Winning Hack Week project for better parental benefits

While Twitter offered generous parental leave compared to other companies, I saw a lot of opportunity for improvement. This was highlighted for me when I had my daughter in 2021 and asked my very supportive manager if I could transition back to work gradually over a period of three weeks. I also asked if I could work “glide time” hours on certain days of the week to align with days when I didn’t have daycare. I knew this would make me a more productive employee and it did. I’m very thankful I was able to do this.

It became evident to me that getting accommodations like this approved depended on a combination of manager discretion and self advocacy at a time when people are very vulnerable. Not everyone would feel comfortable asking.

In 2022, in my third month back from parental leave, I decided to participate in Twitter’s Hack Week for the first time. I recruited a group of dedicated parents to pitch a new parental phaseback plan called “Returnity.” The highlight of the plan was to offer better return to work options so people could ease back comfortably. The proposal ended up winning the Diversification category in Hack Week and, even better, it was picked up by the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Accessibility) team and the Benefits team.

Captaining Hack Week was the highlight of my time at Twitter. The atmosphere was so supportive and it culminated in Demo Day where I fine-tuned my presentation skills by presenting our five-minute slides with co-presenters for hours on end over a period of 24 hours.

Supporting parents at all stages is a win-win. Studies show better parental policies can increase a company’s impact and productivity by building the playbooks for distributed work and I&D that others will follow.