Dear BNET Reader,

Having a child is hard enough. But dealing with your boss and your company's parental leave policies can make the experience even more challenging. Here's everything you need to know before you temporarily ditch the boardroom for the nursery room, including your leave rights, tips for how to plan your exit and re-entry, and the common pitfalls parents encounter when they come back to work.

How to Plan Your Parental Leave
Taking time off from work to care for a new child may be a federal right for many American workers, but doing it without mapping out a sound strategy can derail your career. Get the time you deserve and keep your company happy, with this step-by-step guide for making the most of your parental leave.

What to Expect from Your Company When You're Expecting
Some parents find the leave process to be business as usual, especially in companies with well-established policies. Others have to fight uphill battles all the way. Here five parents share their cautionary tales.

Parental-Leave Politics
When you're preparing to add a new member to your family, work is often the last of your worries. But little mistakes and oversights can turn parenthood into a political issue at the office. To keep your career - and your sanity - intact, follow our helpful tips to steer clear of the five biggest pitfalls parents encounter back at work.

Kid-Friendly Policies from Kid-Friendly Companies
With perks like private breastfeeding rooms, on-site childcare, and post-adoption counseling services, these four companies how to keep employee retention rates high.

Primer on Parental-Leave Rights
Under the family and medical leave act (FMLA), most companies must grant expectant mothers and fathers up to twelve weeks of unpaid leave. Brandon Desch, a Human Resources Director, explains how to have a successful leave by researching your rights and benefits - and putting them into play before, during, and after your parental leave.

Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time
New parents are especially susceptible to fatigue and unpredictable emotional strain at work. Here Harvard Business Review outlines simple practices to rejuvenate the four dimensions of personal energy and what companies can do to help.

Word of the day: Lady Macbeth Strategy

Simplify the Season with Dell to Get the Technology You Need

The holidays are coming, but you still have a business to run. You don't have the time to hunt for parking and then wait in long lines to check out. Or, worse yet, to find out the system you want is sold out. Dell is here to help you Simplify the Season. This is the way shopping for technology should be, with no hassles, lines or empty shelves, just the technology and the help you need. From PCs, to electronics, software and accessories, we have what you need, for your business and your gift list. Click here for more information.

The Corner Office
The New CEO Philosophy Regarding Boards

For many years, CEOs regarded boards as necessary evils. Their goal was to stack the board with people who wouldn't challenge management's authority. After Enron and Sarbanes-Oxley, boards veered in the other direction...

Business Hacks
How to Watch Videos on Your BlackBerry

Business Hacks reader Steve Nagan has this problem: I recently started using a BlackBerry 8830 with 2 gigs of RAM. I have been searching for software I could use to download videos for viewing on the Blackberry, to no avail...

BNET Intercom
Free Online Resources to Keep Your Skills Sharp

We've posted a few times about the need for continuing education for managers. Learning a foreign language and keeping your skills sharp can improve judgment, broaden your point of view, and keep you competitive...

More Daily Insights...

Simplify the season with Dell. We make it easy to get the technology you need, for your business and your gift list.