S7 Ep17: How to Support Parents in the Workplace

This week on Mums on Cloud Nine, we’re joined once again by Rachel Vecht, founder of Educating Matters, for a rich and practical conversation about supporting parents in the workplace.

Whether you’re an employer designing family-friendly policies, a line manager juggling team needs, or a parent navigating work and home life, this episode offers grounded advice for building a more inclusive and supportive work culture.

We explore why parenting brings a unique set of challenges—from emotional load and childcare logistics to identity shifts and persistent guilt and how these experiences can affect performance, confidence, and retention at work. Rachel draws on over two decades of experience supporting global organisations, and shares what actually works when it comes to policy, culture, and peer support.

We also discuss the role of flexibility, the importance of modelling healthy boundaries, how to advocate for better support (even during job interviews), and why workplace culture often matters more than what’s written in the policy handbook.

Plus, we reflect on the emotional impact of good managers, how to avoid assumptions, and why parenting is one of the best training grounds for time management, resilience, and empathy.

Rachel shares how any employee—parent or not—can be an advocate for change, and why making space for real conversations is one of the simplest but most powerful things any company can do.

Episode Highlights

• Why guilt is the unspoken constant for many working parents and how companies can help ease the emotional and logistical burden.

• How flexible work policies can unintentionally create pressure and what managers and teams can do to set healthy, respectful boundaries around communication.

• The power of peer support groups and family networks at work, and how they create space for empathy, mentoring, and shared experience outside formal meetings.

• Why the manager-employee relationship is often the tipping point for whether a parent stays, thrives, or leaves an organisation altogether.

• Simple actions that any employee can take to advocate for better support, from initiating honest conversations to influencing company policies during the hiring process.

Let me know if you’d like these reframed for social or email use.