A report published by Ashoka University revealed that 73% of Indian women exit their jobs after childbirth and struggle to rejoin the workforce. Among those who manage to return to work, 48% drop out within four months of reintegration. But there is a step before that, how to 'break the news?'

Parental leave isn't just a "break" from work; it's an intense period of onboarding for one of life's toughest roles: parenting. From sleepless nights to feeding every two hours, it's a demanding job with no training. Returning to work after this whirlwind requires planning, discipline and workplace support.

A February 2023 Deloitte survey found that in urban India, among LGBTQIA+ individuals who are out, only a third are comfortable being out with select colleagues at work. What is more, 40% of respondents cited concerns about career opportunities as the biggest barrier to being out at work.

A 40-year-old man weighing 154 pounds.That's the typical person designers of modern office buildings in the US had in mind when they installed thermostats. I'm talking about the 1960s. Six decades later, office heating remains, well, a heated subject. 

Hello folks, I am Udayan. I went from an engineering drop out, to being the first growth hire across startups, working in San Francisco to India, building the product growth team at Razorpay, starting my startup i.e. GrowthX, raising the largest ever seed round in the world, building it to be a profitable company from day 1. Professionally, I have had an incredibly rewarding journey. If I have to look back and ask myself what is an important aspect that’s impacted this journey positively, it would undoubtedly be fitness.

Key takeaways: Employers have spent billions of dollars in employee happiness programmes, but data shows the returns are shockingly poor. Chasing employee happiness is a band-aid fix for deeper structural problems. A far more rewarding exercise, especially in the post-pandemic world, is investing in the dignity of your employees. From person-centred policymaking to 'decent digiwork', here are five powerful building blocks to get you started on this journey. 

Lack of compatibility with parents is now becoming a core reason for employees to return to tier-1 cities.

Reducing your careers to numbers fosters an environment of toxic comparison. Suddenly, your impressive achievements feel minuscule when you see a larger number attached to someone else's name.

Simply put, the manager’s schedule is one which is filled to the brim with meetings, hour-to-hour, from one appointment to the other. I’ll let Paul tell you how one is different from the other: ‍“When you're operating on the maker's schedule, meetings are a disaster. A single meeting can blow a whole afternoon, by breaking it into two pieces each too small to do anything hard in.”

In India, there is no formal mandate for paternity leave for the private sector while the Maternity Benefit Act states that new mothers are entitled to six months of paid leave. However, Central Government employees are entitled to 15 days of paternity leave, also in cases where a child has been adopted. This allows companies to formulate their own policies. Standard Chartered offers new fathers 20 weeks, Pfizer offers up to 12 weeks whereas many other companies have no such policy in place which leaves much room for ambiguity.

Navigating personal grief at work by Dr. Mekel Harris. In June 2016, she authored a memoir, Relaxing Into the Pain: My Journey Into Grief & Beyond. Throughout the past two years, Dr. Harris has created The Grief Anatomy Toolkit – an e-book and mini-course, an 8-week immersive online course, Re-Imagining Life After Loss, and Mindful Grieving, a therapeutic curriculum for coping with grief and loss.

Recently at Women’s Web, we conducted a study on Women’s Experiences of Mental Harassment at Work which revealed that over 40% of women do not trust their HR department enough to share their concerns around this issue. What this means is that even women who acknowledge certain kinds of behaviour as mental harassment in the workplace refrain from reporting them due to unreliable HR teams.

When we bid goodbye to our colleagues, we are actually saying, “I will see you around”, and not just because of ubiquitous Linkedin presence or community forums and meetups. We meet our ex-colleagues again and again - not only as potential colleagues, leads and team members but also as clients, investors, coaches, mentors and more. Future business could come in the form of an ex-employee who strongly recommends you. In this scenario, shoddily managed exits are a cost to the business. And yet, companies and advisory HR folk frequently get respectful exits wrong. 

A vulnerable letter by someone who is autistic to their employer.

In a culture that evidently prioritises productivity over well-being, it’s no surprise that sleeping less, working weekends, sacrificing leisure for work, and writing and reading books on how to be more ‘productive’ are things that we boast about. Hustle has become the norm. Job descriptions now expect us to be a ‘ninja’ who is constantly available and is always up for going ‘beyond the call of duty’, and why not? We are a generation of people who have grown up admiring the hustle shown in movies like The Intern and Devil Wears Prada, but at the same time, we also want to seize the day like Laila in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.

Inclusion of menstruating persons at the workplace often gets stuck on the question of period leaves. Advocates supporting period leaves, put forward pertinent arguments on the need for rest and low productivity. Period leaves have proven to increase retention of female employees and is often hailed as a progressive step for inclusion of non-binary folks as well. However, period leaves are contentious as it increases barriers to entry for menstruating persons in the job market.

Pay transparency is a journey and does not begin and end with listing salaries on job postings. Rather, it is an approach to being forthright and upfront about both expectations and what is possible, in terms of rewards, benefits and compensation through the lifecycle of an employee. For instance, sharing what the interview process looks like, and what are the attributes that will be looked for are also important elements of transparency. 

No matter how fulfilling our Friday nights and Saturdays may have been, Sunday evening has a way of casting a shadow over our peace of mind. It's as if our worries about the week ahead decide to crash the party, stealing our attention away from the present moment. Suddenly, thoughts of looming deadlines, demanding projects, and challenging meetings take center stage, overshadowing the laughter and enjoyment we were just experiencing.

Work recovery is the “unwinding process of reducing or eliminating strain caused by the stressors of work.”

‘While not every woman experiences pregnancy, every one of us experiences menopause,’ continues Dr. Ranjani. If every woman will experience menopause at some point in their life then it is also equally essential for workplaces to be sensitised about this life stage, as most women are likely to be working in significant positions during this stage. Workplaces must understand the implications it may have on women employees’ health and also put in place support mechanisms for those who experience challenges.

Humans, in the spirit of professional growth, often forego important things, like health, time with family and holidays. Through a complex web of denial and justifications, they conclude that the sacrifice is worth it – for some likely greater good. But, is it?

Of all the things parenting throws at you, most of which is thankless grunt work, just having a smile at the end of the day and watching your kid grow with limitless curiosity and the faith that your child will have the freedom to explore, without inhibitions, makes all the effort worth it.

Why is it that only a certain kind of work or workers get benefits for doing their job and a certain kind don't get rewarded anything extra? Should organisations be responsible for people who don't belong?

Do you hesitate to take leave? Do you feel the need to jump through hoops in order to enjoy the leave your job entitles you to? Do companies benefit when their employees don’t take time off?

Many companies talk about ‘mental wellness’, ‘burnout’, ‘resilience’, ‘empathy’, ‘employee wellbeing’ but rarely if ever, walk the talk when it comes down to it. This is the sin of good intent.

Costs of maternity in urban India are high, and with the healthcare inflation ever-rising, employer-sponsored insurance for the workforce needs a higher benchmark.