Laura Gersch is a parent. She’s also CFO at Allianz Versicherungs-AG. So she knows first-hand that having a family and a career at the same time takes planning – even if you don’t end up sticking to the plan 😊
As a manager, she asks parental leavers some tough questions. „What I want to trigger is the discussion in the family,” she explains. She doesn’t actually need to know those answers herself, she just wants the family in question to give it a think.
„If the idea is to come back at some point and to somehow juggle two jobs and kids, then it’s very valuable to ask some questions up front. It doesn’t mean you will realise the plan because you cannot plan everything around babies. But I want people to think before they leave, What actually is my plan for coming back?”
Some of the questions that she says need to be on your list:
⭐︎ the starting point: what do you mean by career? Do you want to just keep a toe in the water for now, or actively grow your career?
⭐︎ the working model: once you’ve established that, how can you make it happen while also being there for your family? She mentions some options: full time but flexible hours / reduced hours / job-sharing.
⭐︎ preparing your re-entry: Talk to your boss. And build peer groups at work with people who have had similar experiences and 😎programmes like @mycollective really help!
⭐︎ your financial independence, especially long-term: if you think that your decision to work part-time only affects your income now, you’re wrong. There are lots of different solutions to protecting your financial independence later, including having part of your household money go to pension payments for the parent who is doing more care-work and earning less money.
What other questions do you think we should be asking ourselves, as #workingparents with #careers ?
Speaker: Laura Gersch, CFO, Allianz Versicherungs-AG / Young Global Leader, World Economic Forum
Interviewer: Dr. Ricarda Engelmeier – Founder @MyCollective
Music: sponsored by @Michaelkadelbach
Picture: Laura Gersch
Graphic & Production: MyCollective
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