Parental leave is one of the most predictable absences a manager will deal with, yet it is routinely handled badly. The person going on leave scrambles in their final weeks, the team absorbs extra work without a plan, and when the parent returns months later they walk into a role that has quietly shifted underneath them. None of this is inevitable. With proper preparation, a thoughtful cover arrangement, and a structured return, parental leave can be a positive experience for everyone involved, including the manager responsible for making it work.
How you handle someone's parental leave tells the entire team what kind of manager you are. It is one of the moments where your values are tested, not just stated.
Preparing before they go
The preparation phase starts well before the last day. For more on this, see our guide on delegating effectively. Ideally, you begin planning three to four months out. This is not just about redistributing tasks. It is about ensuring continuity for the team, the projects, and the person going on leave. The goal is that when they walk out the door, everything is covered, documented, and understood by whoever is picking it up.
Have an honest conversation early on about what the person wants. The catchups in Manager Toolkit supports this. Some people prefer a clean break with no contact during leave. Others want occasional updates. Respect whatever they choose and make that clear to the team. Then work together to map out their responsibilities and decide what gets handed over, what gets paused, and what gets deprioritised. Use Manager Toolkit to track the handover as a set of actions with clear ownership, so nothing relies on memory or last-minute scrambling.
Responsibility handover map
Every responsibility needs a named owner or a deliberate decision to pause.
- Map responsibilitiesList every recurring task, project, meeting, and relationship the person owns. You will be surprised how much institutional knowledge lives with one individual until you try to document it.
- Assign cover clearlyFor each responsibility, name a specific person who will own it. Vague arrangements like "the team will cover it" lead to things falling through gaps.
- Document processesHave the person leaving write down how they do the things that only they know how to do. This benefits the team regardless of the leave and often surfaces single points of failure.
- Agree on communicationDiscuss whether they want any contact during leave and honour that boundary completely. Put the agreement in writing so everyone is aligned.
- Celebrate the momentBefore they go, acknowledge the transition. A team lunch, a card, a genuine conversation. It matters more than people admit, and it sets the tone for a supportive return.
Managing the team during the absence
The first two weeks after someone goes on leave are the most revealing. This is when gaps in the handover surface, when the cover person realises they are missing context, and when the rest of the team starts to feel the extra load. Our article on handing over a team explores this further. As the manager, your job during this period is to be more present than usual, checking in on the people covering extra responsibilities and catching problems before they escalate.
Do not let the absence become invisible. Acknowledge that the team is carrying more and look for ways to reduce the load where possible. If a project can be descoped or a deadline moved, do it. The worst outcome is that the team burns out covering for someone and builds resentment about the leave itself. That is a management failure, not a workload problem.
- Check in earlyIn the first week, have a quick catchup with each person covering a new responsibility. Ask what is clear, what is not, and what support they need. Early intervention prevents bigger problems.
- Protect the teamIf the workload is genuinely too much, escalate it. Push back on new requests, reprioritise, or bring in temporary support. Expecting people to silently absorb everything is not a plan.
- Track what changesDecisions will be made, processes will shift, and context will evolve. Keep a running note of significant changes so the returning person can catch up efficiently rather than piecing it together from conversations.
- Avoid backfilling permanentlyResist the temptation to quietly reassign the person's most interesting work to someone else permanently. Their role should be waiting for them when they return, not hollowed out.
Supporting the return
Coming back from parental leave is harder than most people expect. The person has been away for months, and while the work continued without them, they have been through one of the most transformative experiences of their life. Their priorities may have shifted. Their confidence in the role may have dipped. They are likely sleep-deprived and navigating a completely new personal reality. A manager who treats the return as a simple “pick up where you left off” is missing the point entirely.
Phased return plan
A phased return rebuilds confidence. Do not throw someone back into full capacity on day one.
Plan the return with the same care you gave the departure. Have a catchup before their first day back to walk through what has changed, what they are coming back to, and what their first few weeks will look like. Consider a phased return if the organisation supports it, starting with shorter days or reduced meetings for the first week or two. The goal is a gradual re-entry that rebuilds confidence, not a firehose of catch-up meetings and overdue tasks.
- Pre-return catchupA week before they come back, have a relaxed conversation about what has changed, what to expect, and how you plan to support the transition. Remove surprises wherever possible.
- Phased re-entryIf flexible arrangements are available, use them. A gradual increase in hours and responsibilities over two to three weeks is far more effective than a sudden return to full capacity.
- Provide a change summaryShare the running note of decisions and changes you kept during the absence. This saves them weeks of detective work and shows that you planned for their return.
- Be patient with paceIt takes time to get back up to speed after months away. Do not measure their output against pre-leave benchmarks for at least the first month. Support, do not scrutinise.
Building a culture that supports leave
How you handle one person's parental leave sends a message to every other person on the team who might take leave in the future. If the process is chaotic, if the returning person is sidelined, or if the team is left to suffer without support, people notice. They will think twice before having a child, or they will leave for an organisation that handles it better. The stakes are higher than a single absence.
Use Manager Toolkit to build a repeatable process. Create a parental leave journey with milestones for the preparation phase, the absence, and the return. Track actions for each stage so the handover is systematic, not improvised. Over time, this becomes part of how your team operates, a predictable, well-managed process that people trust rather than dread.
- Normalise the conversationTalk about parental leave as a normal part of working life, not as an inconvenience to be managed. Language matters, and the team takes its cues from the manager.
- Learn from each experienceAfter each return, ask what went well and what could be improved. Treat it like a retrospective. Feed the learnings back into the process for next time.
- Share the playbookOnce you have a good process, share it with other managers. Consistency across the organisation makes the experience better for everyone and reduces the lottery of which manager you happen to report to.
- Protect careersParental leave should not stall someone's progression. Ensure their development goals are updated when they return and that they are included in the same opportunities as everyone else.
Frequently asked questions
Plan every stage of the transition
Use Journeys to structure parental leave handovers, track cover arrangements, and support a smooth return with milestones and actions.