The impact having a child has on your work
Parents who work need to find a new balance in their lives after the arrival of a child. This new phase of your life involves a huge number of changes: material, psychological, social, emotional and work-related. On average it takes anything from 18 months to 6 years for working parents to work their way through this phase of change. Combining work and family not only affects your health and well-being, but also absences and absenteeism.
Many brand new parents have not yet realised all this, so may find themselves running into problems. These can include structural lack of sleep due to interrupted nights, exhaustion due to a crying baby, a new division of labour and new roles for both the partners in the relationship, financial worries. These problems can create not just physical but also emotional burdens, and lead to the following issues:
- exhaustion, disturbed sleep pattern;
- lack of concentration and motivation;
- touchy, quicker to be irritated;
- emotionally unstable.
The importance of managing options for working parents
Young (expecting) parents judge their employer by the options available for combining their work and looking after children. Although women still take on the lion's share of the childcare, this is beginning to change. Men often still work full time, but an increasing number of men want to take on part of the care tasks themselves. If you as a company allow for this, you are reducing the likelihood that employees will start looking round for another employer. Also, if you give your employees enough managing options, you reduce the risk that they will miss work or leave your organisation.
As a manager you can help to prevent absenteeism
If you know the typical issues that occur during the phase in life of being a young parent, then you will also understand that the combination of work and family is at the very least a challenge. Some employees dance their way through it, others are threatened by overwhelm. As a manager, you obviously want to head off stress ailments as far as possible. You can do this by asking your employees regularly how they are doing, and extend the conversation to the practical details and whether you can help, this is not an unnecessary luxury. Employees who have just had a child are vulnerable to absenteeism, and you can prevent this, by for example:
- referring them to a financial advisor;
- referring them to a company welfare employee;
- offering a coach or training to increase their mental and psychological capital.
Legal arrangements to support working parents
In addition to the above tips, there are also various legal regulations that make it easier for working parents to combine work and family. By using them if necessary, there is a greater chance that they will remain deployable.
The options at a glance
- Birth leave (for the partner of the mother);
- Parental leave;
- Flexible Working Act.
In addition, breastfeeding mothers have the right to feed or express milk during working hours. The employer must provide adequate space for this and as a manager you naturally want everything to be arranged before your employee returns from leave. Moreover, additional regulations may be included in the employment contract or collective labor agreement. Some companies continue to pay for leave hours during parental leave, but this is not the case everywhere. Know that money can be a reason for employees not to make use of existing schemes. After all, someone must be able to afford to work less. Especially when this is an issue, it is good to look at how you can support someone if necessary.
These articles might also be of interest:
Everything you as manager need to know about maternity and paternity leave
Employees who are pregnant or have recently given birth are well protected at work by the law. The best known rules, on maternity leave, exist to give the employee the time to prepare for the birth and to recover properly after the birth. For partners there is then paternity leave. It is very likely that you as manager will have to deal with this at some point, so we have provided a brief summary below.
Read moreWhat you need to know if a female employee is breastfeeding and wants to use a breast pump
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