The roles fathers have with newborn children has gradually changed over time. Nowadays, fathers are more involved with changing diapers, preparing food, bathing and comforting their young children. More importantly, more companies are recognizing the benefit (and fairness) offering paternity time; essentially time off for new fathers to establish a bond with their children directly after the birth.
However, not all companies do this. In these circumstances, new fathers must know what to do to secure their time. This post will offer some helpful tips.
Keep your employer informed – Just as it helps pregnant women who need time off to attend appointments, men need to make sure that their employers understand the schedule of appointments and specifically how much time will be needed away from the workplace. This can also help employers in making staffing changes to accommodate time off requests.
Read the employee handbook – The handbook should include procedures on requesting time off, including how far in advance, how much is allowed and who must be responsible for approving such time. If the employer is not following its own regulations, this could be grounds for seeking legal remedies.
Be conscious of stereotyping – While progress has been made over gender roles when it comes to raising children, there are still stereotypes that are perpetuated in the workplace that men are not supposed to be involved as much with parenting and caring for young children. If women are allowed to have such time off while men in the office are denied the same, there may be a basis to seek a legal remedy.
