Effectively Planning for Parental Leave

Today not only marks my eight-year anniversary at LinkedIn, but also my last day working before I head out on maternity leave for the second time. It also falls during Women’s Month, a time when we celebrate all women and working mothers, globally. Over the past few months, I’ve been asked time and time again: How do you effectively plan for maternity leave while managing a demanding career? Everyone’s journey is different, and the best laid out plans are often disrupted when you welcome a new human into the world, but here are a few things that have worked for me.

Recognize that understanding your company’s parental leave policies is only part of the equation

Like others often do, when I was first planning for parental leave, I immediately familiarized myself with how much time I could take off, how I will be paid during my leave, which benefits will continue while I am out, etc. Over time I came to understand that while these structural details are important to understand, it was equally important for me to spend time to reflect on how I would pave my own path within the policy guidelines. 

Get organized: carve out time to develop your parental leave plan

Only you can define what plan will work for you; even when you have generous company parental leave policies (thank you, LinkedIn), you need to put pen to paper on what your ideal state looks like. 

I have found the following questions to be helpful thought starters to develop my own plans. 

• What support and resources do you need to be set up for success? To address my own anxieties about leaving work for an extended period of time, it has been important for me to feel that everything was in order at work and to confidently feel I was not going to return to a pile of messy unfinished business. For my first maternity leave, this meant that I needed one point of contact dedicated to taking over my role full time and that person needed to be experienced and knowledgeable about the work I do so I could trust their judgment while I was out. That person was Reika Dzupinka, and I needed my boss and business partners to support Reika stepping into my role.
• How can you turn parental leave into an opportunity? When you go on leave, it is natural to feel as though you are putting more at risk and others are taking on more burden. I encourage you to think of ways to make this a win / win for you and others. For Reika, it was an opportunity for her to take on a new role in a new region, and also give her family a new experience by moving to a new country. This time around, I have split up my workload between my team and cross-functional partners; they are all highly capable and competent and I am excited for them to reimagine some of the work I have been involved in, get a platform to shine in front of leaders whom they don’t usually get exposure to, and test out whether they would ever want my job (so valuable for succession planning!). When you turn parental leave into an opportunity, it is easier to mentally prepare and enjoy your leave.
• What do you need to have a good transition back to work? While part-time work may be great in theory for some, it was not going to work for me and my lifestyle; compartmentalizing my work into reduced hours, while maintaining the same scope as I had before maternity leave would create more stress for me. Instead, I looked for other ways to make my transition easier. I proposed creating boundaries on hours for when I met with team members to fit within my daughter’s daycare hours, working from home a few days a week in the beginning to ease back into work, blocking off times to pump, etc. Also, it has been important for me to feel connected while I am out so I have spaced out my leave so that there are a few weeks when I will be coming back to work (in compliance with my parental leave policy) to reconnect with co-workers and get up to speed on what I have missed so I can be mentally prepared when I return. This time around I have decided to attend our annual sales kick-off event so I can take full advantage of reconnecting with my team and colleagues. 

The only wrong answers to the ones above are the ones that are not your own. To truly create a successful plan, you must be introspective and determine what is going to work for you. While my own answers have proven to work for me, it may be the worst laid out plan for others who have different roles and preferences. The main takeaway is that you cannot rely on others or your corporate policies to determine what your plan should be; that is your responsibility. 

Communicate, Communicate, and Communicate 

Once you have developed your plan, start communicating and sharing your plans to those most impacted by your leave as early as possible. For me, that is my team, my cross-functional partners, and my boss. I created a document that laid out my scope, my proposal for who would cover those responsibilities, and my expectations of what was needed. 

While it can be scary to communicate that you will be going on leave and what you need from others while you are out, I have been surprised by how genuinely supportive those around me have been and how dedicated they are to making my leave a success. By putting your needs on the table, you make it easier for others to have a conversation on what can and cannot work, and to come up with a mutually agreed-on plan.  

Recognize it truly takes a village 

I would like to thank the folks who made my first maternity leave a success -- Reika Dzupinka, Brian Frank, Wade Burgess, Mike Gamson

And a huge thank you to all those who are equally committed to setting me up for success the second time around--- my manager (Dan Shapero), my team (Akira Mamizuka, John Thompson, Karen Chi, Niall Mac an tSionnaigh, David Nixon, Allison Nunes, McKenzie Carrion), and my cross-functional partners (Lina Garcia, Disha Gupta, Nancy Li, Aimee Sharrock, Mimi Bea, Archana Sekhar, James Chuong).

Last thought … put work into perspective relative to parental leave; this is a life-changing moment and remember to be present with your family so you can enjoy the miracle of life and you have no regrets when you return back to work.