Leave of Absence Tool Kit for Managers and Team Members

Manager Toolkit

The Manager Toolkit: Leave of Absence can be found on the Loop. This guide helps you navigate your responsibilities and support team members through their leave journey.

General Guidelines For Managers on Resource Allocation

If you have a team member going out on parental leave, a common question might be “how should I reallocate their tasks and output while they are out?” Below are general guidelines for managers based on the length of leave taken by the team member. Note - local law supersedes these guidelines where applicable:

• Leave less than 1 month: Use internal resources.
• Leave less than 6 months: Use internal resources who may be eligible for an interim bonus, and/or consider hiring a temporary contractor
• Leave longer than 6 months: Use internal resources who may be eligible for an interim bonus, hire a temporary contractor.
• Leave longer than 1 year: Consider a backfill ensuring there will be a similar (level, scope, etc) role for the person when they return.

Parental Leave Reentry Buddies

We want our team members to feel supported throughout the entire life-cycle of their leave. Returning from any leave is hard, and navigating work and parenthood can be challenging. Parental Leave Reentry Buddies are an important part in supporting our team members returning from leave, and we ask GitLab team members to volunteer (being a parent yourself is not required).

A Parental Leave Reentry Buddy helps team members reconnect with GitLab and ease back into working after parental leave. A Parental Leave Reentry Buddy is an advocate for a successful return to work, and is able to empathize with concerns about reentering the workplace.

Responsibilities may include but are not limited to:

1. Facilitate weekly coffee chats to catch up on non-work topics, and listen to any concerns they have or issues they’ve encountered since returning to work.
   • Make it fun! Returning to work can be stressful, so coffee chats are a great time to step away from work and talk about something else.
2. Be available to help your team member navigate through any company or departmental changes that occurred while on leave.

Future iterations are still being considered, and will be added to this section as the program evolves. If you have any feedback regarding this program, please contact leaves@domain or share with the People Operations team via HelpLab.

What Makes a Successful Reentry Buddy

1. While it is recommended that this buddy work within the same department as the team member reentering work, it is not a requirement. We just ask that you dedicate your attention and resources to supporting your team member.
   • If you are asked to be a buddy, work with your manager to delegate or temporarily pause certain duties to assist a team member as they ramp back up to 100%.
2. You are passionate about GitLab and its team members.
3. You are able to commit 10-20% of your time for two to four weeks to team members returning from leave.
4. You feel comfortable sharing feedback regarding what is working well, and suggestions for future iterations of this program.
5. (Recommended but not required) You are comfortable with Git and GitLab and can answer team member questions.

Find a Parental Leave Reentry Buddy

Visit the GitLab Team page and search for ‘Parental Leave Reentry Buddy’, or ask on Slack in #intheparenthood.

Volunteer to Become a Parental Leave Reentry Buddy

1. Contact leaves@domain or create a request in HelpLab if you’re interested in becoming a Parental Leave Reentry buddy or would like more information.

Adding Parental Leave Reentry Buddy to your GitLab Profile

1. Find your yml file.

2. Add Parental Leave Reentry buddy to the departments section in your entry (keeping your existing departments):

    departments:
      - ...
      - Parental Leave Reentry buddy
   

3. Add the following code above the expertise section in your entry:

      expertise:  |
                  <li><a href="">Parental Leave Reentry buddy</a></li>
   

4. If you already have an expertise section, add the list item portion of the above code:

                 <li><a href="">Parental Leave Reentry buddy</a></li>
   

Team Member Tool Kit

• Review our parental leave benefits/policy
• Slack channel to connect with other parents — #parenting (Join Slack channel - for GitLab team members only)
• Read the handbook section on returning from parental leave with tips for the transition back to work
• Consider reaching out to a Parental Leave Reentry Buddy
• Read GitLab’s guide to parenting as a remote worker
• Consider support from Parentaly to help you build a strong coverage plan, transition your work effectively and return to work with confidence after leave
• Watch the videos below from Parentaly:

1. Creating a strong career vision through parental leave
2. When to start the coverage planning process
3. Why it’s hard for employees to return to work after parental leave

Parental Leave Policy Feedback

If you have any feedback about your parental leave experience for the People group to review you can always email leaves@domain or open an issue using our Parental Feedback Issue Template.

---

Return to the main GitLab Benefits page.