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Quit job after maternity leave7/25/2023 To encourage greater acceptance of flexible working requests, mothers-to-be should be allowed to trial working in a part-time capacity before they go on maternity leave. Phrases with pejorative overtones – for instance, “baby breaks”, “leaving early” and “part-timers” – should be banned from the workplace. The power of language should not be underestimated. That covers everything from the acceptance of parental leave requests down to the terms that people use. Career progression plans should be kept on file, along with performance reports and feedback to remind everyone of their talents.Ī supportive culture must also be cultivated. All conversations should be geared towards a positive return to her original role. A woman’s time on maternity leave needs to be managed closely and empathetically by her line manager with the support of an HR specialist. Developing a supportive cultureīringing a child into the world should be celebrated – as should maternity. The wider sharing of parental responsibilities would serve to shield women from all the career ramifications of motherhood. More men will be encouraged to request shared parental leave if they see others taking paternity leave. Only 25% of female respondents said that they’d even spoken to their partners about the prospect. Only 7% of the couples we surveyed said they shared parental leave. Many fathers still feel as though they would stand out at work for taking parental leave and it is not actively encouraged by organisations. Mothers want to come back to work – and they deserve to return to a job that matches their capabilities ![]() When women in senior positions say that they’re working around school pick-up times, for instance, that can send a powerful message to others in the business. These role models and mentors can play a key part in showing others that it’s possible to return from maternity leave and resume a successful career. These organisations have found that retaining a female employee starts before she even has her first child.įemale business leaders should talk openly about their children. Not all companies get it wrong – indeed, many women return from maternity leave to find a more empathetic employer, which they are unlikely to leave even if they have more children. Many businesses invest heavily in hiring, training and developing women, only to see them leave as the result of a life event that can be planned for. ![]() Our research findings are critical, not only for women but also for employers. Their responses, published in our Careers After Babies report, were deeply concerning to me – and they should also be to employers.Īlthough 98% of the respondents stated that they wanted to return to work after becoming mothers, 85% reported that they’d left full-time employment within three years of having children. That Works For Me questioned 848 women nationwide about how their careers had gone once they’d become mothers. So I did what any woman would do in my position: I conducted my own survey. Wanting to feel fully informed for the session, I searched yet again for some hard data on the proportion of women leaving the UK workforce after having children. Last summer, I attended a meeting of the Women and Work All-Party Parliamentary Group. But, in the four years I’ve been running the business, I’ve never managed to find definitive research into the extent of the problem. As the founder of That Works For Me, an online service that helps women to find flexible work, I’m acutely aware that many are forced to leave their jobs after becoming mothers.
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