Harshil’s story, a new beginning

I have been with Standard Chartered for more than a decade and have worked in various roles in the data and analytics space, initially as a contractor before becoming a full time employee in 2021. My eleventh year with the Bank was special - my wife and I were blessed with our first child, Itisha, whose name means “a new beginning” in Hindi – and in that year, I was both a proud new father and a proud employee.

The Bank’s introduction of enhanced parental leave benefits could not have come at a better time. It is not yet the norm for fathers to be offered as many days of parental leave as mothers, so I was really proud to be part of an organisation that was truly progressive and inclusive, and that offers all parents an equal minimum amount of paid parental leave.

Getting the support I needed

Due to some medical issues, we made the difficult decision for my wife to travel back to our home country, India, to deliver Itisha, while I remained in Singapore where my work is based. With insufficient days of annual leave, that would have meant that I could only travel back to India infrequently and spend a less than ideal amount of time with my wife and new-born.

Fortunately for my family and I, the enhanced parental leave benefit meant that I was now eligible to take more days of parental leave. Aside from being able to spend more time with my family in India, I was able to provide greater support to my wife in our parenthood journey and partake more equally in caregiving responsibilities for Itisha.

I spent my first few weeks of parental leave doing the “night duty” from 11pm to 6am so that my wife could have a good night’s rest before doing the “day duty”, and vice versa. We have really benefited from being able to share caregiving responsibilities and having more quality time together as a new and young family.

Being part of a ‘family’

Family members support one another and that is why parental leave was so important to me because it enabled me to be there for my wife and new-born. Likewise, my colleagues at work were like family and provided me with the support I needed to take parental leave worry-free.

Everyone in the workplace from my manager to team members and stakeholders welcomed the introduction of the enhanced parental leave benefit and readily supported my decision to take paid leave. Team members stepped forward to take over some of my workload and stakeholders voluntarily deprioritised non-critical tasks that I could work on later when I was back from parental leave. My manager and I also agreed on flexible working arrangements that enabled me to balance the choices that are right for me and my family with a successful career.

I think some people, men especially, might hesitate to take the full parental leave benefit as they have fears about being away from their jobs for an extended period of time. I do think these are just perceived fears. Having an open discussion with your manager and putting in place a career roadmap will help ensure a smooth transition back to work – it certainly did for me, and I was in fact given even more responsibility.

The past year has indeed been life changing for me on both the work and personal fronts. I do feel this policy is beyond ‘here for good’ to ‘here for everyone’s good’.