Only 1 month after the decision
Todayʼs story is about Natsuki, an engineer who works in Rakuten Beauty Technology and took the paternity leave from January to March 2019. His baby was around 8 months old at the time he took the paternity leave, when a big project was just over and he started thinking about taking the leave.
“I knew someone in a different section who had taken the paternity leave and it was quite natural for me to think about taking it.”, Natsuki said, and “my manager gave me very warm-hearted advice and helped with coordination with my colleagues during the preparation period, so it was a very smooth process for us, with all the cooperation from the team members.”, he commented. Also he continued: “It was indeed a tough process to co-ordinate all tasks in advance, however the hand-over went harmlessly thanks to the fact that our team has naturally been working to make things non-person-dependent. As a result, I could start the paternity leave only 1 month after I decided to take one. Disadvantage in career ?‒ no, did not have any concern about it. We see many female employees returning from maternity leaves and working successfully in this firm, so I was quite sure that there would be no issue in terms of my career building, even I will be off from work for 2 months.”
Fully committed to house-keeping and child-raising for 2 months!
Is it really possible for an engineer to be “off from work” for 2 months, despite our impression about them being a super-busy job…?
“I did care about the work for a while, but I stopped checking the “Viber” (firm-used chatting application) only in 3 days!”; Natsuki laughed. “I purely enjoyed the time spending with my baby whilst I was VERY busy with house-keeping and looking after the baby every day. I “made an effort” in enjoying the time with my family because I thought the paternity leave was a precious opportunity in my life.”
Why “More Paternity Leaves”!?
Natsukiʼs work style has changed after the paternity leave ‒ for him to cope with both work and childcare. “I got approval to delay my start time by 30 minutes so that I can send my child to the daycare. Also I am trying not to do overtime and leave early, for which more liaison with the team members are required. Time flies when you are raising a child! I think it was a good opportunity for the team to review the efficiency of each process ‒ SO, a paternity leave is a great opportunity for both the employeeʼs family and the firm to be HAPPY! Paternity leaves should be encouraged more and more!”; Natsuki emphasizes. “I hope the corporate culture of encouraging paternity leaves will be more widely accepted throughout the firm. I would like to take a longer paternity leave next time if I have one.”
Message to R-Hack readers
We hope it will become a taken-for-granted matter that childcare leaves are easily taken by both male and female employees ‒ what do YOU think? Please chat with your colleagues and friends about this topic.
[Natsukiʼs profile]
Natsuki has been working for Rakuten Beauty Technology since he joined Rakuten in 2015. Currently he is engaged in the core part ‒ the API for database / business logic of the beauty business. “Speed & Quality of tech is the Key for our success!” is the motto of Natsuki. He has been putting tremendous effort in becoming a better engineer so that he will be able to develop greater systems in shorter period.
Rakuten Beauty
Rakuten Beauty is an on-line beauty salon search and reservation service. You can search for your favorite salon by using the keywords such as area, salon menu, and/or equipment available. You can use or save Rakuten points by booking via Rakuten Beauty.
The ratio of male employees at Rakuten who have taken paternity leaves have been around 10% in recent years (as of October 2019).
