A personal story to highlight exactly what working mothers experience...

Hello,

How are you? We’re dropping into your inbox a day early this week,? before Easter and the holidays descend upon us…

Today we wanted to highlight a personal story from one of our clients, one that she’s given us permission to share.

We feel that there is so much power in telling these stories, because it brings to life so much truth in what actually goes on in real life - behind the smiles and the good intentions that we believe everyone has.?

Her story has two parts, and we’ll be telling the second part in our next newsletter.

So, let us begin with part one…

When Jo (not her real name) returned from her maternity leave, she didn’t really know what to expect.??

But her boss was a huge cheerleader for her, pushing her to check in with him regardless of whether she had much to share or not.??

He told her that her wellbeing was just as important as her work delivery.

He treated her with empathy and encouragement, trusting that she would get the job done - giving her the flexibility that she needed.??

She felt valued, understood, and supported; exactly what she needed after being away from the business for an extended period of time.

A couple of months later, her boss announced that he was leaving and in came a new manager, wanting to prove himself in his new role.??

Their conversations were about delivery and contributions to team performance, never really touching on non-work related things.??

There were even comments around the fact that she rarely came out in the evenings with the team, something she wanted to do but was challenging due to childcare.??

She found herself feeling unsafe, unsupported, and redundant in her role.??

She soon left her workplace and started at a different organisation.

This story is all too familiar from the conversations we have with working mothers.?

And it just reinforces the fact that line managers can absolutely make or break someone’s return.??

Organisations recognise this too, as line management training is something that is getting requested more and more by so many companies that we speak to.

Because what we can learn from Jo’s experience is that having a manager that cares and is willing to stretch out of their own comfort zone will produce retention and improved performance - through generating confidence and emotional safety for the returnee.??

What Jo also said was that it would have been so helpful for the line manager to ask questions, so that they could understand someone who is different from them.?

Don’t assume.?

Working to see that everyone has a reason to shine, and that it may not be the same as theirs.

And this is a big part of what we cover in our training.?

We’ll be sharing part 2 of Jo’s story in our next newsletter (yes, her experience at her next organisation wasn’t much better..for different reasons) but in the meantime, does this story resonate with you??

We’d love you to share your experiences with us.?

Wishing you a brilliant long weekend,

Takako and Jess