- Justine Sterling Converse started a small event strategy company.
- To retain staff, she offers 16 weeks of paid maternity leave and a fifth 50% transition month.
- Her company pays part of the leave and staff applies for short-term disability to cover the rest.
Long before she became pregnant, Justine Sterling Converse was worried about the impact motherhood would have on her career in event strategy.
Because of the demanding hours and long weekend shifts, Converse’s industry friends slowly dropped out of the workforce. Often, it was after a short maternity leave period. They would struggle to balance their newfound roles as mothers with their work.
“It kind of hit me like a ton of bricks,” Converse, 40, told Business Insider. “I really did have the thought of ‘Do I need to shift careers?'”
At the same time, she loved what she did. After working as a staff assistant to former president George W. Bush, she became the director of strategic programming at the George W. Bush Presidential Center in Dallas, organizing events with the Obamas and Clintons.
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
In 2019, she started Brigade Events, a Texas-based event strategy and management company owned and operated by women. At the time, the company had six full-time employees and promised to support working moms. There was no official maternity leave policy in place. That changed quickly.
“Our first person told us she was pregnant, and then we proceeded to have five pregnancies within 13 months,” Converse said. She knew Brigade needed to establish a policy they were proud of to retain staff. The problem was striking the balance between ample time off and growing as a new company.
Converse knew from experience that poor leave policies would lead to a loss in workers — one she believed would cost her business more in the long run. She landed on a 16-week maternity leave policy, partly paid for with short-term disability benefits provided by the state. Brigade also offers a fifth, 50% transition month, in which mothers work half of their normal hours for half their pay.
She said the company has been profitable except in 2020, when most events were shut down due to the pandemic. This has inspired Brigade to keep lengthening its maternity leave policy, with the ultimate goal of reaching six months of paid time off.
Researching the optimal leave time
Converse began her research on parental leave by reading “The Fifth Trimester” by Lauren Smith Brody, a guide to help new moms transition back into the workforce. She also spoke to friends, comparing their experiences with the maternity leave norms in most jobs.
While the US is the only developed nation to not guarantee parental leave, many employers grant about 12 weeks of paid leave, and the Family and Medical Leave Act offers up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year. For the moms Converse knew, that wasn’t enough.
“When you’re a mom, 12 weeks is just when you’re starting to have a routine with your baby,” she said.
Converse thought that 16 weeks, closer to European parental leave norms and a bragging right of many top companies, was ideal. Her new company, just starting to find its footing, couldn’t afford to pay it.
Helping employees apply for short-term disability
One option for small-business owners in Converse’s position is to use their state’s paid leave programs in combination with PTO payments.
Converse started by paying out eight weeks of leave per employee while helping them apply for short-term disability leave — which includes pregnancy and covers 66% of an employee’s salary — to reach 16 weeks.
Every Brigade employee who’s had a child has gotten their short-term disability approved and been able to take off 16 weeks.
Converse said her company’s mission is to add a week of paid leave for every profitable year. It now offers 11 weeks of paid leave, with the remaining five covered by state benefits, plus the fifth transition month.
At the time of the interview, Converse was completing her own transition month.
Good maternity leave is an investment
Brigade Events
At various points in 2024, four out of Brigade’s 10 full-time employees (including Converse) were on maternity leave.
For everyone to take their 16 weeks, “we had to make decisions about not taking on certain projects,” April Zorsky, 39, the company’s chief creative officer, told BI. The company also hired more contractors while the remaining full-time employees had “fuller plates than normal.”
Converse said the sacrifices are worth it, even from a strictly financial perspective. “It’s always going to cost you more money to lose a really talented person and have to cover and rehire and train,” she said.
While not everyone at Brigade has kids or plans to in the near future, Converse knows from experience that working women pay attention to how mothers are treated at their companies. If employees see a future of inflexibility and extreme burnout, she said, “you might lose them even before they’re pregnant.”
