Why can returning to work after maternity leave be a special moment?
Thi Nhu An Pham: Women can be psychologically, physically and emotionally fragile.
Thi Nhu An Pham
At the professional level, it’s a challenge because after months of absence, you come back on a specific date to resume a job that you feel you know but no longer quite.
Everyone thinks we’re going to resume as if nothing had happened. However, it’s as if we were arriving in a new world except that no one takes it into consideration. I have rarely, if ever, heard of a process of re-onboarding women when they return from maternity leave.
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Why is recovery so little considered by companies?
TNAP: The organization of work stems from the industrial revolution. At the time, I caricature, but the men were in the factory and the women were sent back to the domestic and family sphere to take care of the children so that the men could concentrate on the work. When they returned to work, there was no public debate about their reinstatement. In fact, it is on them that we have based this balance between professional and personal life. Even today, this question is treated through the female prism. Also, companies have never considered the question of integrating women as such. Result, we do not ask the question for the return of maternity leave.
Does this affect female executives as well?
TNAP: It affects all salary levels and all types of jobs but it is perhaps female executives who will have more difficulty reconciling work constraints and family constraints. The world of work, especially the tertiary sector, is based on a masculine model in which presenteeism is king. There are, researchers have demonstrated, “maternal penalties” and also a “motherhood risk” linked to a negative representation of mothers at work. They would be considered as less involved employees, to whom we would refuse promotions because we consider that their work is less of a priority or that they will not be able to manage their work constraints. It’s complicated for women to go against the grain.
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What should companies do?
TNAP: It is necessary to support the maternity process in the company, from the child project to the return to work, taking into account the needs, expectations and the necessary flexibility. Companies must ask themselves how to reintegrate them and organize regular meetings to take the time to question them about their personal and professional development. It also means taking fathers into account to promote this double parenthood and support parents in the difficult work-life balance.
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And the managers?
TNAP: I would say it’s important to listen to them and not get preconceived ideas about what they want or don’t want. It is important to take stock, on a regular basis, of their needs. They must be considered both as a new recruit who needs to be re-embarked but also as someone experienced, with their skills and a need for challenges. Today, there are too many women who return to work with a lump in their stomachs because they are made to understand that they must prove themselves immediately. You have to give yourself the transition time to relearn how to work together so that both parties are satisfied.
Are there any tips for returning to work in good conditions?
TNAP: For a serene recovery, not everything depends on them, quite the contrary. It is the professional, social and family environment that must be present to ensure that they are as peaceful as possible. We must not forget that this is a period of transition, not necessarily comfortable. It’s normal not to find your rhythm at first. You have to be kind to yourself, know how to listen to yourself and above all be on the lookout for possible discrimination or malicious acts. We unconsciously integrate the sexist and mother-phobic climate of the world of work.
Many of the women I interviewed realized this a posteriori, by telling me what they had experienced.
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