What You Should Know About Parental Leave

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Congrats if you're expecting! Things are about to change in a major way, especially if you are a first-time parent. And if you are employed, you will most likely be looking into maternity or paternity leave once the baby arrives. Bonding time, recuperation, feedings, diaper duty, and so on will fill your days and keep you up at night. But before you plan your leave, there are some things you should know. Let's delve in to five parental leave concerns so you are well-prepared and squared away leaving you better able to concentrate on your newest family member.

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You Probably Won't Get Paid

Some people are lucky to work for a company that pays them while they are out on parental leave, but this isn't the norm. According to Fairygodboss, "American women working in the U.S. who take leave are not guaranteed any benefit payments from the federal government. In fact, most receive no pay during their leave and instead rely on federal parental leave law (Family and Medical Leave Act or FMLA) to protect their job for up to 12 weeks."

That said, everything is usually up for discussion. Parents suggests, "You may have to negotiate your way to a plan you and your employer can both agree on that will allow you the time off you need to physically and emotionally be ready to return to work without putting your family under financial strain."

Another option? Nolo recommends exercising your "right to use your accrued vacation or sick pay during your FMLA leave, as long as you meet the other requirements of your employer's policies."

It's Not Just for Women Who Have Recently Given Birth

When we think of taking time off for a new baby, for the most part, new moms come to mind first. But mothers and fathers reserve the right to partake in FMLA, as "family" is what this act is all about. Real Simple points out, "You don't have to be pregnant to qualify either: this applies to both mothers and fathers and can be used for those who are adopting or must take care for a sick relative."

Fairygodboss adds, "Parents – both men and women – are eligible for this leave within one year of welcoming a new child."

Times have changed over the decades, and families are created and function in all sorts of ways today. Naturally, a woman who recently gave birth has additional challenges, but caring for an infant takes lots of work, something all new parents will face – FMLA making it possible for either parent (or both) to partake in.

You Can Stagger Your Leave

The 12 weeks you are entitled to doesn't have to be used up in one stretch. You can take these weeks throughout the 12-month period you work out with your employer. According to The Bump, "If you have pregnancy complications, you might want or need to take some time off before baby arrives. The rest can be taken anytime over the 12-month period."

Real Simple adds, "You can take intermittent leave in which you leave for a while, return, and then take more leave. You can even work part-time until you've taken the equivalent of 12 weeks off."

Staggering your leave can be useful by "trading off" with your partner if they can take leave too. You'll also be back and forth at work, so you can stay in the loop and on top of projects without being absent for huge chunks of time.

You are Not Necessarily Entitled to Leave

But what about FMLA? See, that all depends on how long you have been employed at your current job and how many people work for the company. Too little time put in at a company means they aren't obligated to give you leave. As Real Simple explains, "Your employer doesn't have to give you family leave if you've worked at the company for under a year, or if you've worked fewer than 1,250 hours during that year. A company is also exempt if it has fewer than 50 employees."

Before you regret working for that small start-up, note, "You may still be entitled to a leave, albeit a shorter one, under the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act. That law, which covers companies with 15 or more workers, requires employers to treat pregnant employees the same as any other disabled worker," as per Parents.

You'll Need to Get Yourself Ready for Return

After up to 12 weeks away from work, you're going to be more skilled at parenting, but a bit rusty when it comes to work. You've been busy with baby but the "show must go on," and your co-workers have been at it in your absence. To pick up where you left off, you'll need to prepare yourself for the challenge.

The founder of AaronB Fitness, an American Council on Exercise-certified personal trainer for over 17 years has important advice. "You should realize that gearing up mentally and physically to return to the office after a long stay at home with the baby is challenging. But you can prepare for it. You've probably lined up help to look after the baby once you return to the office. Take advantage of that a week or two sooner to allow you to get some physical activity back into your routine, such as a morning walk or jog, or a class at the gym. And try to get on a regular bedtime/wake-time schedule that will match your schedule when you're back to work. Do those two things ahead of time and you'll hit the ground running when you return to the office."

Welcome to the world!unsplash.com

Your leave will give you those much-needed initial weeks with your new child. Learn what your company's policies are, what you are able to manage for your family, and how you will transition during this process. Welcome to the family!

