“I came back early from maternity leave - twice!” She bragged.

As a leader in our company, her words carried more weight than she perhaps realized. Within the next 3 years, one of her team members had pledged to take zero maternity leave when she delivered (and that’s exactly what she did), another started assigning work projects to those out on maternity leave, and another took the maximum allowed, but felt bad about it and ended up taking on multiple work assignments whilst technically on leave.

In one throwaway remark, that leader ruined parental leave for her team.

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Our founder Ellie Hearne on her decision to take a meaningful stretch of parental leave.