Women are being encouraged to return to work, and the government has just announced a budget of $531.6 million over four years for Paid Parental Leave (PPL) in a bid to improve economic equality for women, reduce barriers for fathers taking time off after a birth or adoption and delivering better outcomes for children.
But what about the real cost of having a baby and returning to the workforce?
While the government reforms to the PPL may make it more financially viable for people to have babies and return to work, a recent survey by the Australian Admin Awards highlighted that many Executive Assistants’ return to work is being met with indifference and little to no active provision for the complexities involved in being a new parent.
For many people, having a baby can be a joyous but traumatising event. The PANDA organisation (Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia) states that 1 in 3 mums experience the birth of their baby as traumatic and that partners also report feeling overlooked or disregarded following the birth. Whether the parents describe their experience of bringing a child into the world as physically or emotionally traumatising, it is a life-changing event.
We believe that workplaces should have an active return-to-work (RTW) policy or initiatives in place that are dedicated to rehabilitating parents into the workforce and not just for the women that delivered the baby. It is imperative that partners can access the same kind of RTW support so they can bond with their child, support the birth parent, and enjoy parenthood. RTW initiatives set up by businesses need to go beyond the government’s guidelines for parental rights at work and their (somewhat offensive) suggestions that ‘enhancing your soft skills’ or ‘upskilling’ are some of the critical things that people returning to work need to consider.
Katie Cooley, a physiotherapist interested in women’s health, states, “It is vital for parents’ mental and emotional health, and their relationship with baby, that they feel supported when returning to work. Return to work policies should include returning to work after having a baby. For women, recovery postpartum, both physically and emotionally, continues well beyond six weeks after delivery. Some things to consider would be ongoing support/check-ins with the employee from a RTW coordinator, space to pump/feed the baby if necessary and leave allowance to attend women’s health appointments/exercise as part of the recovery process. Flexible work arrangements to allow work/life balance and remove some of the guilt experienced when returning to work after having a baby for both partners is also important.”
An active return-to-work policy may help shift workplace culture and force HR teams and Executives to take a more modern and compassionate approach to parents returning to work.
A new baby soon brings with its cries of ‘all hail the tiny dictator’ from its parents as they adjust to a life ruled by the demands of an infant. As any new parent will know, life tips off its usual axis as we are pulled in a thousand different ways and begin the wild ride of parenting. The parenthood journey could be likened to a roller-coaster; it has its ups and downs, twists, turns, and throws you about. Sometimes your arms are thrown into the air in exhilaration, and other times, it’s white-knuckling, grip tight to the safety rail scary; either way – you better strap in.
So why do parents returning to work experience the cold shoulder from people in positions of leadership who have been or are on that same ride?
Just over 12% of our surveyed Executive Assistants reported they could access a 4-day working week but noted that it took weeks of negotiation with HR to enable that option. One Executive Assistant from the survey commented that their return to work was met with a dispassionate HR Team (female-led, with children), who scoffed at the idea of job-sharing with no consideration given to the possibility of how such a thing might work.
We need to become more innovative in how we support women returning to work after a baby. And gents, you need to be considered too. Men still experience prejudice if they dare to request flexibility to take on some of the parenting load. And requests for personal leave to support their wife, whose emotional temperature has reached fever pitch as she juggles hormones and lack of sleep, not to mention the stress and guilt of returning (or not returning) to work, are begrudgingly approved.
Our survey also showed that Executive Assistants could not set up boundaries between work and life and were expected to do the same job just as effectively in less time or work on the commute to the office to make up hours. As Executive Assistants, it is our role to support and serve our Executive team; however, it is impossible to do this if we aren’t supported to look after ourselves as we transition back to the workforce. The Administrative Professional industry is 93% female employees, so it is fair to say that supporting mothers and their partners returning to work will benefit the profession enormously.
If we want meaningful change in gender equality and improve women’s workforce participation, businesses need to normalise parenting experiences, remove the taboo around men as primary carers and create a culture that celebrates and nurtures all parents returning to work. Return-to-work initiatives should set parents up for success in the workplace and provide them with resources that enable them to actively contribute within their role whilst bringing up the next generation of Australia’s leaders.