Ep. 10 - Parental Leave: It's Not a 'Day Off' in Any Way, Shape or Form

In this episode, we discuss parental (maternity) leave, and our guests Emma and Diana share their experiences and insights into how organisations can better support expectant parents and when they return to work. Through our discussion, it is clear that it is different for everyone, so flexibility in support is essential.

Emma has worked at Thames Water for almost 8 years, predominantly within Talent Management, HR. Emma is also a lead for one of the work streams within the Women’s Network - leading on the most recent campaign which will focus on supporting women returning back to the work place after maternity leave. This is looking at ways to improve processes through a variety of different initiatives, ensuring that mothers are supported as much as possible and that managers feel they too have support in place/understand the complexities. Outside of work she enjoys time with her sweet 3 year old boy, good coffee, and long, sunny walks (preferably with coffee in hand). Diana is a mechanical engineer from a manufacturing background. She designed and manufactured consumer and domestic products for UK based companies, before making the move into construction and building services consultancy. With two young children and a Labrador puppy, she is an expert in high stakes negotiation and defusing potentially volatile situations.

We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did! We would love to hear from you and anything you would like to share on this topic!

SheCanEngineer team