Metro recently published an article outlining the story of Sydney-based Jessy Marshall, who recently made the active decision to not take any maternity leave after her son was born. As a business owner, she said she found it incredibly hard to switch off or step away from her PR agency.
As a fellow business owner, CEO, and mother of two young girls, I know first-hand exactly where Jessy is coming from.
For all the criticism I got (which was a surprisingly large amount), I’ve taken a similar approach with both my children. I’ve breast fed through accounts meetings, pumped through operations meetings… I even had a client that didn’t know I’d had a baby – I just told them I was unavailable in August; they presumed I was on holiday. At our first meeting in September, they asked how my time away was and I just said “yeah it was great, I actually had a baby!”. It helped that this was during the era when everything was on Zoom thanks to Covid, so there was no reason to disclose it otherwise.
My babies have been with me to conferences, strategy meetings and client lunches. The main thing I’ve learned? Nobody minded. I didn’t lose any business bringing my baby with me. My babies certainly didn’t mind (let’s be real, most of the time they didn’t even know; they just wanted close cuddles and cluster feeding). And now they’re older, they’re in childcare and that’s a whole new level of juggling to add to life!
Much like Jessy, it was a conscious choice of mine to continue the job I love and embrace motherhood simultaneously, knowing that I was being – and continue to be – the best example to my children that I can. Of course, being the boss does mean I can be much more flexible with my hours and work/life balance than many others. But perhaps there’s something larger organisations can learn from that flexibility.
And I know I’m not alone. One of my fellow HR specialists started her first business whilst on maternity leave – and loved the experience. Both her children have been actively involved in her career, something that she feels has been incredibly beneficial for both her and them. Everyone is different, and so it’s important not to assume that what’s right for one person will be right for the next. At the other end of the scale, some parents make the decision to not work at all while their kids are young, and that’s fine too.
Another peer’s wife continued co-directing her company while breastfeeding for a combined total of four years. Yes, there were impacts on some of the more hands-on aspects of her role, but in terms of running the business, she managed an incredible amount. Working parents need more incentives to take on the ‘beautiful burden’ of starting a family, knowing they have the full support of both society and their employers.
For many, maternity leave and shared parental leave is exactly what is wanted: a lovely break, time to spend focusing on your new arrival, time to slow down. But there are also plenty of mums that find maternity leave a total shock to the system when they’ve left behind a job they loved and found fulfilling, and actually want to go back to as soon as possible, whether flexibly, part-time, or remotely, only to find employers haven’t been able to support – or even consider – this.
As of April 2024, employees can now make two requests a year (rather than just one) for flexible working. And the onus is on employers to explain the reasons for denying any such request. Whilst a number of factors (frequently used as reasons to deny flexible working requests) do need to be considered, including cost to the business, impact on quality or performance, and ability to meet customer demand, it’s time employers started thinking outside of the box in terms of what flexible working means to different people at different stages of their lives. And how they can better support the diverse needs and circumstances of their employees – ultimately delivering more empowered, engaged and motivated staff.
We’ve come so far with parental leave policies in the UK, but it’s clear that there’s still a long way to go. Whilst I recognise there are sectors with more limitations than others, I’d love to see the development and implementation of parental leave policies across the working sphere that better supported the individual choice of working parents in new and innovative ways.
Author: Hannah Millsted-Bowdery