Neale Graham - taking parental leave to focus on family

Transcript

I’m Neale Graham, a senior manager in Communications, in Corporate Affairs.

My wife and were expecting our first child and we’d discussed possibly taking some shared parental leave.  Somebody in the team had taken it before and had spoken highly of it. And I looked into what PwC were offering and it was a strong package, and I knew it was an opportunity I didn’t want to miss.

My colleague who’d done shared parental leave before explained how it worked, so it was really useful to know what to expect.  Nico was born 3 weeks prematurely and in the early weeks there were a lot of to’ing and fro’ing from the hospital.  The best thing that the firm did for me in that situation was just give me the time and space to support my wife and to be a new dad to my son.

I took 4 months off and while it was difficult to leave my young family I think I was ready to come back and resume my career.  When I came back to work the team had changed a bit, some familiar faces had moved on to parental leave of their own and we’d hired some new people in as well.  It was just a matter of getting to know them and new business areas but everything was OK.

The firm had given me the time to bond with my new born son and be there to be there for my wife who is very special, and I’ll always be thankful for that.