Maternity Leave Policy and Cultural Sensitivity in the Workplace

Critical Reflection Paper
My colleague had just finished showing me a dozen photos of her six-month-old baby boy
and several videos of him cooing and staring at a spoon. She seemed really excited to talk
about his eating and pooping habits and how he was just an angel incarnate. I humoured her
since she was a dear friend as well, however, I knew this motherly enthusiasm was not
appreciated by our other team members, especially the men. There were a lot of water cooler
discussions on how she could just take off for six months on a paid leave, come back and
expect things to have been the same as she left them. Most of the employees in our small
organization felt that women somehow got an unfair advantage for being new mothers. Most
of them were decent enough to not say that to her face or to any other woman. Some were
openly hostile and made it a point to remind her and others that while they were off on a
leave, the work did not stop and they should just be content with picking over the left overs.
This got me thinking about how we needed to draft an official policy regarding maternity
leaves and an overall policy about parenting and child care responsibilities along with
developing sensitivity interventions in the office for the benefit of everyone around. We had
to welcome diversity and gear up for the changing dynamics of a flexible workforce
arrangement (Schmidt, 2013).
Our organization had the basic HR policies in place based on the legal requirements that we
had to abide by. The issue at hand, however was not about the legal requirements being met,
but more of a cultural issue that we faced. The employees working in our organization had to
be sensitized to how any HR policies affect not just the incumbent but the entire organization.
The way in which we design the policies as well as the way in which they are implemented,
along with how the employees perceived these policies all contribute to making up the
cultural fabric of the organization as well as how the employees perform and feel engaged at
the workplace (Convey, Monks, & Bailey, 2016; Russell, Steffensen, Ellen III, Zhang,
Bishoff, & Ferris, 2018). Our organization’s attitude towards the family lives of our
employees should extend beyond just paid maternity leaves but also include creating a
welcoming environment for the employees once they are back from the leaves and support a
transition back to the demands of the workplace. The other team members need to be
sensitized on the importance of having such a balanced view and the contribution that men
and women can make in the workplace with their diverse strengths and different personal
situations as well. The first step in the right direction would have to be a joint responsibility
of the senior management and the HR team (Turner, 2018). It is crucial that we stepped up to