Creating Employee Centric Policies that Reinforce Your Values and Brand
My Maternity Leave Story
When I told Sarah (founder and CEO of The Spark Mill) that I was pregnant with twins she screamed with delight and congratulated me profusely. At that point it was early in my pregnancy and too early to make any sort of concrete plans for what this news might mean for my future at work but if I’m honest, I was sweating it big time. There are a lot of unknowns with twin pregnancies and on top of a then one year old at home I felt like I wasn’t exactly the poster child for the best kind of employee to have working for you.
Wilder and Dax at 5 months the week before I returned.
During a drive to see a client Sarah and I both were talking about our lives and families and of course the twins and she looked me in the eyes and said, “Take the time you need, you’ll always have a job here.” In that moment I went from feeling like a liability to an intricate part of a well-functioning team that respects the balance that comes with being a full-person at work.
The team at The Spark Mill took my pregnancy and impending maternity leave in stride, we were optimistic but also realistic. We made sure I had coverage for client-facing work, and we were honest and up front with our clients about the transition that was going to occur. I documented as much as I possibly could.
“In that moment I went from feeling like a liability to an intricate part of a well-functioning team that respects the balance that comes with being a full-person at work.”
And then, at 31 weeks, I had my babies. Fast and without any warning. Much, much earlier than we were anticipating. It was a traumatic birth and my babies were in the NICU for five of the hardest weeks of my life. Right after giving birth there was no way for me to have a phone conversation with my co-workers and I had no brain space to give to work in any way. Sarah and I had a few back and forth texts and then I was done. Instructed to not worry about work at all—Sarah even emailed me an out-of-office response for my email, so all I had to do was copy and paste. And, guys, we were busy at work when I left. We are generally hustling hard but we had A LOT going on, losing someone unexpectedly had to be extremely challenging.
My co-workers all checked in on me, brought me meals, sent me texts letting me know that I was missed but that everything was thriving in my absence. They even hired someone to come in temporarily to pick up some of my slack and kept me in the loop enough to feel completely confident and excited about this person (and lucky for me, Mariah was so awesome she is sticking around now that I’m back). I took just over 5 months off from work. That’s a long time!
When it was time to come back to work, I was offered more time, a flexible schedule, and the ability to come back slowly. They gave me flowers. They asked about my babies and how I was doing before we dove into work. And because they had given me the space and time to really unplug and focus on my babies I was more than ready to come back to work. My loyalty to The Spark Mill grew 10x over through this process and I know I am a better team member because of it.
“My loyalty to The Spark Mill grew 10x over through this process and I know I am a better team member because of it.”
I’ve worked at a lot of places in my tenure, and I would say that I’ve been luckier than most when it comes to working in an environment that values their team being balanced (probably in part because I’ve worked really hard at culture change everywhere I’ve worked). But I consider myself incredibly privileged to work somewhere that has such a healthy attitude toward their team members thriving in their work and home life. I wholeheartedly believe this makes us better at our work, because our clients are real people who have to find their own balances in their everyday lives.
Culture Change is an integral part of all of our work whether you are navigating change, plotting new programs, or embarking on a new brand. It was amazing to see our values and brand at play during my leave.