I've been thinking to write down some information about working during my parental leave to encourage another women to don't be afraid to get back to work.
My daughter was born two years ago. I remember I accomplished my last migration a few weeks before - our customer was in hurry and me too, so both sides were happy to finish in time. They knew about my situation and we worked very efficiently together.
In the beginning of my parental leave it was difficult, my daughter didn't sleep much and I wasn't able to do anything more than take care of her. After some time it got better and I missed my work and Atlassian world badly. I was still in touch with my colleagues as some of them are my friends and from time to time they called me and ask me about my opinion on something. This way I started to consult the solutions for our customers during the long walks with a stroller.
Also, I was still reading community news and articles and as an online leader I tried to help the others by up-voting and answering the questions. It was not much, but it helped me to feel mentally health.
After some time I started to work during the evenings, when my daughter was sleeping. My colleagues were able to find work for me - mostly I was delivering some smaller issues for customers, where there were no due dates and I still had the possibility to postpone the task, if I had a hard day. Later we found out it helps our team a lot - they can focus on bigger tasks. As time went on I started to support more customers and I was able to take care of bigger and bigger tasks.
Right now I'm still working mostly during the evenings and I'm with my daughter during the days.
My colleagues are very supportive and help me a lot, if something is needed during the day. In exchange, if some problem occurs during the later afternoon, I'm usually able to fix it during the evening and everything is done, when they start to work next day. We also have customers, who are happy with my work schedule as they are living in the different time-zones.
In the beginning I was very afraid to speak about my situation with the customers, but I'm very surprised, how well received this information is. Usually they tell me they have children too and don't mind to do the call later in the day or they do something to help me work better for them.
I'm very grateful, that I can still continue to do, what I love, thanks to do the people, who surround me.
Hana Kučerová
Atlassian Consultant
BiQ Group
Prague, Czech Republic
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