: a collection of initiatives, benefits, and small gestures that help us support our teammates through different stages of family life, from parental leave to returning to work and balancing life with young children.

One of the most popular benefits in the Family Program is extended paternity leave, but it’s also the flexibility we offer - such as flexible working hours, part-time opportunities, and a hybrid work setup, all of which are available to our wider team as well - that helps make work-life balance more than just a buzzword at Aliz. We also organize several events for children and families throughout the year, from Children’s Day in spring to our St. Nicholas celebration in winter. In Indonesia, we also run a Parenting Workshop series to support colleagues on their parenting journey. And sometimes, it’s the little things that count: every newborn receives an Aliz-branded baby bodysuit.

This year, we decided to take the Family Program one step further with something entirely new: the very first Aliz Summer Camp in our Budapest office.

The idea had been on our minds for a while, but it was conversations with parents on our team that gave it the final push. We kept hearing how challenging the summer months can be when kindergartens and schools close for the summer, and parents are left to figure out childcare, and that was the moment the idea turned into a plan. We also felt confident taking on the challenge from a professional standpoint, since the two team members organizing the camp are both qualified to work with children.

Three Days at Aliz

The Summer Camp was a three-day, full-day program for children aged 3 and above, with a schedule built around working parents’ needs: kids could arrive from 8:30 in the morning, and parents could pick them up by 5 pm, giving parents a full working day at the office.

This was never just childcare. Over the three days, we got creative with arts and crafts, did some gymnastics, danced, sang, talked and learned together, with each day built around a different theme: Pirates on day one, Space on day two, and Dragons & Unicorns on day three. There was always plenty of room for free play as well, with building toys, drawing and creative materials, bead threading and board games available throughout the day. We also made space for quieter moments, with story reading and time to rest after lunch - although, despite our best efforts, the official nap-time sleep count was a grand total of zero minutes.😄

The three days culminated in two things the children had been preparing for all along: a camp dance performed for their parents, followed by an exhibition of the artworks they had created during the camp.

And the children’s favorites? No contest: semolina pudding, face painting, and glitter tattoos.

A Little Buzz in the Summer Slowdown

The first Aliz Summer Camp was a great success: nine parents - meaning nearly a third of our parent community from our Budapest team - joined the camp with a total of twelve children.

We had braced ourselves for extra noise, but the feedback told a different story: the children brought a warm, lovely atmosphere to the office, with colleagues occasionally stopping by to join in the fun - including the occasional pillow fight.

But perhaps the most special experience was reserved for the children themselves: getting to combine the fun of a summer camp with the chance to experience their parents’ workplace firsthand - seeing where Mom or Dad spends their days and visiting them during lunch.

It will definitely remain one of the highlights of not only our summer, but of our entire year at the Budapest office.

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