Sarah Elizabeth reflects on her experience with Frontier’s parental leave policy.
This morning I got to witness my baby boy’s first laugh—an actual belly-tightening, full-mouthed guffaw. It was glorious. The joy that filled this working mama was immediately followed by gratitude for the opportunity to experience that milestone firsthand, with his chubby 3-month old little body nestled in my arms.
He is our second child. When our firstborn hit that same milestone, I only got to see it from afar on my cell phone’s tiny screen, in a video texted to me by our caregiver.
I am not aiming to sound jaded or ungrateful regarding my first maternity leave. I was lucky enough to have received a relatively generous amount of time off with my firstborn, all of which was at least partly compensated. In the United States, this is the exception, not the rule.
According to the National Center for Health Statistics, 16 percent of new moms take only one to four weeks away from work after the birth of a child—and an entire third take no formal time off at all, returning to the job almost immediately. I recognize how fortunate I was compared with many other working moms in our country.
But even with comparatively generous time and compensation, that transition back to work after my first child was difficult. I was riddled with alternating feelings of guilt—that I wasn’t being a good enough mother and alternatively that I wasn’t being a good enough employee. The logistical nuts and bolts of the short-term disability policy weren’t clear and I spent several days stressfully fretting over my compensation. And once I returned to the office, it felt as though my team expected me to return exactly as I had been, to pick up right where I had left off on the day my water broke.
All working parents know this tale—the difficult balancing act of becoming a parent and then transitioning back into the working world. Each employee’s journey into parenthood is different, but there’s one common thread across all these experiences: a monumental transformation. For each new parent, life is inexorably and irrevocably altered (mostly for the better, although say fare-thee-well to a full night’s sleep). What I’d like to suggest is that all companies—no matter the specifics of each different maternity policy—can do one small thing to ease the transition for their new parents: Be flexible.
I returned to work at Frontier a full four weeks earlier than with my firstborn. But it was a diametrically different experience than my first maternity leave because of our company’s collective flexibility. While I was certainly held accountable for my responsibilities and duties, I was also pleasantly surprised that my team exhibited an understanding of my needs and limitations when it came to assignments, travel, and new projects. There was genuine interest in my well-being as both a new mom and Frontier employee.
My supervisor and HR manager sought clear and frequent communication ahead of my leave to set expectations and a tentative timeline for return. These lines of communications and regular check-ins continued once I returned. My original return plan consisted of five half-days in the office each week. I quickly realized that I didn’t have enough time in a single day to make meaningful headway on any project. I relayed this feeling to my manager and we adjusted my weekly schedule to consist of two full days and one half-day in the office.
Part of my role as a Facilitator for Frontier Academy is to be in front of a room for eight hours a day, here in our Studio and at client sites all over the world. To make sure that facet of my work isn’t prohibitive to breastfeeding, Frontier has a beautifully-appointed Mother’s Room to nurse or pump in private, and our team is proactive with all our clients about tips and suggestions for on-site pumping. Frontier also has a specific on-staff position—the Parents Liaison—to help new mothers and fathers navigate this crazy journey.
Beyond the generous nature of our parental leave policy (and I should note here that the same amount of paid leave is extended to ALL new parents—mothers, fathers, adoptive and surrogate parents), the overarching message underpinning the plan spoke abundant volumes to me as a Frontier employee. To me, it said:
“You are a whole person with a life outside our office walls, and as a company we genuinely care about that external experience. We want you to be able to experience and process fully life’s biggest milestones. We want to be a support to you in times of joy, tumult, and transition. We do not want to be an additional source of stress.”
While such a mindset might seem like wishy-washy softness vulnerable to employee exploitation, this genuine care is in fact returned to the company in spades. With the freedom to address changes in your home life, you can come to work unencumbered, fully engaged, and with a sharper focus on the task at hand. Think back to that third of new moms who take essentially no postpartum leave; those women return to their jobs physically and mentally exhausted, coping with the demands of both a newborn and a boss. That doesn’t sound like a prescription for engaged, productive work. In the same way that research has shown money becomes a non-issue for employees when they feel adequately compensated from the get-go, so too did worry about my children melt away when I felt I had adequate time to spend with them as we became a new family of four.
The mental bridge between maternity leave and returning to work is a challenging one to cross. Organizations can ease this transition—to the advantage of both company and employee alike—by employing a holistic, empathetic approach that emphasizes flexibility as a focus of their parental leave policy.
If you’re ready to start a conversation about how we can help you build empathy and flexibility into your team’s HR policies, here’s what you need to know now:
> Your Guide // Sarah Elizabeth, Frontier Academy Facilitator
> Contact // [email protected]
An idea architect and people connector with a knack for solving complex problems. Equipped to set the strategy and lead the team, but also not afraid to roll up your sleeves and dive deep.
If you just read a description of yourself, give us a shout. We’re looking for an amazingly talented Lead Consultant and we want to meet you. Catch the full job description here, along with details on how to apply.
Demand-driven products. Short print runs. Distribution through owned channels. And personal style.
For the last year I've been building a publishing unit for The Frontier Project, working within brands and organizations to build publishing capacity. The idea is a simple but attractive one: if you've got an audience, it takes only an infusion of narrative intelligence and publishing workflow to get quality products to whatever market you've defined. Sometimes that audience is employees: interactive on-boarding manuals, narrative-rich company histories and vision-mapping, story-driven sales training manuals. Other times it's B2B relationships: multimedia catalogs for, say, OEM partners, or franchisees or affiliates. Sometimes it's a client base: thought leadership content that elevates the authority of, say, a law firm or architecture group or consultancy.
This month, we're leveraging that process in support of Frontier itself, by publishing the first volume in the Cartography Series, a library of short-form print and digital books published on topics our clients have expressed interest in, and on subjects our audiences respond well to.
The Cartography of Negotiation by Scott Wayne is an instance of audience-first publishing:
Topic is driven by what means a lot to our clients (Negotiation support).
Format is chosen by what works best for their lifestyle (15,000 words, 90-minute read, print and digital).
Visual style is determined by what equips them best (interactive tools throughout book; lots of white space and room for reflection).
Distribution channels are selected by what most easily reaches them (keynotes, conferences, workshops, engagements, organizational buys).
Design and voice matched to what our audiences respond to (candid, wry, unorthodox).
And print run matches early demand (5000 out of the gate).
That's not traditional publishing. It's smarter.
If you're interested in the model we're using, what it might mean for others, or how it might help your own venture, reach out. And if you negotiate in any context -- battling for a lower price on an automobile, seeking a raise at work, looking to persuade a new business partner -- try out the book and let me know what you think. Whether you find it revolutionary or rubbish, I'd like to know.
Thanks for reading.
