There’s a good reason you often hear people say they need a holiday to recover from their family holiday with young children. It’s meant as a joke, but it’s sometimes true…

As we return to work after the summer we tend to feel a range of things - relief mixed with sadness that the children are back in school, overwhelm at the amount of work that’s piled up, and one other thing…

Exhaustion. 

The end of summer is a difficult time of year. We had plans to relax and recharge, but that’s often not the reality. A holiday with kids can be a wonderful and cherished experience creating memories to treasure, but often they are rarely relaxing. 

What is a holiday? 

The definition of a holiday is an extended period of leisure and recreation, especially one spent away from home or travelling. 

Unfortunately for working parents in particular, a holiday often means taking time off from just one type of work and not necessarily from...

During Men's Health Week (10 – 16 June in the UK), we read many of the excellent articles and personal stories shared by men. In our work at Thriving Talent, we hear daily how stress manifests itself when working fathers are trying to juggle personal and professional lives.

Working fathers often cite feelings of overwhelm, guilt, failure at work and at home and working 4 shifts: shift 1 being the morning pre-creche/school, shift 2 being at the office, shift 3 being back at home hopefully in time for children’s bedtime and shift 4 logging back on. None of which tends to leave space for taking care of oneself. Every time we run “New Fathers” workshops, men exchange on the challenges they face and how sports/friends/health/fun becomes a distant memory. As we remind them, if they don’t take care of themselves and have a ‘full battery’, they are unlikely to be the father/partner/professional they want to be.

Organisations are starting to...

This return to work case study is a great example of how crucial flexibility is for retaining new mothers in the workplace. Here we share the story of Louise, an advanced nurse practitioner in a hospital emergency department and mother to a baby boy.

When Louise became pregnant she knew that after having her baby, she would eventually want to return to work in the career she had worked hard over many years to build as an advanced nurse practitioner in a hospital emergency department.

Her story is neither an outright success nor failure on the part of her employer, but there are many parts to it that we can learn from. Ultimately, it shows how vital flexible working is for retaining new mothers in the workplace. Rather than share the interview in full, we have highlighted some of the key themes and outlined key learnings from the perspective of both the new mother and the employer:

The Paperwork

“When I told my employers I was pregnant, they were very helpful and seemed...

When a driven, ambitious lawyer announces that she is having a baby, her employer has some key decisions to make to ensure a smooth departure and return. In this case, one employer’s loss was another’s gain…  

Although happy to share her story, this lawyer wanted to remain anonymous so we’ll call her Julia. When Julia announced she was pregnant at her law firm, all was well. She was treated fairly, adjustments were made, and it was easy for her to attend all the necessary antenatal appointments during her working hours without any resentment or sideways glances.

The problems came during the handling of her workload. After years with the firm building up a client base on full time hours, Julia was surprised to learn that her employer intended for her line manager to take on all the extra work alone while she was away. This caused a great deal of stress for everyone involved and made the time leading up to her maternity leave very tense.

Shortly after...

What happens when new mothers are not supported fully  upon returning from maternity leave?

It’s not just the mother who suffers - the business squashes the career ambitions of a dedicated employee within the company and risks losing a skilled worker. This case study demonstrates a very common trend amongst employers and new working mothers.

Jennifer’s first month back at work following maternity leave was of course challenging as she was learning how to balance work and family commitments. In some ways, her employer helped and in others, she was very much let down. In her view, the poor treatment she received from her employer were bumps in the road and just what she had come to expect as a new mother. So she shrugged her shoulders and accepted it.

The negative actions of her employer caused her to be demoted, earn less money, and stop breastfeeding earlier than she wanted to. Just think about the implications of all of that for a moment...

Yet, Jennifer remains,...

Anna is a Teaching Assistant at a Learning Centre in the UK who recently returned from maternity leave and agreed to share her experiences with us.

Upon returning to work, Anna’s employer was flexible to her request for fewer hours and later start times to accommodate nursery drop-offs. But more than that, she was reassured that she would not be penalised for occasionally running late due to her parental responsibilities and told not to worry about it.

It’s brilliant to hear that Anna’s work culture is sensitive to the needs of working parents and has allowed and supported her to continue on her career path as before. Within a few months of returning to work she completed a training course, and she says that it feels like she was never away.

The main challenge for Anna has been the cost of childcare and the realities of separation for extended periods, but over time she has become more comfortable in the knowledge that her son is safe and happy at nursery.

Her...

June is a month which holds much focus for fathers. Several countries celebrate Father’s Day and it is also the month for International Men’s Health Week (June 11-17), celebrated annually to promote and honour the importance of the health and wellness of boys and men.

It seems an ideal month therefore, to take a step back to look at the evolving role of fathers and highlight again what is required to close the gap, to meet their needs in the workplace. So, what has driven the evolution of the role of a father?

There are many views. Some say that millennial men & generations following are different because they grew up with different expectations and role models, often where both parents worked. Others put it down to the reforms to support for working mothers which have accelerated from the 1970s onwards, as a result of many campaigns lobbying for change in the workplace. Others say fathers who now have daughters in the workplace witness their world and it’s...

We recently celebrated Mother’s Day here in Geneva, Switzerland. Grateful children and dads took mums out to lunch, bought them flowers, ran them baths, and made them cards to show her how special she is to them and what a great job she does in the home.

But what about the job she does at work? Does she ever receive recognition for her contributions and support for her needs? Does she spend her working hours feeling guilty - for having to leave early and pick up her kids or for leaving them in the first place - when she should be feeling like a supermum for all the things she is able to juggle on a daily basis?

Mothers are a valuable asset to any organisation (note: Fathers are too but we’re focusing on mothers here). After returning to work, most mums have evolved into super efficient multitasking champions. In the transition to motherhood, they have had to learn to be super organised, plan to make plans, make preparations the night before, and always have a backup....

If you are one of those lucky people who never needed shopping lists or deadline alerts before you had a baby, lucky you! The chances are that post-baby, however, things are very different.

I think the majority of adults struggle with juggling personal and work related tasks after becoming a parent - the mental and logistical load is much heavier than ever before and with the likelihood of sleep deprivation you’re memory doesn’t seem quite as sharp as it used to. You think to yourself "I'll easily remember that" and then your tiny little person flashes you a beautiful smile and you forget everything else.  

With that in mind, you can relax somewhat in the knowledge that there is an abundance of handy, practical tools to help you out. Some of these tools you can use for both personal and work tasks, allowing you to more easily manage those two parts of your life together at once. I am strong proponent for work-life integration because in order to thrive in both...

Whatever your reason for being a single parent, raising children alone comes with its challenges as well as its rewards. Add to that the responsibility of being a working parent, and things can get even more difficult.

Between work, meals, emails, bath time and bed, it’s easy to lose yourself as you move from one thing to the next. But it really is possible to meet your many responsibilities and achieve a life of enjoyment and fulfilment for you and your children as a single working parent.

Firstly, you’ll need to let go of any guilt you may be harbouring. As parents, we all worry about the start in life we are giving our children. There’s plenty of proof that single working parents can raise raise happy, well-balanced and confident children. When it comes to parents, it’s about quality over quantity!

Keep these tips in minds to  help you stay focused on your happiness, health, and the special life you and your child share...

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