Parental leave is table stakes for companies today. But are there limits to how it can be used for career advancement?
I’ve been thinking about this after repeated emails from an employee at Hubspot who says he is about to go on paternity leave.
I’m not sure how I feel.
All companies should offer equitable parental leave for mothers and fathers, for birthing, non-birthing and adoptive parents. Good for the individuals, good for the company in terms of retention and equalizing the future promotion field.
(Companies should also continue to offer supports we’ve advocated for working parents as their kids mature; it’s not like parenting responsibilities stop when parental leave does.)
I feel strongly about companies offering real paid leave – anything less than 12 weeks is cruel, with 20 weeks being the baseline for actually caring about your employees.
So I’ve been reading emails sent to me by an employee at Hubspot with mixed feelings. They’re all clearly automated so it’s not as if he knows me or really cares about what we’re doing as a business. Hubspot is an AI-powered CRM!
With the subject, “Personal Announcement,” I opened one and then another and another.
Here’s the first email:
“I’m reaching out with some personal news: I’ll be heading out on paternity leave starting next month.
Because I’ll be offline for a while, I’m working double-time to get my current accounts set up for success before I go.
To help wrap things up, leadership has given me the green light to offer significant discounts before I go.
If you’d like to review your marketing and sales goals for the year—or just want to see how aggressive I can get with the rate to earn your business before my leave—let’s connect.”
Bold belongs to the salesman.
More came. Each one was building toward the leave date.
“I wanted to follow up on my last note. As I mentioned, I’m finishing up my final few projects before my paternity leave begins next month.
What that means for you: I have maximum pricing flexibility from my manager right now to get deals finalized this month. Once I’m out, you’ll be assigned a new point of contact.”
And the most recent one: “I’m reaching out one last time before I head out to be with my family.
I’d love to get you a great deal on HubSpot before I’m officially off the clock. Even if you feel the timeframe is a bit tight, I’d still suggest a quick conversation. Worst-case scenario, we decide the timing isn’t right and I’ll make sure you’re in good hands for when I return.”
On the one hand, this dad-to-be may need to close some deals to get the commission payments to make his paternity leave a good one. I understand scrambling for cash, but if HubSpot doesn’t really give parental leave with pay and it pushes its employees to AI-up schemes like this, I’m not inclined to ever consider them.
My more skeptical side thinks of all those “service dogs” on planes. I say this as someone who with my wife trained many guide dogs for the blind before we had kids. The hoops we had to jump through to get on a plane when we were really training these dogs was incredible. When I see a CavaPoo with a vest, I’m skeptical.
Taking paternity leave is great. Can you use it to enhance your comp before you take it? I don’t have an answer. If you do, please email me.
