![Three Must-Do Steps to Take Parental Leave Even During Your Busiest Season [Pre-Leave: Personal Account Part 2]](/images/columns/3.png?dpl=dpl_CaeMQURTwGpXhvD143KUuSLtw6Vs)
From TIMEWELL's Hamamoto
This is Hamamoto from TIMEWELL.
The April 2022 Amendment to the Childcare and Caregiver Leave Act
On April 1, 2022, the Childcare and Caregiver Leave Act was revised to help both men and women balance parenting and work, introducing new measures such as the postnatal paternity leave system. At the same time, a significant portion of men continue not to take parental leave — citing heavy workloads and being indispensable to their teams, or pointing to a workplace culture where taking leave simply doesn't feel acceptable. A survey of roughly 6,000 small and medium-sized enterprises found that 52.4% — more than half — said they had no one to cover for employees on parental leave.
Against that backdrop, Naruhide Otani — co-founder and COO of TIMEWELL, a company whose mission is "expanding people's life choices" — successfully took approximately one and a half months of parental leave. This was during an extraordinarily busy period: the company was approaching its first anniversary on February 2, 2024, and was preparing for an app launch and a major event. We spoke with him about what made it possible.
Key Points:
- Point 1: Taking a full inventory of your tasks
- Point 2: Handing over those tasks
- Point 3: Sharing the values that matter most within your team
- How TIMEWELL itself made the leave possible
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Three Keys to Making Parental Leave Happen
(Otani) "I think there are three critical factors in successfully taking parental leave.
The first is breaking down and categorizing your own tasks. I created a 'parental leave handover sheet,' decomposed my work into granular components, and sorted them into 'tasks to eliminate' and 'tasks to keep or reduce.' It was genuinely eye-opening.
Breaking Tasks Down Opens Up Unexpected Improvements
Breaking tasks down revealed things I hadn't noticed before — like 'wait, do I even need this task?' or prompting colleagues to say 'couldn't we do this differently?' Just the act of breaking things down naturally led to efficiency improvements.
Excerpt from the task breakdown and categorization in the parental leave handover sheet
The second key is actually handing over those tasks. For the handover, I used not just internal team members but also TIMEWELL itself — the service that lets you delegate work online to professional assistants. Through the service, I was able to assign back-office tasks, content marketing, and event operations to professional assistants at a reasonable price, with fast turnaround.
My responsibilities span marketing, sales, customer success, recruiting, back-office work, and more. I sliced these up into delegatable chunks and, in some cases, handed over entire projects at once.
A concrete example: running our company event. We had a major event for our fifth anniversary on February 2nd, so I delegated everything — creating and printing flyers, driving registrations, and even managing overall progress.
The secretariat handled task coordination as well, and project progress was visible in the app, which gave me peace of mind. I was also able to ask them to create manuals for the work I handed over.
The Third Point: Sharing What Matters Most in Your Team
The third point is sharing the values you want to uphold as a team.
Once I decided to take leave, I had to tell the other team members. Honestly, at first I felt guilty about it — it was really hard to bring up.
But the response surprised me: 'Taking parental leave isn't something you need to ask permission for.' I think they felt that way because every team member shares the same core value — that being well and happy in both body and mind is what TIMEWELL is all about.
After I told the team, several members sent me individual messages saying 'I've got your back anytime,' and it genuinely moved me.
Before taking leave, I also spent time asking myself 'what does TIMEWELL mean to me personally?' I realized that for me, TIMEWELL meant being present with my family — especially being there with my wife during the uncertain period around childbirth. So I went with her to stay at her parents' home, attended every checkup, and was there for the birth. I burst into tears the moment our baby arrived — ever since that day, my tear ducts have been noticeably less reliable (laughs)."
TIMEWELL Made It Possible
Otani: "The damage of a founder — one of a small team at a small company — taking parental leave is hard to overstate. Colleagues' workloads simply go up, and I felt genuinely apologetic about that.
But being able to use TIMEWELL to delegate work to assistants cut that guilt in half. Honestly, without this service, taking leave wouldn't have been realistic — not in terms of volume of work, and not emotionally.
Going through the task inventory before leave helped me get clear on my will (what I want to do), can (what I can do), and must (what I have to do). So during leave, I also want to take a fresh look at my own 'will.' And I want our little family of three to get through those first three months — said to be the hardest — together, happily and in TIMEWELL."
Naruhide Otani, co-founder of TIMEWELL — a company whose mission is "expanding people's life choices" — was able to take parental leave by relying on TIMEWELL's services, and to choose to spend that precious time with his family.
This series will continue to cover Otani's experience during leave, and how things unfold when he returns. What will this new dad discover along the way?
Next article: [Pre-Leave: Management Perspective Part 3] An Employee Taking Parental Leave Is a Perfect Growth Opportunity for Leaders
From Ikukyuu.com (https://19-q.com)
From Ikukyuu.com (https://19-q.com)
When we interview men who wanted to take parental leave but couldn't, they consistently say: "It seemed like there was no one who could cover for me." With more and more jobs moving entirely online, TIMEWELL's online assistants represent a practical solution to the coverage problem that keeps men from taking leave.
This interview article was produced by the challenger assistant service "TIMEWELL."
TIMEWELL supports business process outsourcing and handover assistance for companies facing labor shortages due to parental leave, resignations, or mental health issues. If you're facing these challenges and would like to inquire or schedule a consultation, please reach out via the contact link.
