I feel privileged because I’ve been working for over 10 years with the same employer. I have been able from the beginning to combine the flexibility of work, study, and leisure. Later, I was able to combine these in addition to parenting the way that works with me the best. Without the company’s way of being flexible in various matters, not all things would have been possible for me.  

At the beginning of my pregnancy, I was nervous about how my employer react when I tell the big bomb”. I don’t know where such nervousness came from. Maybe it was because of a new situation in my life or a fear of losing my job. Even today, you can hear stories of being fired before or even on maternity leave. In my situation, my fears were futile. On the contrary, I was taken care of throughout my pregnancy, and warmly welcomed back to work from maternity leave.  

Even though my nerves were sometimes tense during my maternity leave, it was a wonderful time that I wouldn’t change it for anything. Parenting is a richness and at the same time it teaches a variety of skills that can be directly reflected in working life: you learn to filter things, project management skills develop significantly when you have to organize a million things at once, you don’t take the stress so easily than before, responsibility has taken to a whole new level and you have hatched a ball of fire to handle things. 

Thus, on Global Day of Parents, I hope that in the future, different forms of parenting will be valued in companies of all sizes. I feel I’m lucky because once I ended up working for Elinar. We have a great work community and it’s nice now and then to share thoughts about parenting with co-workers and notice that other kids are also rolling over the floor in the morning when it’s time to go to kindergarten.  

Happy Global Day of Parents! 

Leena Tähti
Marketing Manager