A Cloud Engineer's Journey Through Maternity Leave

In a personal essay, Shruti Dhumak, who works as a cloud customer engineer at Google in Boston, describes the challenges faced while balancing her ambitious career and motherhood. Having given birth to her first child in February 2022, she split her maternity leave into three phases to maximize the support she received from her family when they visited from India.

Dhumak had access to a total of eight months away from work, combining Google’s maternity leave, paid time off, and prepartum leave. While she felt fortunate to have this time, she experienced significant anxiety about the possibility of being replaced during her leave, as it could jeopardize her relationships with cloud clients, which is critical to her job. Additionally, the stress heightened when Google announced a major layoff just two weeks before her delivery, presenting fears of having to find another position quickly due to her H1-B visa status.

Upon returning to work, she found herself struggling to regain her previous efficiency, feeling overwhelmed and emotionally challenged. Despite her efforts, some colleagues were preferred for key responsibilities, and the rapidly evolving landscape in artificial intelligence left her feeling outpaced. However, with determination, Dhumak managed to turn her performance around, garnering recognition for her work in 2024.

To ease her transition, Dhumak utilized Google’s flexible maternity leave policy effectively. She broke her leave into manageable segments, returning to work periodically to keep her presence known and prevent her contributions from being forgotten. This strategy was shaped around the availability of her family for childcare support at different times throughout the year.

Communication played a significant role in her successful return. Dhumak made it a point to share her struggles with her manager during one-on-one meetings, which fostered understanding of her situation and ensured her visibility with higher management. The support from her manager, coupled with an empathetic workplace culture, made her adjustment smoother. Moreover, she actively built a network with female managers in her company and received invaluable insights on coping with the emotional challenges of parenthood while managing a career.

While she continues to deal with stress and postpartum depression, Dhumak remains focused on taking each day as it comes, completing tasks as they arise to contribute positively to her annual review. Her journey reflects the complex balance many working mothers face in the tech industry, underscoring the importance of strategic planning and supportive work relationships.