Anastasia Tytarenko: Maintaining a work-life balance is a necessity

Maintaining a work-life balance is very important: not losing your qualifications during maternity leave and staying in touch with colleagues is not only interesting but also necessary.

This opinion is shared by Anastasia Tytarenko, Grain Quality Control Director of the Agro-Region Group of Companies, who joined a work meeting right after the birth of her third child.

“Finding balance was challenging, but eventually I realized that thinking about work at work, and about household matters and children at home — that’s the balance. It doesn’t mean I forget about my family while I’m at work. It’s primarily about efficient use of time: it doesn’t matter if you spend one or eight hours a day focusing on grain. At home, it’s 100% time for the children and my beloved,” she adds.

Anastasia Tytarenko is convinced that personal discipline and a well-planned day are crucial factors for effective work, to which she pays great attention.

“It all started with morning meetings with the company’s laboratories. This is the first thing that disciplines and motivates me to get up early. I’m interested in how their day went, the quality of the incoming grain, and the volume received. It’s even more interesting to learn about the quality of the shipped batches, and whether we met the contract conditions during loading. In the morning, we discuss the previous day. Everything is traditional: we discuss acceptance, shipping, current issues, and focus on any problems that arose. Plans for quality shipping—what and how needs to be done, where to load from, and in what proportions—are also part of the morning discussions, which encourage me to be disciplined and organized,” she adds.

At the same time, Anastasia Tytarenko enjoys working with a team of highly qualified specialists, to whose training she devotes maximum time.

“To delegate, you need to teach. Unfortunately, there’s no other way. Every process is a separate analysis that requires time. In some cases, the lab workers perform 14 grain analyses per hour, approximately 4 minutes for each determination. Acceptance involves organoleptic analysis, checking for infestation, moisture content, and for wheat and soy, we additionally determine protein levels; for sunflower and rapeseed, we measure oil content. During cleaning, we identify impurities, grain/oilseed admixture, and monitor the quality of waste, which is also crucial. During drying, we control moisture content,” she explains.

Anastasia Tytarenko adds that she is inspired by her husband, who is her support, motivation, and inspiration, as well as by women who skillfully combine personal life, family, and their favorite work—they are examples of the very balance she strives for.

“Changes give me strength, and it’s precisely because of frequent changes in environment that I have the energy and inspiration to work. Our director sometimes says, ‘It seems like you come here to relax.’ I don’t strongly deny it because it’s true: at the elevator, I do feel rested. Overall, in my life, as the classic wrote, ‘There are two equal wings: roses and grapes—beautiful and useful!’ I try to live so that in the morning I want to go to work, and in the evening, I want to go home. And in general, if family comes first, then everything else is also in its place,” she concludes.

In turn, the Agro-Region Group of Companies team congratulates Anastasia on the new addition to her family, wishes her more joyful moments in life, a quick return to peaceful skies, and hopes that she will continue to be an example for the team.