The benefits of shared parental leave
DRIVE caught up with father of two Gareth Nicholson, who works as part of Entegral’s customer support team at Enterprise, to talk about the benefits of fathers taking shared leave.
How was your experience of shared parental leave?
I love being a dad. It’s the best thing ever. I’ve always been around children because I was five years old when my mum started childminding. I’m used to babies crying and I changed my first nappy when I was around 11 or 12.
I only took two weeks off when my daughter was born. But I was able to connect with her because it was lockdown, and I was working from home.
It was such an opportunity to be able to take six months off after my son was born when we were all back at work.
I took leave from the day he was born. I feel I connected with him much faster because I was a full-on dad. I did everything apart from breastfeeding.
“Being a dad is the best thing ever”
How are you finding the juggle since you’ve become a parent?
The flexibility is excellent. My line manager makes sure I get the time I need and makes it easier for me.
I’ve chosen to go back to the office full time since I’ve become a manager. When you lead a team face to face it’s easier to help them to progress. I might be at home more often say during the holidays and it’s never a problem.
I try to get to work at 7.30am so that I can leave early to pick up my daughter from the child minder. It works well.
I’m also the only one in my household who drives, so flexibility is important if I need to shoot back home for a school call or doctor’s appointment.
What were your goals in taking shared parental leave?
I wasn’t aware it was an option with my first child as she was born around the time when I joined Enterprise. I decided to look at it when my son was born.
This time it’s really made sense for us because my wife moved from full time employment with the NHS to being self-employed working from home as a content creator.
She only makes money if she works. Having me at home through lockdown when my daughter was born meant that she could continue working.
“The flexibility is excellent”
How did you go about planning your leave?
I work in customer services so it’s important for me to stay connected with my team. I even offered to work two days a week throughout my leave as we were hiring new starters who would join just as I was leaving. I wanted to be sure that they had good support and hand over.
While it’s not possible to work when you take shared parental leave, I was available to answer questions and help with the new team. I had a couple of questions a day in the first month or two. After that the training kicked in and the questions trickled off.
Shared parental leave needs to be better understood. It’s a policy that’s easy to overlook and managers need to be aware that it’s an option.
Some of the men working in my office didn’t understand why I would want to take time off – even the ones who have children.
My friends were curious: why would I want to do it? There is still the perception that looking after babies is primarily a woman’s job.
Times have changed. Covid and lockdown made a big difference to how we parent our children.
Creating the proper relationship with your kids from a young age is important.
“it’s important for me to stay connected with my team”
What would be your advice to other parents thinking about shared parental leave?
I would say financially it has to make sense. If you can afford to then go for it. The six months of bonding with your child makes such a difference. You feel so detached after only two weeks.
Having seen the difference that it made when I spent time with my daughter during lockdown, I knew how important it was to take the time off.
Enterprise offers enhanced shared parental leave. Speak to your local HR Manager for more information.
If you are interested in a career with Enterprise, please visit our recruitment website at careers.enterprise.co.uk.
