Tackling Hard Conversations on Pregnancy Disclosure and Parental Leave Planning in the Workplace
In his 2024 National Day Rally speech, PM Lawrence Wong introduced an enhancement to the shared parental leave scheme, under which new parents would receive 10 weeks of government-paid parental leave for flexible allocation between the father and mother come April 2026. Many couples planning to have children are excited, but sentiments soon turned cautious as more raised the possibility of triggering negative reactions from their employers should they utilize the extended parental leave, especially in SMEs that have limited manpower and resources. A quick literature review reveals that a fear of repercussion from employers do lower employees’ likelihood of disclosing pregnancy and utilizing parental leave (Jones, 2017; Miyajima & Yamaguchi, 2017).
What then can we do to mitigate such negative experiences? I am considering to develop an intervention research to explore strategies that could facilitate effective workplace conversations on pregnancy and parental leave planning. Based on preliminary literature review, I propose these tentative steps:
Employers should construct a supportive and non-judgmental organizational climate for discussing work-family boundaries.
Employees should be open and professional in sharing pregnancy timeline and childcaring plans with employer to recalibrate and align job expectations.
Employees should be empathetic and proactive in supporting manpower continuity, for example, engage in cross-training to ensure that existing coworkers or replacement hires are able to fill in manpower gaps adequately.
Employers and employees should clarify the impacts of leave on career by discussing whether and how annual key performance indicators should be altered to account for the absent period.
Employers and employees should discuss steps for work-recovery before returning from parental leave, and discuss whether temporary or permanent changes to job scope are required for catering to new childcaring responsibilities.
However, in proposing the above, would we confer employers with too much power to influence employees’ personal life decisions? Would this unintentionally make employees feel like they need to seek their employer’s permission to have children and utilize their parental leave instead of viewing it as their rights? Also, how would the experience of pregnancy disclosure and parental leave planning differ for men vs. women in the workplace?
Please share your experience, thoughts, and suggestions for improving conversations on pregnancy disclosures and parental leave planning in the workplace, whether you are a woman or man going to become a parent, a coworker, or a manager!
Further Readings:
Hideg, I., Krstic, A., Powell, D. M., & Zhan, Y. (2023). Supporting women during motherhood and caregiving necessary, but not sufficient: The need for men to become equal partners in childcare. Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 16(2), 215-220. https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2023.12
Jones, K. P. (2017). To tell or not to tell? Examining the role of discrimination in the pregnancy disclosure process at work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(2), 239-250. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000030
Matthews, M., & Tay, M. (2024). Commentary: A bold leap for parental leave, but fathers and employers hold the key. Channel NewsAsia. https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/national-day-rally-shared-parental-leave-paternity-maternity-employer-gender-role-4554436
Miyajima, T., & Yamaguchi, H. (2017). I want to but I won't: Pluralistic ignorance inhibits intentions to take paternity leave in Japan. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1508. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01508
