You want to cherish every moment with your new baby. Returning to work after maternity leave is painful for many reasons, but there are ways to ease the transition and lessen separation anxiety.
What does a phased return to work look like? What are some realistic ways employers can help new parents ease their way back into work while retaining sufficient time and energy to raise the next generation? How can employees broach the subject with their boss? Children need and deserve a village, which these tips can help create.
The Lack of Parental Leave in the United States
America loves to brag about its exceptionalism — but it stands out in a not-so-desirable way in terms of supporting parents. It’s the only wealthy nation that doesn’t provide paid maternity leave, a distinction it shares with only six of the world’s other 195 countries. 72% of new mothers in the US must return to full or part-time work right after giving birth.
Therefore, some employers pat themselves on the back for providing any help at all, and many employees fear that expressing their realistic needs will result in job loss. As a result, some who rightly fear this lack of societal support decide not to have kids at all. If society truly values children, it must implement policies to support parents. Change is long in coming, but business owners and individuals alike can do their part to address this pressing need.
Should the Focus Be Solely on Maternity Leave?
Focusing on maternity leave makes sense, as mothers still do the majority of childrearing and must make time for breastfeeding and expressing milk. However, some argue that leaving dad out of the equation reinforces the stereotype that women take care of the house and kids while the man goes to work. It also ignores the reality that it takes two incomes to support a family. As a result, many argue for family leave policies that encompass a wider range of scenarios.
What A Phased Return to Work After Maternity Leave Looks Like
Returning to work after maternity leave can take multiple forms. It may include any or some combination of the following:
- Working shorter hours
- Returning to the office for two or three days a week instead of four
- Hybrid schedules
- Telecommuting
- Job-sharing with another employee who is also on parental leave
- Modifying typical job duties — for example, less frequent travel
Ideally, a phased return to work after maternity leave occurs by mutual agreement between the employee and employer. New mothers should inquire about business needs and consider realistic ways they can meet them while preserving time and energy for their babies. Likewise, employers should realize that babies need parents and interpret requests for schedule modifications as sincere approaches to balance duties, not a cop-out or excuse to be lazy.
5 Realistic Tips for Returning to Work After Maternity Leave
Either the employer or the employee can suggest implementing any of the following five tips to help those returning to work after maternity leave. However, a special note for employers — you can do your staff and society at large a huge favor by initiating these interventions or, better yet, addressing them in writing in your employee handbook. ‘
Recognizing the inherent power differential in employer/employee relationships lets you live by the morals everyone should have learned from Spiderman. Power comes with responsibility. Wielding yours wisely by serving as a model for demonstrating family values in action — which includes providing parents with the tools necessary for tackling the world’s toughest job — raising the next generation.
1. Shorten the Work Day or Week
When both parents work 40 or more hours per week, child-rearing suffers. There simply isn’t sufficient time and energy to do the job right, and the rising rates of mental disorders strongly suggest something is amiss in American families. Currently, there’s a push toward a 32-hour work week for all as a way to balance rising productivity with falling wages. Such a schedule would significantly benefit parents beyond saving on childcare costs.
Additionally, returning to work after maternity leave need not mean going from zero to 32 or 40. New parents might come back part-time and gradually work back into their full-time roles.
Large organizations that may have several workers on maternity leave at once can coordinate such schedules to allow for adequate coverage. Others can turn to temporary workers — or interns. Much untapped potential lies in individuals who might not have the money for a degree but could readily acquire the requisite skills on the job. Masters have trained apprentices since time immemorial, and bringing back this model provides skilled workers without student debt.
2. Allow Flextime
Customer-facing businesses obviously require coverage during their hours of operation. However, flextime can work even in such environments when owners collaborate with workers on schedule development instead of doling out hours like Mr. Bumble portioning gruel to orphans in “Oliver Twist.” Doing so reduces unexpected call-outs when conflicts between home and work obligations arise.
Flextime allows for discreet crisis management, protecting parental privacy — colleagues don’t know why someone leaves the office at an unexpected time. It also allows parents to put forth their best effort, as anyone struggles to concentrate on the clock when equally pressing needs elsewhere demand their attention. Lower stress levels equate to higher morale and less turnover, making your business a place where people want to work.
3. Encourage Workplace Wellness
Self-care is often the first thing that goes out the window when parents have a new baby. Understandably, their infant requires more of their time, but neglecting their wellness will impact their ability to parent effectively and hinder on-the-job performance. If nothing else, it may lead to more frequent sick days.
You can support workplace wellness by offering on-site workout facilities, counseling, resources to quit smoking, weight loss guidance and health screenings to all employees. Workplaces with such policies draw more new hires and increase retention as they see their employer support the common good, boosting morale.
4. Help With Ongoing Learning Requirements
Many professions require ongoing learning to maintain certification, and helping workers, including new parents, meet this prerequisite eases tremendous stress. Although this suggestion primarily refers to businesses that must meet licensing requirements, others can get in on the goodness.
For example, multiple enterprises host seminars on mindfulness-based stress reduction based on the work of Jon Kabot-Zinn. This approach has been the basis of countless TED talks. Learning these methods benefits anyone dealing with stress, anxiety, depression or chronic pain, which can affect a new parent’s ability to do their job and raise their little ones.
5. Offer On-site Daycare
Daycare is expensive, but the real cost is the time parents spend away from their little ones during a crucial bonding stage of development. Insufficient parental support during a child’s youngest years can result in an attachment disorder that drives maladaptive behavior in adulthood. In extreme circumstances, it can even result in criminal acts.
Offering on-site daycare does more than keep costs affordable for working parents. It also allows parents to remain close to their children during this crucial bonding stage. Although employers may never be able to quantify the results, this simple act of supporting parents returning to work after maternity leave could reduce future crime rates and help solve America’s mental health crisis.
Tips for Talking With Your Employer
If you’re a new parent wanting to open a dialogue with your employer about returning to work after maternity leave, keep the following points in mind when preparing your ask:
- Recognize business needs. You want a schedule that works for you and your family. Your boss wants employees who provide the coverage and services they require. Approach the discussion from a win-win perspective, asking, “how can we both meet our respective needs?” Doing so shifts the encounter from a potentially adversarial one to a mutual problem-solving session.
- Emphasize the benefits: People respond better to positive suggestions. Focus on how allowing your requested accommodations benefits both you and your boss. For example, emphasize how a flextime schedule lets you deliver the same quality work they’ve come to expect from you. You might even share this article to highlight the perks.
- Remain flexible: The right solution for your return to work after maternity leave may look quite different from another parent’s. Businesses vary in their needs, as do individuals. Approach the conversation as a friendly negotiation. For example, if there’s no budget or space for on-site daycare, could you telecommute a few days per week to bond with your baby during breaks?
Returning to Work After Maternity Leave
Returning to work after maternity leave is a significant cause of stress for new parents. However, children have needs that parents must meet — that much is indisputable. Finding the right balance between contributing to society and raising healthy humans should be a collaborative effort between employers and employees.
Consider these suggestions when it’s time to return to work after maternity leave. Giving lip service to the need to have kids isn’t enough to keep humanity going. Recognizing and honoring the needs of parents and children is how society works together to make each generation better.
