Working parents know there’s a delicate balance between work and home life. Caring for sick kids may mean missing a work meeting while dinner with a client may mean missing a child’s ballgame.
For working moms nursing babies, the challenge grows exponentially. Even today, some employers frown upon a mom taking time out of her workday to pump breast milk. There are businesses who do not have a lactation room or designated area to pump, so moms must relegate their pumping sessions to a bathroom stall.
You wouldn’t want to eat your lunch in the bathroom now, would you?
Holly Morissette, a recruit with outdoor clothing and gear company Patagonia, couldn’t believe what happened at her place of work. She was blessed to have her baby with her at a morning meeting, fresh off of maternity leave.
The company has on-site childcare, which allows parents to pop in and see their wee ones at any time.
But Holly had her baby at the meeting and was nursing!
At one point, company vice president Dean Carter turned to Holly while feeding her baby and said something that blew her away.
“There is no way to measure the ROI on that. But I know it’s huge.”
Dean’s supportive comment toward Holly breastfeeding during a company meeting of all things inspired Holly to share her experience and encourage other companies to be as proactive as Patagonia.
“It got me thinking…with the immense gratitude that I have for on-site childcare at Patagonia comes a responsibility to share a ‘call to action’. A PSA to tout the extraordinary benefits that come along with not asking employees to make the gut-wrenching decision to either leave their jobs or leave their babies. TO HAVE TO LEAVE THEIR JOBS OR LEAVE THEIR BABIES. That perhaps just one person will brave the subject with their employer (big or small) in the hopes that it gets the wheels turning to think differently about how to truly support working families.”
Holly wholeheartedly believes that other companies can follow suit and create a workplace that supports working moms and their wee ones.
“It’s no wonder that Patagonia has 100% retention of moms. Keeping them close to their babies keeps them engaged. And engaged mothers (and fathers!) get stuff done. Thank you, Patagonia, for leading the way.”
Not every business out there understands that working moms can be even more efficient if they can have frequent contact with their babies during the day, to be able to nurse them, rock them to sleep for a nap, then return to their desk to take on the world.
Philip Wolf shared that he was the first employee at Patagonia Europe to utilize the company’s three month’s worth of paternity leave. He couldn’t believe the policy even existed.
“I was floored when my manager rang me to tell me I got to spend the entirety of my wife’s maternity leave together with her taking care of our newborn daughter. I will never forget that moment, and it confirmed to me that Patagonia is lightyears ahead of the curve when it comes to taking care of their people.”
Paternity leave is an incredible benefit. On-site childcare is an amazing perk. Being able to breastfeed during a morning business meeting is virtually unheard of. Merging family life and work in one setting so that both phases benefit is something Holly encourages all businesses to consider adopting.
Flexibility. Breastfeeding. Lunch with the littles. All of these add up to happy employees and well cared for kids, which is worth it in the end for both businesses and the workforce. What do you think?
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