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Summary.
The guilt new parents are made to feel in workaholic corporate and national cultures is astonishing. As is the gratitude for the most basic management of an almost universal human reality — that the vast majority of people have children. While you may not be able to fix the whole system, you can nudge it forward by focusing on three things when you return to work after having a baby: your sense of self, your boss, and your corporate culture. Strategically managing all three will not only make your own journey a lot easier, you’ll also contribute to adapting your company to twenty-first century realities.“I’m so grateful about the bank’s return-to-work program for mothers,” enthused a woman at said bank’s women’s conference I was speaking at recently. “Why are you grateful?” I asked. She looked bemused by my question. “Isn’t your company saving money by getting a skilled employee back rather than having to recruit and train a new one?” I responded. “Won’t they be able to serve you up as a role model to a generation of talented parents-to-be coming along behind you?”