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A Guide to Quiet Quitting: How the Gen Z TikTok Trend Is Actually About Setting Boundaries At Work

Quiet Quitting is the latest trend among Gen-Z TikTok that encourages setting boundaries at work

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Toni Morrison has an anecdote about her first ever job, which was cleaning some neighborhood woman’s house. The young Toni arrived home after work one day and expressed her troubles to her father. But he didn’t provide the sympathy she expected. Instead, he gave her something better — his advice:

“Listen. You don’t live there. You live here. With your people. Go to work. Get your money. And come on home.”

Years later, she wrote about this remarkable experience for the New Yorker and said, in hindsight, this is what she learned:

1. Whatever the work is, do it well—not for the boss but for yourself

2. You make the job; it doesn’t make you

3. Your real life is with us, your family

4. You are not the work you do; you are the person you are

What Morrison so eloquently articulated was setting boundaries. I revisited this piece during the pandemic when working from home ramped up in earnest. Back when work was one of the few things that anchored my day.

Without a physical office, the pandemic shattered the work/life balance for many people. There was no more of that physical separation that Morrison talked about. There is no coming home from work physically. There is no real life to come back to — just a manufactured commute to your laptop in your makeshift home office.

But, par for the course, Gen Z are navigating this boundaryless era using TikTok. While internet gurus promote hustle culture and constant online availability since you’re not getting face time with your managers, there’s a trend in town — “quiet quitting.”


@zaidleppelin On quiet quitting #workreform ♬ original sound - ruby


The trend arose from the depths of the pandemic. Layoffs, salary cuts, and furloughs proved that their employers did not care about their hard-working employees.

The Washington Post dubs quiet quitting as a fresh trem for an old phenomenon: employee disengagement. In many cases, it’s a response to burnout. For much of Gen Z, it’s a way of establishing healthy boundaries in the office and resisting the pressure of the rat race. After all, why work yourself to the bone for a company that just proved it’s ready and willing to let you go?

Despite the term’s negative connotations, Quiet Quitting can provide an empowering shift in thinking for employees.

For far too long, employees have been indoctrinated with a slew of toxic workplace advice. Faced with these old misconceptions and lacking job security or clear paths for advancement, Gen Z is untethering their identities from work.

Quiet quitting — therefore — might be a bit of a misnomer. These employers aren’t completely disengaged. They’re certainly not launching Flight Club-esque sabotage attempts on their employers. NO. Contrary to media panic, Gen Z understands the value of a job — the fickle market they entered ensured that. But they also understand the value of life.

They’re doing what they’re being paid for. Nothing more, nothing less.

According to Chief, a private membership network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders, older generations should learn from this approach.

“Gen Z has already endured the largest seismic shifts to the career landscape than any previous generation, having started their careers in the middle of a pandemic that changed office culture forever and a gig economy that makes piecing together work more viable. They’re taking both those realities and therefore demanding more autonomy and flexibility than any other generation.”

Gen Z are less attached to job titles and statuses. They’re more concerned about their lives. Sure, this can lead to problematic outlooks on money and experiences — see the “I can earn my money back” TikTok trend. But it’s better than hustling for no reward. Besides, as some Gen Z-ers put it on TikTok, the office isn’t even a vibe.

“With the ability to work from anywhere and for more than just one place, Gen Z-ers are forging their own paths that don’t rely on old patterns set by previous generations and are redefining what “career success” looks like. Gen Z can take note, as more and more leaders are similarly pursuing multiple income streams of their own through the form of a portfolio career. The way in which work looks like and where it happens is evolving.”

With less single-minded focus on one job, some TikTok business gurus advocate shutting your laptops precisely at 5 pm. And then jump onto your side hustle. Do nails or lashes on the weekend. Become social media managers for your phone. Sell soap on Etsy (again … perhaps not in the Fight Club way).

But this valorization of side hustles is not about hustle culture, either. They say job security isn’t guaranteed. Learning new skills and develop an alternate income stream/s to keep you afloat. Just make sure you’re not left in the lurch. BTW inflation is here. So every little bit helps.

But where do you start? Watching TikToks can only get you so far. Try a course on LinkedIn Learning to sharpen up your skills and learn new ones that you can turn into a verifiable side hustle — or leverage in your job search if quiet quitting leads to … real quitting.

Learn on your own time with bite-sized videos or in-depth courses. Watch them after work, before you clock in, or on your lunch break. Then, after your courses are complete, you’ll have certificates prominently displayed on your profile that prove your skills.

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The Future of Coffee is Melted

Why You Need Cometeer Coffee: Coffee You Can Take on the Go

Cometeer Coffee

There’s an internet trend that says that everyone has three drinks: one for energy, one for hydration, and one for fun.


