Medibank’s FlexBetter program supports employees during times of need

Finding a balance between work life and home life can sometimes be hard, and this is particularly true when life throws you a curve ball and you need to be somewhere, or with someone and devote your time and your thoughts to matters other than work.

FlexCareers is proud to support Medibank, an organisation understands that, during the course of their life and employment with Medibank, employees will very likely need to take some time out to attend to personal matters.

We hear from Alison Nathan, Employee Wellbeing Lead, for whom Medibank’s pioneering FLEXbetter program provided the flexibility she needed to manage an important, and difficult time in her life.

So what exactly is FLEXbetter?

According to Alison, it was being able to return to the UK to help her ageing parents and her mother’s battle with breast cancer.

‘In 2015, my parents had come over for a visit from the UK and while they were here, my dad suffered a mild heart attack. During this time, my mum also found a lump in her breast. Being able to have flexibility and knowing that work would support me meant that I could be with my parents at the time’.

Alison Nathan

Every individual is different, every individual has different circumstances and needs.

For Alison, it was about being with her parents, her mother officially diagnosed with Breast Cancer and her dad still recovering from the heart attack. Toying with the idea of going over to help, Alison decided she could put forward her idea of parental leave.

‘I figured, I’m never going to need to take time off to look after children so maybe there’s a possibility that I’ll be allowed to take some time to go care for my parents.’ She emailed her manager with her reasons for wanting to take parental leave, ‘I wrote an e-mail to my manager asking if she could consider my reasons why I wanted the leave. She then talked it over with our People & Culture Senior Leaders, and they both had absolutely no problem with it. It was just fantastic.’

FlexBetter takes into consideration every individual circumstance and need, and in this instance for Alison’s mum, the surprise of her daughter being with her during her recovery was nothing short of amazing.

‘My mum said it was the best medicine she could’ve ever been given. She wrote a letter to my manager and Senior Leaders to say thank you so much because it was just the best thing ever. To me, it just meant so much that I could be there for her.’

As Alison has experienced first hand, sometimes just being there for someone who needs support, goes beyond what is expected. Working for an employer who promotes a work/life balance can make all the difference and is nothing short of amazing.

This article was originally published on the Medibank blog and is republished for our community with kind permission.