business
Marshall Haseley
Part 1
BRADLEY RAMCHARAN, director of Cable & Wireless Business/Flow Business, believes that Caribbean business approaches and concepts of masculinity are evolving – with sensitivity and flexibility at the heart of how men operate within personal and professional spaces.
He leads a team of around 60 people at C&W Business, which provides technical business solutions such as connectivity, and Flow Business, which provides the same solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises.
There has been much talk about the relationship between empathy and business transformation. Publications such as Forbes and Industry Week have explored the relationship and how the new principles are helping to evolve business models. C&W/Flow Business is on board.
Becoming a father has accelerated Ramcharan’s conviction that the business world, generally perceived as a dog-eat-dog world, must move towards embedding sensitivity in its culture if it is to survive the changing waves of a new culture. which emphasizes sensitivity and emotional awareness within the business center.
This evolving culture affects the way employees are treated, the benefits available to them, and the way companies communicate with their customers.
The company recently updated its parental leave policy and now gives men two months off.
This allows men to spend time bonding with the new additions to their families while realizing the possibility of finding a reasonable balance between parenthood and career.
“The day my daughter was born was the happiest day of my life. I have been in the community for just over 12 years and have seen many of my peers, men and women, become parents over time.”
He said that until last year, an employee’s paternity leave policy for men was only one week. “We’ve updated our parental leave policy, which has given men about two months off. Being able to see the benefits of that first-hand and talking to peers over the years, hearing the struggles through it what they went through – I realized how wonderful it is for me to have that opportunity to be home with my family.”
Ramcharan said he and his wife have no immediate family support system like his mother or in-laws nearby. “So it was great that my wife and I were able to come together to get through the first two to three months, which was difficult for us.”
The effects of little sleep available to new parents were what he said he and his wife experienced. “Achieving a balance between work and home was a struggle for me. I was newly appointed, just over a month or two, you feel like you always have to be.”
He said the mindset wasn’t easy to switch off, so changing nappies and doing the supermarket didn’t always cut through the e-mail response. “I would see work calls happening online at 11am, but that’s when you have to finish to get something done. I would still join work calls on parental leave because I felt a responsibility to the house as well as for work. I learned how to create balance over time.”
Ramcharan said other men in the company benefited from the new policy. They all had different scenarios and families and therefore took leave as they wished.
“Some took a month off and spread it out over the remaining available weeks.”
He said that men generally take on roles in the family that rarely have much to do with the day-to-day and practical upbringing of children – men usually focus on providing money.
“Being home every day for the first moments of my daughter’s life gave me an appreciation for what really goes on.” Ramcharan said he told his wife that women are superheroes after he gained more insight into what mothers typically have to do on their own based on cultural practices.
Asked what he realizes he would have missed if he hadn’t gotten his father’s permission, he said, “To change the pet and take care of him more than once or twice a day.” He said coming home after work meant he would be home around her bedtime. Being at home allowed her to see her growing up and understand the extent of the baby’s weaknesses.
“I don’t think I would have had an appreciation for caring in different ways. I wouldn’t have understood what it means to raise a newborn if I hadn’t had that experience. I was glad to be able to talk to the pediatrician her and ask questions.”
Ramcharan doesn’t think he’s a rare kind of father; he thinks most men would like to take father’s leave.
“I’ve seen a change. Being men at home creates a change for more inclusion, and I’m seeing it among my peers.”
Ramcharan said a hybrid working arrangement helped him manage a reasonable work-life balance after his paternity leave ended. He said he experienced a “rollover effect” where he would think about what might be happening at home while he was in the office and vice versa—an experience he said he would only know by feeling so decisive in activities in both spaces.
He said that not answering everything at once was a challenge he had to overcome.
Learning his wife’s and daughter’s routines allowed him to think more deeply when considering when it might be best to work late or when to go home as early as possible and perhaps finish after the chores were done. related to the house.
“A colleague of mine agreed that being a dad who spent those first few days at home made a huge difference. By 5.30 it’s time to start finishing so that six doesn’t catch me in the office. I know that I have to do some work later, but I also know how hard it is for my wife to take care of the baby while making dinner and doing other tasks.”
“It worked itself out over time. A lot of responsibilities come with my role at work – so when I’m at home, I have to be aware. It means considering the urgency levels for each function and deciding what I’m going to asked me to leave to get some work done while they are at home, or if there are some that can wait until morning.”
Ramcharan believes that creating a work-life balance as a father early in a child’s life sets a positive rhythm of fatherly presence that they should have throughout their lives.
Asked if the men in the organization value the option of taking paternity leave and what the conversations are like, he said men have certain expectations of each other in line with general ways of expressing masculinity.
He said there is a difference though. Ramcharan said the opportunity to be there at the earliest stages of a child’s life allows men to be more involved. “There’s a shift happening among my peers.”
Ramcharan said good mental health, which paternity leave also contributes to, is important.
He said the time to not only bond with the new baby, but also to have priceless conversations helps create a greater balance, where everything that matters gets attention.
“My wife doesn’t always have to tell me when she needs some time to take care of herself. Because I’m so much a part of the flow at home, I know the rhythm and can tell when my wife would need a break.”
“Before I had my daughter, I would be in the office until 7.30am. But now I understand the importance of having a flexible schedule.”
He now has a greater appreciation for a schedule that allows people to work around unexpected things that come up, especially for working parents.
“I’ve become even more supportive. More than just acknowledging that someone needs time away from the office to take care of personal matters, my level of interest deepens to where I want confirmation that my colleague is coping well with any challenge.”
Asked what was the result of his experience that taught him the importance of a sensible work-life balance, Ramcharan said, “Empathy is the word.”
