Each week Dr Kirstin Ferguson tackles questions about workplace, career and leadership in her advice column Got a Minute? This week: a missing office after maternity leave, bogus corporate values and bring forced to take leave.
I’m on maternity leave, returning to work in two months. While I’ve been away, my private office has been reassigned (I now need to hot-desk) and I’ve been told I’ll need to work from a different building two days a week. Before going on leave, my employer and I agreed I could use my office to express milk when I returned, but that office is no longer mine.
HR is trying to find an alternative solution but nothing is confirmed, and the options suggested so far include booking a boardroom some distance away, or using a parents’ room in an entirely different building. These feel impractical for someone who needs to express multiple times a day. Is any of this reasonable?
Just because you took parental leave does not mean you should be expected to accept reduced working conditions. The best employers welcome people back from maternity and paternity leave, rather than making them feel like an imposition.
Your employer has specific legal obligations regarding breastfeeding, which is a protected ground of discrimination. The failure to provide adequate facilities may be a breach of work health and safety laws.
You should request a private room with a comfortable chair, a fridge where you can store breast milk and somewhere to store your breast pump. It is difficult to see how booking out the boardroom, for example, would meet those requirements.
Rather than debating the loss of your office itself, keep the discussion focused on outcomes. Explain why the proposed alternatives won’t work in practice and ask HR to work with you on a solution that is private, close and consistently available.
If that doesn’t happen, you might like to seek advice from the Australian Human Rights Commission about your rights.
I work in an investment bank that has a set of values, including a “speak up” culture. However, the reality is the opposite. When issues – with evidence – were raised about a senior female executive of undermining behaviour and bullying, they were shut down by HR. This female executive has had many complaints about her behaviour; however, she continues to behave poorly, lies and manipulates her boss. Our team has suffered much turnover due to her inappropriate behaviour. How would you approach this situation?
It is easy to list a bunch of values and stick them on a wall. It is much harder to actually live them. In any organisation, if values are not being lived “from the top”, the chances are the values are unlikely to be lived at all.
If complaints about this woman have been repeatedly ignored despite evidence, the issue is no longer one difficult executive but a leadership culture that tolerates the behaviour. That doesn’t mean you should stop raising concerns, but be strategic. Keep records, stick to facts rather than opinions, and use whatever formal reporting channels are available.
If nothing changes, consider whether you think things will ever really change. If the answer is no, sometimes the only thing you can do is send a message by taking your talents and loyalty somewhere else.
My workplace has a lot of long-term staff who are constantly being pushed to take their long service leave. I understand companies do not want the high liabilities on their balance sheet, but employees feel like they are being forced to take leave when they do not want to. Are there any laws around this? Can a company legally force you to take it?
The first thing employers need to remember is that long service leave is an entitlement, not just some sort of balance sheet problem to be dealt with. There is a big difference between encouraging someone to take their long service leave, and forcing someone to take it (the “use it or lose it” idea). While employers can sometimes direct employees to take long service leave, the rules vary between states and territories and will often depend on the circumstances.
If your employer is forcing people to take leave, you can ask what policy or legal basis they’re relying on. You can check the specific long service leave rules that apply where you work by seeking advice from your union, HR or the Fair Work Ombudsman.
To submit a question about work, careers or leadership, visit kirstinferguson.com/ask. You will not be asked to provide your name or any identifying information. Letters may be edited.
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Dr Kirstin Ferguson AM is the author of Blindspotting: How to See What Others Miss and Head & Heart: The Art of Modern Leadership. Kirstin is ranked in the world’s Thinkers50 list and holds a PhD in leadership and culture. www.kirstinferguson.com.Connect via X, Facebook or email.
