What is a Pawternity Leave? Employees adopting pets are allowed to a week’s paid leave to look after and connect with their new furry babies. At Petsworld India, our team has been entitled to it since 2012 and it is a much celebrated moment for us when Harper Collins Publishers India ( Noida office) in a one of a kind move has set a precedent in India’s work culture and corporate scenario by including Pawternity Leaves in their HR Policy.

The Western World has always been generous in offering such benefits to new pet mums & dads, however close to home, this is a novel concept. The idea and its implementation focus on creating a healthy work-life balance for employees. Harper Collins India (HCI) with its base in Noida has a workforce of 200 people. It is a subsidiary of Harper Collins worldwide. HCI strives to reflect an employee-friendly company and therefore is notch above the rest, with its introduction of pawternity leaves. A maternity or paternity break is commonplace compared to pawternity leave that represents a liberal human resources department.|

In a conversation with HuffPost India Mr. Ananth also spoke about how HCI wants its staff to feel at ease while deciding to start a family without worrying about their permissible leaves.

Wait! There’s more to this highly progressive concept of Pawternity Break

HCI will also allow its staff to bring their pets to the office, where dogs, cats or any other pet will be allotted a comfortable space for the day at the premises. This will surely help tackle separation anxiety and loneliness among pets.
These policies have come together as a boon to animals thereby encouraging responsible pet adoption & parenting.

Subhashree Das, digital marketing manager at Harper Collins India was the first employee to benefit from the implementation of pawternity break when she adopted a puppy sometime back. Subhashree was able to tend to her pup that she named Luna without really worrying about work. Since this comes straight from the horse’s mouth it totally validates the comfort that surrounds this initiative.

We can only hope that more and more Companies in India take a leaf out of HCI’s book in the days to come thereby creating an ideal work environment for their personnel.