Читать книгу The Parental Leave Playbook - Sue Campbell - Страница 36

In this final transition phase, you will focus on integrating your dual roles of worker and parent into a new, singular working parent role (even if this is not your first child, this applies because you've never done it this way before). You will be heading back to work and slowly establishing your new normal through a series of experiments and adjustments. It's important to keep in mind that although you will appear, to your coworkers and boss, to be the same old you who went on leave, this may not match how you feel. You've undergone a significant internal transition (possibly accompanied by physical changes) that has brought you new insight and knowledge (again, even if this isn't your first child).

Touchpoint 8 is similar to Touchpoint 4, when you made the emotional space to reflect on the impact of your transition to parenthood. This touchpoint outlines how taking time to acknowledge the transition to working parent is equally important. Some can't wait for the day to come; others dread it. Either way, this is emotional and intellectual labor, the fruits of which you can bring back into your workplace as you continue building your career.

Touchpoint 9 is all about adjustment. Finding a new normal takes time and you will need to be creative and flexible in your thinking and actions to integrate your new dual identity as a working parent. Learning how to be gentle with yourself and others will be an important skill to practice in order to manage future transitions as your child grows and demands on your time and skills evolve.

Touchpoint 10—the final touchpoint of this framework—is about keeping access to ongoing career development front and center on your return. After an extended leave, especially one of this bedrock-shifting magnitude, a new parent can lose confidence in their abilities or question their commitment to their work. It is not uncommon to feel like hard-fought career aspirations are at risk. This section walks you through putting a plan in place to ensure your career is not derailed and that you can capitalize on all you have learned personally and professionally during this time. All of the work you have put into your development during your transition helps take you to the next right place in your career path.

Thoughtfully approaching each of these touchpoints, as shown in the figure, allows you to take charge of your leave experience and skillfully create your new normal in a supported way that helps you continue building your career.