Meet the dads challenging the ‘career threat’ of parental leave

There is a growing body of evidence that shows empowering fathers to take longer paternity leave is a win-win for family dynamics, progressing women’s careers and business productivity.

Extending statutory paternity leave from two weeks to six at 90% pay could deliver £2.68bn to the wider economy, according to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Not only that, countries offering at least six weeks paternity leave at 90% pay have on average four percentage point smaller gender pay gap, according to research from the Centre for Progressive Policy and Pregnant Then Screwed.

Diageo European innovation director Chris Goddard took six months parental leave in 2021 following the birth of his second child. Some 701 globally took advantage of Diageo’s Family Leave policy in the 2024 fiscal year, which offers men and women an equal entitlement of 26 weeks’ leave at full pay.

Since he spoke to Marketing Week in 2022 about the transformational benefits of taking parental leave, Goddard says the practice has become normalised within Diageo. There are a couple of reasons why.

“The policies are really well embedded and communicated. It’s really transparent. You haven’t got to go and dig to try to find this information. It’s just part of the culture of the organisation, so it doesn’t feel like ‘Should I or should I not?’” Goddard explains.

He also points to the normalising effect over time of more senior leaders, like himself, taking advantage of the policy.

It’s been a very humbling and empathy building experience taking the shared [leave], because you go: ‘Oh, this is what it is like.’

Will Lion, BBH

“Slowly, that stigma of career threat has gone away, because other people can see people like themselves doing well and their career progressing as it would have done without it,” Goddard adds.

That said, he appreciates how real those fears are around how taking leave can stymie progression and stifle ambition. While the policy at Diageo wasn’t in place when Goddard’s first child was born, he says, “I’m not sure I would have done it anyway, because I would have been a bit threatened by some of that career stigma”.

“I really feel that has dissipated over time, largely because you just see more people doing it and more people doing well. They’re getting on well in the business,” he reflects.” The reality is it’s only a short period of time in the big scheme of things. The career’s a long time. Six months is by no means a threatening time period. All those factors lead to people feeling a bit more excited and a bit more able to do it.”

BBH chief strategy officer Will Lion took advantage of the agency’s four-week enhanced leave following the birth of his first son.

“I remember feeling like that wasn’t quite enough, because then you get back into the 700mph winds of work and you’re like: ‘Oh, I’ve got to do this and home.’ It all felt very intense,” he recalls.

When his second son was born eight months ago, Lion decided to combine BBH’s enhanced leave with three months of shared parental leave. Under the current UK system, parents can share up to 50 weeks of leave and 37 weeks of pay in the first year after their child is born.

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Lion returned to work after those three months with a new sense of perspective and rebalanced priorities.

“I got to experience, in a very small version, what women returning to work feel like. They sometimes feel like small things to articulate, but the sense of the business having moved on, projects having moved on, social dynamics changing,” he explains.

“All that stuff you’re having to catch up on as you return – and you’re naturally just absorbing as you’re in the place of work – can give you a sense of unease. So, I have huge sympathy for women who have that longer period and come back, and it’s just so much more intense. It’s been a very humbling and empathy-building experience taking the shared [leave], because you go: ‘Oh, this is what it’s like.’”

The experience is informing Lion’s approach as a leader. When a new mother in his team recently returned to work, he stressed the need to take it easy and encouraged her to keep talking, even about the “small anxieties” it can be tempting to bury away.

“Let’s just share those, because otherwise they can build up and become real, and they can affect performance and your life more generally,” Lion notes.

There’s the functional return involving the work itself and the emotional return, the latter, he believes, many organisations could improve on. It can feel like a small thing, but even someone in the team saying ‘We missed you’ is hugely reassuring to someone returning from parental leave. This kind of supportive reaction can dispel any feeling of having been replaced.

“There’s probably a tiny part of our primate brain that you come back to work and you’re like: ‘No one needs me anymore. Everything’s moved on’,” acknowledges Lion.

