A Message to Dads: take the time
Michael Di Natale, Director of Business Development
Hi, I’m Michael Di Natale (more commonly known as DiNa — pronounced ‘dinner’), Director of Business Development at Isobar Australia. I oversee business development for the agency nationally, and we’ve had a super run in recent years, partnering with some of the country’s biggest and most significant brands.
As much as I would love to go into detail about the secrets behind our success in recent times (depending who you are), I’m here to talk about extended parental leave, which I can now confidently say, is one of the best opportunities an employer can provide. Isobar is part of the Dentsu Aegis Network, so we benefit from extended primary and secondary primary carers leave as part of our parental leave policy.
It’s not rocket science that engaged, diverse and mature workforces lead to more successful organisations. And, as I’ve learnt, work/life balance is a critical ingredient to this — from my perspective especially in creative, technology and innovation industries, that are growing and changing at such pace.
The sad fact is, only one in 20 fathers take primary parental leave, according to the ABS. Further to this, over half of employers don’t provide paid additional primary carer’s leave. Admittedly, I’ve never been fantastic at striking a great work/life balance, so for me the decision was quite a personal one. Seeing our eldest daughter Olivia go from a newborn to a four-year-old in the blink of an eye, I decided it was time to ensure this balance stepped up the priority queue.
So, taking advantage of our company policy, in early 2019 I started three months of primary carer’s leave — an incredible opportunity to focus on my family, that enabled me to spend “quality” time with my three beautiful daughters, all aged under five.
In turn, my wife Jess was also able to shift her focus. She returned to work as an osteopath after spending most of the past four years at home, doing a remarkable job mothering our three beautiful daughters in the important early years of their development. This transition back to work can be incredibly daunting for many women, hence highlighting another significant advantage of this fantastic initiative.
What did the kids and I get up to? We consumed most of the milk froth in Melbourne through an endless supply of babycinos, spent hours jumping in muddy puddles, played dress ups, played sport, shopped, hosted tea parties, created fairy gardens, built unicorns from the ground up, participated in dancing lessons, the list goes on…
For the record, sitting in a four-year-old girl’s bedroom learning to tap dance doesn’t sit at the top of the ‘most relaxing’ experience list. It was an absolute highlight, however, which brought back many wonderful childhood memories from my Italian heritage, including making pasta sauce with the extended family and the girls very much running the show.
A common debate in social circles is the difference between a busy day job versus being a stay-at-home parent. Who’s busier? Who works harder? What’s more stressful? Speaking now from this experience, they are both just as busy/hard/stressful in their own unique ways. What I will say though is, while at home, you don’t get the chance to mentally switch off even for a few moments throughout the day. See below an example of what can happen when you lose eye-contact for ten minutes and assume all is fine:
Something really positive that wasn’t planned (or expected!) was a focus on my own health and wellbeing. Having so much time with my kids, I realised I want to spend as much quality time with them in the future and enjoy what will hopefully be a lifetime of fantastic moments together. So, I decided to embark on a short trial with a fitness training organisation. Eight weeks later I had dropped 16kg and almost 15% in body fat. I get a little competitive once numbers and targets come into play!
On the back of my leave, and now that I’m back at work — I feel better than I have in a long time, not since I apparently “pulled the rip cord” after getting married in 2012. Becoming healthier meant I was better placed to truly enjoy each day with my beautiful girls, and now that normal life has resumed I have a brilliant balance of work and home life.
If you work somewhere that’s awesome enough to have a policy like this in place, DO IT! I’ll be forever grateful for the opportunity and can only hope I made some sort of positive difference in the early stages of each of my daughter’s development, as well as most definitely a better work life balance.
“Daddy daughter time is the best!” has been a common quote in our household recently. And more often than not, it’s coming from Dad.
