'Some call it woke, I disagree': Why a Manchester CEO is giving staff 'unlimited' time off to get pregnant

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

When Shirine Khoury-Haq lost her daughter shortly after giving birth, she couldn't begin to imagine how she'd function again - let alone return to work.

She and her husband had put themselves through years of fertility treatment to get to that point, and Khoury-Haq almost died during labour, she revealed during an interview with the BBC.

Fortunately, her boss at the time handled her bereavement amazingly. He reassured her that the business was there to support her, and told her she could come and go from work whenever she pleased - which is what she did, working every other day as she gradually built herself back up. Try MEN Premium for FREE by clicking here for no ads, fun puzzles and brilliant new features. So, when she became the first female chief executive of the Co-operative Group last year, the decision to introduce special bereavement leave, and unlimited fertility leave for parents, was an obvious one.

The 51-year-old, who is based in Manchester, where the organisation's head office is situated, has spoken of an alternative ethos - one which prioritises the personal life of her employees above anything else. "Some people call it woke but I completely disagree," she said, during an interview with Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, on BBC Radio 4. "For me, the very important thing is to remember people are people first and foremost and they come to work second.