While getting the immediate return to work right is extremely important, the way the workplace approaches the first year back is critical, he adds. That reassurance, for example, that it’s ok for fathers not to be in that 6.30pm meeting when they need to do the nursery pick up.

A win-win

The more people who take time away, the better the business is able to adjust, says Goddard. He argues that as companies become more accustomed to employees going on parental leave, it not only normalises the experience for fathers but helps remove any “sense of guilt” they might feel about letting the company or team down.

Businesses should reframe the conversation to take into account the “enormous upside” that comes from dads taking extended leave, something Goddard believes is often underestimated.

“[Parental leave] shouldn’t be seen as a cost. It can often be seen as an organisational cost. There is this massive benefit organisations gain from it,” he explains. “I came back into the business feeling more loyal, grateful, refreshed and energised.”

Slowly that stigma of career threat has gone away, because other people can see people like themselves doing well.

Chris Goddard, Diageo

Since returning, Lion feels he has become more disciplined and structured in his working day. He communicates his expectations to the team more clearly given, as a working parent, his day has been “emotionally and temporally squished”.

“The debate can feel like it’s about a softness and giving into parents, but it can also be about firming up of things from leaders about clearer expectations, so that we are all a slicker machine because of it,” Lion suggests.

Then there are the mental health benefits to factor in. Data published earlier this year by paternity leave campaign group The Dad Shift and charity Movember found 45% of new fathers experience multiple symptoms of post-natal depression in the first year after their child is born, higher than previous estimates. The mental health implications of returning to work after just two weeks can be extremely damaging.

“There’s this wrong perception around ‘carry on as usual’. Having a child is a significant change emotionally, physically and ‘carry on as usual’ isn’t healthy,” says Goddard.

“[Two weeks leave] it’s almost too short. It could have a negative effect. No one really wins there. I don’t think the organisation wins. I don’t think the individual wins and, ultimately, I don’t think the newborn or family environment wins.”

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Of all the benefits to dads taking longer parental leave, challenging ingrained stereotypes and tackling the gender pay gap are two of the most significant. More men taking leave eases the assumption mums should be the sole caregivers, which can help them return to work sooner, Goddard points out.

The three months spent with his family enabled Lion to understand in greater detail what “emotional labour” looks like and the mental load mothers carry.

“There might be men who are not even aware of those things and then it’s being landed on a woman’s shoulders. Then he’s not really aware and she’s getting disgruntled because of it, but the extended version of paternity leave allows you to see more of those things up close. Be aware of them, take on more of those responsibilities yourself,” he explains. “It has this lasting effect.”

Emotional work to do

Ultimately, the key to getting more men to take extended leave is to speak to people who have done it, says Goddard.

“Being exposed to people who have enjoyed it and understand the benefit normalises it, and takes away some of those societal stigmas, or perceptions that it’s going to be a career ender or an awkward conversation with the boss,” he explains.

Describing role modelling as a “huge part” of leadership, Lion believes any extension to statutory paternity leave or push to encourage greater uptake of shared parental leave should be coupled with visible role modelling. It is essential, he argues, to move beyond “vision pieces” and bullet points on decks to make extended leave a normal part of life and something that’s being taken advantage of at the very top of the organisation.

“Otherwise, all the days might be there, but if they’re not taken because of some emotional barrier, there’s a woman and a family hurting more as a result,” he adds.

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From an employer branding perspective, Lion claims younger generations are looking for companies that offer a greater sense of balance, which extends beyond a “top-level intention” into daily life.

When it comes to changing the narrative, he insists the notion of the “progressive dad” needs a reframe, based on better role models and stories in culture.

“I keep coming back to the stories we tell. Those things might feel superficial, but they have a very deep impact on the way we think about things and they’re probably a supercharger to the progress of [men taking longer leave],” Lion states.

“A lot of it is narrative and emotional blockers. There’s legislative work to do, but there’s attitude and emotional work to do too.”

In job interviews, he often asks candidates what thing in five years’ time will society look back on that will feel archaic. The current system of two weeks’ paternity leave, Lion argues, falls into that category.