Doing the Right Thing When an Employee Returns From Leave

Companies love to tout their policies that provide lengthy periods of paid-leave for events like childbirth and medical care. Many companies, however, often fumble the ball on the most important part – making sure that people returning from leave are fully integrated into their previous roles as seamlessly as possible. I’m willing to bet you have a handful, if not more, of friends who returned from maternity or paternity leave to find their job materially changed, or worse, was no longer there.

Why is this?  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that everyone in corporate America is replaceable. When someone takes an extended absence, life moves on and managers and teams find new, and maybe even better, ways to operate. It’s fine to evolve a business, but when this evolution turns into a de facto punishment for taking leave – you’re breaking the law. Workers returning from leave are entitled to return to the same terms of employment they left, and “things changed” isn’t a defense. 

So what do you do?  Here are three tips:

1.       Do not let a person taking leave become an opportunity to assess their utility. If you see this happening, then stop it.

2.       Be careful with temporary elevation of a subordinate to cover for their manager on leave. You may have no other choice, but doing so creates a dynamic where this subordinate’s status in the company is elevated. This can make a return to the pre-leave status quo more challenging. The better practice is to disperse work among existing staff, or even better, hire a temporary replacement. 

3.       When someone returns from leave, monitor their reintegration to the company for a least a couple of months. Make sure the person is getting the same opportunities, is being invited to the same meetings, and is looped into the same types of decisions. Post-leave discrimination tends to be subtle, and it takes effort and oversight to ensure it’s not happening.

*This blog is intended to provide a general summary of best practices and does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with counsel to determine the exact legal requirements in a given situation.