Hydration drinks are usually seltzer, a sports drink, or good old-fashioned water. Fun drinks can be anything from boba to kombucha to a refreshing fountain sprite. But the drink you choose for energy says the most about you. Are you a chill tea drinker? An alternative yerba mate devotee? A matcha-obsessed TikTok That Girl wannabe? A chaotic Red Bull chugger? Or are you a lover of the classics, a person after my own heart, who just loves a good cuppa joe?

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Can We Afford To Return To The Office?

Over two years into the most momentous event in our lives the world has changed forever … Some of us have PTSD from being locked up at home, some are living like everything’s going to end tomorrow, and the rest of us are merely trying to get by. When the pandemic hit we entered a perpetual state of vulnerability, but now we’re supposed to return to normal and just get on with our lives.

What does that mean? Packed bars, concerts, and grocery shopping without a mask feel totally strange. We got used to having more rules over our everyday life, considering if we really had to go out or keeping Zooming from our living rooms in threadbare pajama bottoms.

The work-from-home culture changed it all. Initially, companies were skeptical about letting employees work remotely, automatically assuming work output would fall and so would the quality. To the contrary, since March of 2020 productivity has risen by 47%, which says it all. Employees can work from home and still deliver results.

There are a number of reasons why everyone loves the work from home culture. We gained hours weekly that were wasted on public transport, people saved a ton of money, and could work from anywhere in the world. Then there were the obvious reasons like wearing sweats or loungewear all week long and having your pets close by. Come on, whose cat hasn’t done a tap dance on your keyboard in the middle of that All Hands Call!

Working from home grants the freedom to decorate your ‘office’ any way you want. But then people needed a change of environment. Companies began requesting their employees' RTO, thus generating the Hybrid Work Model — a blend of in-person and virtual work arrangements. Prior to 2020, about 20% of employees worked from home, but in the midst of the pandemic, it exploded to around 70%.

Although the number of people working from home increased and people enjoyed their flexibility, politicians started calling for a harder RTW policy. President Joe Biden urges us with, “It’s time for Americans to get back to work and fill our great downtowns again.”

While Boris Johnson said, “Mother Nature does not like working from home.'' It wasn’t surprising that politicians wanted people back at their desks due to the financial impact of working from the office. According to a report in the BBC, US workers spent between $2,000 - $5,000 each year on transport to work before the pandemic.

That’s where the problem lies. The majority of us stopped planning for public transport, takeaway coffee, and fresh work-appropriate outfits. We must reconsider these things now, and our wallets are paying

the price. Gas costs are at an all-time high, making public transport increase their fees; food and clothes are all on a steep incline. A simple iced latte from Dunkin’ went from $3.70 to $3.99 (which doesn’t seem like much but 2-3 coffees a day with the extra flavors and shots add up to a lot), while sandwiches soared by 14% and salads by 11%.

This contributes to the pressure employees feel about heading into the office. Remote work may have begun as a safety measure, but it’s now a savings measure for employees around the world.

Bloomberg are offering its US staff a $75 daily commuting stipend that they can spend however they want. And other companies are doing the best they can. This still lends credence to ‘the great resignation.’ Initially starting with the retail, food service, and hospitality sectors which were hard hit during the pandemic, it has since spread to other industries. By September 2021, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 4.4 million resignations.

That’s where the most critical question lies…work from home, work from the office or stick to this new hybrid world culture?

Borris Johnson thinks, “We need to get back into the habit of getting into the office.” Because his experience of working from home “is you spend an awful lot of time making another cup of coffee and then, you know, getting up, walking very slowly to the fridge, hacking off a small piece of cheese, then walking very slowly back to your laptop and then forgetting what it was you’re doing.”

While New York City Mayor Eric Adams says you “can't stay home in your pajamas all day."

In the end, does it really matter where we work if efficiency and productivity are great? We’ve proven that companies can trust us to achieve the same results — or better! — and on time with this hybrid model. Employees can be more flexible, which boosts satisfaction, improves both productivity and retention, and improves diversity in the workplace because corporations can hire through the US and indeed all over the world.

We’ve seen companies make this work in many ways, through virtual lunches, breakout rooms, paint and prosecco parties, and — the most popular — trivia nights.

As much as we strive for normalcy, the last two years cannot simply be erased. So instead of wiping out this era, it's time to embrace the change and find the right world culture for you.

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