Care Together by TotalEnergies: an example of the global standard for childcare leave

Audrey BOHORQUEZ
Director of Development Operations and Processes
Austin (TX), USA

Audrey: My name is Audrey Bohorquez. I'm director of Development in the Utility Power Division. I manage a team of transmission and interconnection specialists, spacial analysts and project managers.

[Visual: logo Care Together by TotalEnergies]

When and how did you join TotalEnergies?

Audrey: I joined TotalEnergies just under two years ago when my company was acquired.

What does the new TotalEnergies parental leave policy mean to you?

Audrey: I was in my last trimester at the time when we started the acquisition process with TotalEnergies. I quickly learned about the parental leave policy and the benefits that they offer for expecting parents and just felt a wave of relief. It meant that I didn't have to worry about whether or not I wanted to sacrifice our family's income when our expenses would be at an all time high or sacrifice spending time with our precious newborn, time we would never get back.

My only worry once I found out about the parental policy was how my new colleagues would react when my first few months on the job would be on leave. I felt so comforted when several of them who actually just had babies themselves, encouraged me to take full advantage of the parental leave and enjoy that time with my family.

So it felt really good.

Just the culture is very supportive of families and in new parents. I ended up having a pretty complicated delivery and ended up having to spend a couple of weeks in bed after I gave birth.

If I had only had two weeks of leave to begin with, it would have left me with just barely enough time to physically recover, much less emotionally, and to really get that good connection with my family. So three and a half months was really a gift for me having that extra amount of time allowed me to adjust and more smoothly transition back to work.