#10 The Career Shift: How to discuss pregnancy and parental leave with your employer.

In today’s episode our host Nikki speaks to Rebekah Fraser, The Back to Work Coach.

They discuss the career transformation you go through the moment you realise you are about to become a parent.

They look at the things you need to ask ahead of going on parental leave and how you navigate those first few months when you know you are pregnant but really trying to pretend you aren’t (not an easy task!).

Using experiences from their own pregnancies as well as delving into their own time in corporate they look at ways for us to empower ourselves to ask the right questions and get maternity leave that benefits both us as new parents as well as the employer.

Nikki and Rebekah also talk about the vulnerability and mindset shifts we need to manage around asking for what we want in the workplace and the importance of paving the way for the next generation in the same way our previous generations paved the way for us.

This episode is not just for women we also discuss paternity leave and how FINALLY the world is starting to see that Dad’s need to have an active role in the household as well as the office. A Work / Life balance is not reserved to any gender.

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Resources 

Find out more about The Back To Work Coach here.

Website - https://www.thebacktoworkcoach.com/ 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebekah-fraser 

Article - what to ask your employer: https://www.thebacktoworkcoach.com/blog/what-to-ask-your-employer 

3 Career Takeaways 

1) “And, you know, at some point you just get sick of hearing yourself, say the same old things, you get sick of yourself, feeling the same feelings such as lack of confidence or self doubt, and you get sick of procrastination…. so you've got to start doing something different.”  Rebekah highlights how we all have those moments of low confidence or self-doubt and what we do to overcome them. (29.50)

2) “I think when you are pregnant or when you have just had a child you feel so vulnerable about life and everything that's going on that you automatically start worrying about it rather than empowering yourself and taking control of the situation.” Rebekah and Nikki discuss their feelings at the first stage of pregnancy and what they have seen from others. That fear of the unknown comes to us all at times but we need to ensure that it doesn’t affect our ability to ensure we are mindful about the parental leave we want from our employer. (09.43)

3) “I think we can sometimes fall into the trap of thinking, well, that’s my organisation or workplace’s responsibility to initiate those conversations with me.” (07.50) Too many times in our career we feel that our employer should take the lead with work conversations. Promotion, Pay Rise, Parental Leave etc. But we should all feel empowered to have those discussions. Click here to access our downloadable checklist to know what to discuss with your employer throughout pregnancy, parental leave and navigating returning to work.

Thank you to all of our listeners so far. If you like what you hear please subscribe and give us a review. 

Winning in Work is all about turning the rat-race into a happy place and creating better workplaces through career coaching, training, development and well-being. Wh