If you had to take an unplanned leave of absence, could someone else pick up where you left off?

It’s been a little while since I posted anything on here, but with good reason. Nearly three weeks ago, I became a father for the second and third time. My boys arrived eight weeks early. My wife and I were about as prepared as you can be, but there were many things we hadn’t considered given their early arrival.

With all our focus on the new little people entering our lives, we hadn’t given a huge amount of thought to how we would continue to function with our work lives, because as insignificant as it seems at the time. We still have to put food on the table. Just more of it.

Many companies these days are very well set up to support employees when they have new additions. Maternity leave, paternity leave and support groups are becoming common place. But is your company set up to support your employees if their new-borns are premature and require a stay in a neonatal unit?

As a mother, my wife is splitting her time between home and the hospital, which is very difficult for everyone, especially her.

For me, the challenges aren’t deemed quite so important, but were weighing very heavily on me. I work in sales, and in Autodesk I have a very good employer when it comes to work/life and flexibility, so I am more fortunate than some. With my boys going into the neonatal unit, they weren’t coming home for a while, and therefore I decided to save my paternity leave for when I could be most useful, when they did come home.

Very few companies deal officially with babies having to stay in hospital. It can be a very tough time for parents, and potentially even tougher if they’re trying to (mother or father) juggle home life, with paying the bills. As I said, I am very fortunate, and had the full support of my seniors and many others at my company, so we were inundated with offers of support for both work and home. Not every parent is so fortunate. If you are currently looking at jobs and hoping to start a (or like me increase the size of your) family, I would suggest you ask how they would deal with such a situation.

If you are in sales, then it warrants further questioning. Again, I am very fortunate to be surrounded by so many high performing people, and when I needed time to look after my family I wasn’t short of offers. But, in sales, you tend to build up long term relationships with your clients. Some deals take months or years to come to fruition. If you suddenly had to take an unplanned leave of absence, could someone else pick up where you left off without a handover? (I see the CRM salespeople rubbing their hands together at the opportunity here).

The reality is, unless you have someone who supports you closely, it doesn’t really matter how well you document everything, or keep your CRM system up to date, you will lose continuity and possibly momentum. As a salesperson, this is hard to swallow. As a new father again, I still have one eye on keeping money coming in to support my family, it can become very stressful.

Whether you plan on starting/growing a family or not, this should be an important line of questioning for all prospective employers. What sort of support mechanism do you have around your employees? Is there an internship? Do you have internal support for the teams? Is there a proper buddy system?

Failing that, you can just come and work here. You'll excuse the shameless plug, but I've been very moved by just how good those around me have been these last few weeks.