When FSC made its Primary Carer Leave policy genderless, something shifted… quietly at first, and then decisively: Dads. Started. Taking. It.
Not just a few days here and there, but real, meaningful stretches of time at home. Time for morning walks with the dog, one-on-one afternoons, and the kind of unhurried early days with a newborn that so many fathers have historically missed out on.
Luca Posocco, an Intermediate Consultant at FSC, is one of those dads. He heard about the policy through colleagues and decided to take the leave back-to-back with his wife. It was a deliberate choice to give their son the longest possible stretch of having a parent at home. "It gave my wife and me the most time with my son when considering our leave combined," he says.
More Than Just Time Off
What Luca didn't fully anticipate was the ripple effect the leave would have on his whole family, particularly his wife. "She had anxiety leaving him for the first couple of days returning to work, and me taking care of him instead of our parents helped big time."
It's a detail that reframes what parental leave means in practice. It isn't just a benefit for the person taking it - it's a support for the whole family at one of the most significant transitions of their lives.
A Culture That Makes It Possible
Taking parental leave only works if the workplace culture actually supports it. For Luca, that wasn't in doubt. "My managers were onboard 100% - no issues there."
That kind of uncomplicated support from a manager and team matters enormously. It's the difference between a policy that exists on paper and one that people actually feel comfortable using.
The Moments That Stay With You
Ask Luca what he’ll never forget, and his answer is simple: the everyday moments. “Spending one-on-one time with my son every day. Taking my son and dog on a walk every day.” The joy is in the accumulation of ordinary days — the kind that only happen when you’re truly present.
Niall Keown, Link NSW and QLD Manager (Project Engineering), knows that feeling well — though he almost didn’t take the leave at all. With his third child, he had expected to follow the same pattern as before: one or two weeks off, then back to work. “I thought I’d do the same this time around, but my manager encouraged me to use the new policy.”
He’s glad he listened. What surprised him most was how quickly his daughter’s world shifted. “After six months of being almost entirely reliant on her mum, she became a daddy’s girl within a few days!”
For Niall, the memory he’ll carry isn’t a single moment but a whole season of being present in his older children’s lives too. “I’ll always remember becoming a familiar sight at my older kids’ school for drop-offs, pick-ups, assemblies, and other events, always with my daughter on my hip. After I returned to work, people kept stopping me to ask where my little sidekick was.”
Advice to Other Dads
For any FSC dad who’s weighing it up, Luca doesn’t hesitate: “Just do it.”
Niall puts it a little differently, but the message is the same. “I think we can all get stuck in the mindset that our role in a project or company is too important to step away from. There may be some truth to that, but no matter how important your role is, the business will find a way to keep moving while you’re away, and your work will still be there when you return. It’s only a few weeks — and when you get back to work, you’ll never regret having done it.”
FSC’s decision to make Primary Carer Leave genderless wasn’t just a policy update — it was a signal that the company values all parents equally, and trusts its people to show up fully, both at work and at home.
