The Parental Leave Playbook

Chapter ElevenTouchpoint 7 Arrangements for Return

IN CHAPTER 6, I walked you through how to plan for your return to work as part of your original leave plan. I love to say: the best way to prepare for leave is to plan your return. Planning for your return reminds everyone that you do, in fact, intend to return. When you create an ideal plan with clear expectations and transparent intentions prior to your parental leave, all parties will be better positioned for your smooth reentry.

Now we are going to leap forward in time and talk about what to do when it is actually time for you to return to work, enriched by the new information and experience that comes with the arrival of your new child. You may find that you want or need to do something different from what you outlined in your original plan, or you may find your plan still works perfectly. Either way, this touchpoint highlights the importance of noticing your new circumstances and thoughtfully reconsidering (and, for many, rewriting or renegotiating) your return arrangements through the eyes of a new parent.

Sometimes clients get confused when I tell them they may need to throw out all the careful planning I urged them to do in the first place. This is not a contradiction, but a paradox that I urge you to embrace. When I introduced this concept to a client whose background is in the military, he understood immediately. He shared an insight from former president Eisenhower, who was also an Army general: “In preparing for ...