# Parental leave guide
Meilisearch is committed to gender equality and wishes to act strongly toward professional equality between all genders.
As such, Meilisearch gives 3 months of paid leave to all new and adopting parents.
When you know you’ll be a parent, please announce it as soon as you can to your manager so they can anticipate and organize the work within your team while you’re away. You’ll also need to let the HR team know for administrative purposes.
If you wish to make a company-wide announcement on Slack, you can use the #general channel.
# Declare your leave
# Oyster
The details will vary depending on your local contract (local parental leave legislation). Please reach out to Oyster or check the local legislation in your country, then see the HR team.
If you’re a contractor, please consult your manager.
As a rule of thumb, you’ll need to take your 3 months leave all at once and directly after the child(ren)'s birth (or adoption). Please provide a birth certificate to the HR team.
# Payfit
In France, for second parents, there are two separate legal leaves:
- 3 days birth leave → directly after the birth of the child(ren), or within the same period
- the actual second parent leave, which can be taken separately (3 months at Meilisearch, minus the 3 days birth leave).
⚠️ Unfortunately, it is not possible to take the second parent leave before the birth leave.
This leave has to begin within 3 months of the birth or arrival of the child(ren). It has to be taken all at once and cannot be split into several periods.
ℹ️ Social security partially reimburses approximately 1 month of that leave, and the remaining two months are fully covered by Meilisearch.
You’ll need to provide a birth certificate to HR as soon as possible, otherwise we won’t be able to fill your leave in properly.
# During your leave
Don’t worry, your job will still be here when you come back.
Meilisearch does not expect you to keep in touch, check your messages, or work at all during your absence. However, if you personally feel more comfortable having access to some work news during your absence, you can plan with your manager to have a recap sent to you regularly (each week, once every two weeks…) to your professional email address, that you can choose to read or not.
If you wish to announce the birth or arrival on Slack, you’re very welcome to do so on #general whenever you want.
# When you come back
Your manager will plan a meeting with you that will serve as a mini onboarding. They’ll present the main product news, and keep you updated with the company news. They’ll also have worked on a checklist of tasks for you to work on during your first weeks back with the current priorities.
Your first tasks should be as usual: read your emails, Slack, and the Heartbeat notes. You can also listen to the Heartbeat meetings recordings you missed.