In this episode I’m joined by Hansa Raja, founder of the charity Holding Space, to talk about the lived experience of being a parent in the workplace whilst navigating an incredibly difficult mental health crisis with one of her children. 

Hansa sits in two different perspectives here. We talk about her first hand experience as a single parent and the realities she faced with everything from accessing support services to loneliness and the loss of friendship. But Hansa also generously shares her expertise for the practical infrastructure employers can have in place to help retain valued talent who go through similar situations. 

The three things we covered were:

You can find out more about Hansa and the work she’s passionately driving forward by connecting on LinkedIn and you can get support through the charity here: https://www.holdingspace.org.uk/ 

Have you come across the phrase ‘sandwich generation carer’ yet? You’re about to go headlong into what it means…

It’s a phrase coined to describe the midlife collision facing many people who find themselves caring for children alongside older relatives at the same time. Two layers of conflicting generational needs, both needing attention. 

Sherry King is the founder of Sandwich Generation Support, which she set up after her own experiences of trying to blend all of these strands of life. When you’re caring for an aging family member alongside parenting responsibilities and attempting to craft a life for yourself too, having an employer who knows you can still do a brilliant job but there might need to be some white knuckle moments navigated, is a game changer. Knowing you won’t be defined by your caring responsibilities is a level of confidence and safety many of us are searching for. 

Sherry generously shared with me: 

It’s a huge topic full of nuance (I know, I say that about a lot of things but it’s true!) so we tried to squish in as much as possible in this conversation.

The UCL research Sherry mentioned can be found here.

And if you’d like to find out more about how Sandwich Generation Support could help your workplace you can contact Sherry through her website: https://www.sandwichgenerationsupport.co.uk/ 

We’re careering towards the summer holidays in the UK, so there’s no time like the present to take a breath and figure out how we can make them as smooth as possible in the workplace. 

There’s nothing like school holiday chat to get lots of people riled up - but it doesn’t have to be that way. I wrote this article recently about some of the clickbait surrounding the discussion if you fancy a read.

The three things I covered are:

There are also two bonus reminders at the end about family set ups!

And as I mention in the episode, if you want to chat about how you could approach school holidays with a fresh pair of eyes you can book a call with me here.

Imagine returning from maternity leave, you're settling into a new chapter of your career, new routines and new realities of life with tiny humans. Aside from the parental tiredness and squiggly navigation of this fresh life set up, something doesn’t feel quite right. You start to mention a few symptoms to a colleague and they give you the gentle nudge that you could be experiencing peri-menopause. 

That’s a tiny slice of the story of what happened to Anna Allerton. 

Her experiences escalated and Anna found herself leaving a decorated career in broadcasting because the combination of stepping out of maternity leave and into peri-menopause wasn’t the heady mix she was looking for (not sure anybody would be). 

Anna isn’t alone in her story. This is happening to so many women who are quietly trying to push through and finding the back to back life transitions are too much when the right support isn’t in place. 

So, Anna and I sat down to cover three really practical things to consider as an employer and what you can actively do to face these conversations in the workplace.

The three things we covered were:

If you’d like to find out more about Anna’s work you can head to her website.

Ever come across the term ‘kinship carer’? Well, come on into this episode if you want to find out what it’s all about, and why we need to talk about it as an employer but also the wider picture in society. 

Kinship carers are friends or family who step up to raise a child or children when their own parents aren’t able to. It’s an experience steep in an abundance of emotions, different situations and nuance - often in a time of crisis. 

I’m joined by Rhiannon Clapperton, Director of Policy and Communication at Kinship who starts by taking us through some examples of what might lead to a kinship set up, as well as these three headlines:

There was so much to take away from this episode, but my headlines were that no matter what your organisation size, there’s something we can do - and Rhiannon shared some examples of companies doing some great things. She also sign posts lots of incredible and free resources you can access via the Kinship website.

You might see folks like me talking about the business case for supporting parents, and those with caring responsibilities in the workplace. And I won’t speak for other people, but I push these conversations because it isn’t a ‘nice to do’. There are very real, commercially driven reasons why you want to be in the corner of parents in the workplace. 

I’m taking three things to consider when you’re building your business case - numbers feature, but it’s also about hearts and minds. So, the points I’m focusing on are:

If you’re looking for help with your parental support strategy or wondering where to begin for your specific business, you can book a call with me here and I’d be happy to chat some basics with you: https://calendly.com/charlotte-speak/b2b-discovery-call

What a way to start Series 7 - with the wonderful Laura Walker, one half of The Job Share Revolution. 

Laura and her job share partner, Chloe Fletcher, are leading the way on the realities of job sharing.  After accomplished careers in finance, Chloe and Laura have founded The Job Share Revolution, an organisation expertly partnering with businesses to nail the strategy and practical realities of job sharing. They’re busting myths about part-time working, showcasing all the amazing things possible through job sharing and making sure this approach is set up with considered infrastructure.

The three things we covered were:

Some of the highlights from the recording for me included recognising this isn’t about taking a role and splitting it in two, flexibility can be inflexibility, folks don’t want a sudden stop in their career and be really picky about what you double up on!

And for those that love a stat or wondering what to add into business cases, there’s plenty of that too!

If you want to find out more about their work, you can find them on LinkedIn - Laura Walker and Chloe Fletcher, or head to their website https://www.thejobsharerevolution.co.uk/

How often is flexible working synonymous with parents or those with caring responsibilities? Taking it broader means we can shrink the chances of ‘them and us’ and ‘flood gates’ mentality, and instead build it into a whole organisational narrative. Flex is such a rich tapestry of set ups, even the trickiest of believers could find a version that works for them!

Don’t be fooled though - even the most advanced amongst us when it comes to flex can still take a moment to reflect and check in on how it’s going, particularly if it’s got the badge of being the saviour for parenting.

The three things we’re covering are:

One of the early episodes from the series was about engaging line managers, and I think I said at the time it’s a mahoosive topic and I’d be back with more in the not too distant future…so here I am!

The three things we’re covering today are:

My view with line manager conversations is always not to assume, get them involved and remember being a line manager doesn’t automatically make you brilliant with people or have all the knowledge in the world. It’s tough out there, and we can put a lot on the shoulders of those with leadership responsibilities - we need to have the infrastructure around them to bring great outcomes, not dodgy ones.

Please do rate, review and subscribe if you find this podcast useful - it helps people find it and ultimately get the calls to action out in the world. It makes Charlotte feel great too 😆

For further info on Power of the Parent you can head to our website www.power-of-the-parent.com or connect to the founder, Charlotte Speak on LinkedIn.

This episode is going to be a bit different - it’s dedicated to sharing with you some info on the brand new Strategy Club from Power of the Parent®. 

It’s the biggest change up in my business in the almost seven years I’ve been running it, and I’ve poured months of research and design into creating something I believe is going to be a game changer for those charged with spearheading parental support strategies in their organisation.  

As you can imagine I’ve written so much about this new approach, but I think sometimes it hits differently when you hear it said out loud too (or read back my words if you’re looking at the transcript!).

So, the three things covered are:

If you have any questions or would like to find out more about joining The Club, you can email me directly at [email protected] or you can book a call https://calendly.com/charlotte-speak/the-strategy-club-intro

Please do rate, review and subscribe if you find this podcast useful - it helps people find it and ultimately get the calls to action out in the world. It makes Charlotte feel great too 😆

For further info on Power of the Parent you can head to our website www.power-of-the-parent.com or connect to the founder, Charlotte Speak on LinkedIn.