How to Harness Your Parental Leave

So you’re having a baby! Congratulations!
Your life is about to change dramatically – particularly your work life, and parental leave is a big part of that.

For the mums to be out there, you may have heard about the ‘motherhood penalty’ where Australian women earn on average less than half their pre-birth wage in the first five years of being a parent (Bradshaw & Bahar, 2022). In contrast, it was also found that dads’ careers remained largely unaffected.

The take home message here is that women can face significant challenges when re-engaging with work after parental leave. But do NOT hit that panic button just yet! There are some steps you can take to harness your parental leave and firmly shift the odds back into your favour to continue growing your career during the transition to parenthood.

Before Parental Leave

At Work:

Start the below planning activities at least two months prior to parental leave. This is because the final month before leave is likely to be really hectic as you close things out, prepare a thorough handover, and attend all those medical appointments in the lead up to the birth. And remember… baby can always arrive early!
Therefore, make sure you carve time out in your schedule well in advance, and guard it fiercely – your future career depends on it!

 1. Career Planning

Meet with your manager to discuss your career aspirations. Ask them for feedback and input into developing a learning plan to support your career goals. Keep in mind you may wish to plan some learning activities for during your parental leave or hold them all over until after your return to work.

2. Internal Job Opportunities

Request that your manager/HR keep you in mind should any roles arise during your leave that are aligned to your career aspirations. Also ask your manager/HR to forward job opportunities as they arise. Request job ads be sent to your personal email as it’s generally easier to check than your work email whilst you’re on leave.

3. Keeping in Touch

It’s worth keeping in touch with your workplace during your parental leave to ensure you are across any changes to your role, team, or the organisation more broadly.

a. Let your manager know the best way to keep in touch with you. Establish a communication timetable and channel that works best for you (e.g. perhaps it’s an email as changes occur, or a call towards the end of your parental leave).

b. Additionally, an employee on unpaid parental leave gets 10 paid keeping in touch days as per Fair Work. These can be taken as whole or part days and used for such activities as participating in a planning day, doing training, or attending a conference. You may wish to tentatively schedule these dates into your diary now, or perhaps touch base with your manager later on once you’re ready to participate. And make sure you ask your employer for their policy and process around keeping in touch days.

At Home:

Women spend almost twice as many hours each day performing unpaid care work compared to men (AHRC, 2018). A more equitable balancing of caring duties between mums and dads is critically important to women’s ability to fully participate in and take advantage of opportunities at work.

So, if you have a partner, start talking about how you’re going to share the care once baby arrives. Make sure you discuss expectations about who will be doing what and when (e.g. changing nappies, feeding, bathing, sleep training, etc). Trust me, it’s much easier to have the discussion now before the reality hits where you’re completely rundown and sleep deprived with a crying baby in your arms.

During Parental Leave

First of all, take time to just be with your baby and totally forget about work. Then towards the end of your parental leave period:

1. Review Your Career Goals

Do they still fit? Or have things shifted so much that they are now no longer relevant? Take time to reflect and identify what’s most important to you right now – because as we know, big life events, like having a baby, can change our perspective and priorities.

2. Start Learning

If your career goals are still suitable, then dust off your learning plan, and when you’re ready, start completing activities. Brushing up on your skills and professional knowledge will not only look good to employers (either the one you’re returning to, or potentially a new one), but it will also help with your confidence levels, and get your mind ticking over again. Keep in mind your preferred veterinary learning style and play to your strengths.

3. Keeping in Touch

a. Ensure you attend your keeping in touch days (or reschedule if needed) and ask your manager if anything new has come up that you should also be attending.

b. Make sure you are responsive to any agreed communication with your manager during leave. And if the communication timings or channels aren’t working for you, renegotiate them.

c. Check your email for any job opportunities forwarded from your manager/HR.

And Finally…

Everyone’s career journey during the transition to parenthood will be different, and much will be unpredictable. However, planning for your parental leave can put you in a much better position to take advantage of career opportunities as they arise. Planning also signals to people the importance you place on your career and your commitment to it, which in turn may result in them giving you more support. So, it’s well worth investing time to harness your parental leave for your future career success.

Other than that – focus on sleeping as much as you can and enjoying these precious moments as time will pass by REALLY quickly!