Easing Back to Work After Maternity Leave

Diana returned to a world very different than the one she’d left in early 2021. EDITED had grown, the pandemic had shrunk, and most importantly, there was a new man in her life. 

As an undiagnosed workaholic, taking a year away from work seemed like the most daunting thing. Having been employed since I was 15 years old, who and what am I without my work? Would I lose my identity without working or would I feel an overwhelming need to be with my baby 24/7? Preparing to completely switch off your ‘work brain’ and move to ‘baby brain’ added an extra layer of self reflection I hadn’t anticipated. To say it’s all a surreal experience is such an understatement.

So, reflecting back now with my one-year-old son, I wanted to share how important it has been to work for a supportive and flexible company like EDITED in the hope that other companies who don’t have this setup might follow suit.

As a Dane, my standards for company benefits may be high but I feel lucky that when I left for mat leave, I didn’t have to tell my work when I was planning to come back. How can you plan for the unplanned? Just knowing that EDITED supported this new journey without a timetable lessened any stress I may have been feeling. The fact that they provide competitive maternity and paternity leave pay made me feel proud to work here – why should these new tasks all fall on the mother? And who would have considered the importance of a re-onboarding plan, because how much can happen to a company in a year?

Well in EDITED’s case, quite a lot. Try acquiring another company, bringing in new investors, welcoming 79 new employees and changing our service approach while launching new product lines. So while we’ve been settling our son into nursery, through my Keeping in Touch days, I’ve also been able to learn about the new internal retail analytics platform we’ve acquired, and become familiar with new faces, customers and products.

It’s not been easy, but it’s all become a lot less daunting now. Big shout out to our people ops team, especially Emily and my boss Kristina for cushioning my landing back to work. 

I love looking at the face of my little boy every day and I’ll miss it. But I can’t wait to see the faces of my colleagues, be able to have a hot coffee in close proximity without fear and speak without having to sing Baby Shark to get someone’s attention. I’ll also bring my upgraded supersonic productivity back to work, where a 20 minute baby nap means I can get 100 things done. Imagine how much I can do in an 8 hour work day!

 

Diana Christina Bang is the Regional Account Director EMEA at EDITED.

 

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