To think my boss shouldn't be logging in a doing work whilst on Parental Leave?

Contact the person in charge of your boss or HR and ask politely if they can confirm you are responsible for XYZ jobs as you’re confused because ‘someone’ seems to be accessing the system and the data and you’re not sure who it is as your boss wasn’t able to reply to your enquiry if it was them. They won’t want any threat to their data etc and hopefully will speak to your boss (who sounds horrendous) and tell them they are OFF.

This.

Stop emailing and have a conversation. Your response sounds childish (well I’m just not going to do any of it then).

The simple reality is that lengthy parental leave affects career growth. Permitting access to email and work systems is a recommendation in some industries to reduce the stalling (and falling back) of mother’s career progression when she takes parental leave ( is a gendered thing in my industry and country, women are impacted more than men). The problem is not that she (or he or they as the case may be) is doing things, it’s that there’s no clear guidelines for when you need to. She shouldn’t have to work through leave, it sets a good example not to - but I’m also not going to force a mother to suffer the career disruption as an example to others.

So go meet with the grand boss in person or phone or video (real time conversation) and go through the actual problems this is causing. If it’s just that you will have put time into solving only for them to finish before you, that’s a minor annoyance (it’s not taking more time than you doing it).

Escalati to block access only makes sense in an industry where that’s a market for fraud and no access to systems while in leave is a mandatory thing.

So what do I do. I've asked my boss for clarification. No response. I've asked his boss. No response.

Again, what did HR say about it when you contacted then?

Keep writing emails but be savvy about it. If work is duplicated or something has gone wrong, email boss and copy in bosses boss to kindly explain what has gone wrong.

“I emailed client asking them to do x but they are confused as you’ve told them to do y. I have rectified but I expect trust in us to be damaged now. Apologies for contacting you on parental leave, hope you can switch off and enjoy this time with your new baby. Do let me know / copy me in next time you contact an external client so this doesn’t happen again, although this is my responsibility now so please do allow me to cover it whilst you’re on leave. Happy to chat and kind regards…”

Send emails every time and build the picture for them that this behaviour is problematic. I imagine that your boss is checking emails and feels compelled to respond to clients, not realising how problematic it is.

Book a call in with your bosses boss and ask them what the expectation is don’t just email. Be more proactive.

Exactly as @Weetabbix said. He’s telling you to sort it - it’s up to you how you take his request. You can limit Boss’ IT access or you can speak to him and make clear it’s causing problems. If he doesn’t respond, then you need to decide what to do next.

Either way, big boss wants you to fix it and saying ‘I won’t do this work’ is not fixing it - it does, unfortunately, come across as petulant.

Have you followed up with boss's supervisor? Spoken to them in person? Your email may have got lost in a sea of thousands.
Just saying 'I'm not doing it now' makes you sound like a petulant child.

I feel like if he's said "You're the boss so do what's needed" then he's giving you rein to make a judgement call about this.

Contact IT and get them to limit access for the person on paternity leave.

Let them know you are doing it because they have been asked to stop logging in and completing tasks as it is disrupting workflow.

What did HR say about it when you contacted them?

Agree with this and a good way to handle. They might be feeling bad at the lack of handover so feel they are in some way helping/making amends, but cocking it up a bit in the baby haze!

That’s rubbish, this is all about the boss not about her and his inability to be properly off. To be honest , I can imagine a lot of men doing it on paternity leave, he’s not had the baby, he’s not ill or abroad so fairly natural to check in. What’s not on is him not replying or copying op in. He may be conscious that he didn’t do a handover and be thinking shit I forgot x let me just login oh whilst I’m here I’ll just answer a few emails.

I doubt this will continue as the baby becomes more aware, awake and mobile to be honest.

I do think it makes a difference if your boss is the mother or the non-birthing partner (male or female). They’ll still be running on adrenaline at 3 weeks and babies don’t do much at that age (don’t get me wrong, the broken sleep is a killer but it’s very much eat, sleep, poo). If they’ve just given birth, even if they’re doing well, they’ll still be recovering. And it that’s the case I’d thrill the employer would have duty of care.

If it’s the non birthing partner then are they taking leave in order to share the load or so that the mother can go back to work? That’s different again. Because looking after a child on your own is obviously much more demanding.

Sorry that this is happening, I’d be wary of criticising your boss. I had something similar (boss taking on my work) and I ended up being fired.

This is bizarre and legally problematic.

Ask for a f2f with bosses boss who presumably you report into now....
Outline the situation and ask how you are expected to proceed / work efficiently.

Id also raise the issue of the law and the companies duty of care.
Your boss sounds like she either is a workaholic, anxious about losing her job/being replaced or might be unwell/avoiding her baby. Either way work has a duty of care they are not meeting by ignoring this.

This would be a massive red flag at my company and I'd be expected to escalate to compliance especially if it's related to payment of invoices.

It says you emailed your bosses boss. Did you email your boss, the person who is logging on?

This really. It shouldn't happen but it is human nature, unless you hate each other you should be able to find a way to rub along. Your boss probably needs time to adapt, to let go a bit, they are probably worried about loosing touch and falling behind. You need to ask they copy you into things and and maybe ask for some advice now and then (even if you don't need it), perhaps send them updates that go from weekly to monthly and then stop, just to wean them off. Your boss is probably insecure at the moment,

My bosses boss is just ignoring my messages asking about this. Have emailed though to say seeing as there's no response to my previous concerns about this, then I will assume that all tasks will be completed by my boss and I won't be doing them due to the time I'm wasting.

Well there’s a few things here.

IMO they dont think you’re up to muster or they don’t trust you. If either the boss or your bosses boss thought you could do it, this wouldn’t be happening.

BUT I imagine they expect that now you’re acting up that you resolve this yourself and not go to seniors. Tbh I’d be unamused if someone came to me about something like this. You’re acting up. It’s your job to sort this

If you actually sent an email saying you wouldn’t do the extra work, then if my point 1 is right this is just going to reinforce their view of you.

Go to boss's boss or if they exist. Are you being paid extra for stepping up?

When you say boss what is the company/firm you work in ie. private limited company or partnership. If a partnership they own the firm so can do what they want. If a limited company even then if they a major shareholder again in effect it is their company so its up to then.

If however they are just mid management level in a larger firm then take it up with their superiors.

You'd do that to your boss?

The issue is you not knowing the work had been done and sent to clients. You should be copied in to avoid this. So work out how to find out the work is done before you duplicate it. Trying to stop them doing the work seems pointless (and not something most people would do to their boss)

Contact IT and get the one on leave's access blocked. They do that as standard in my company and only reset it for KIT days. Stops this sort of stuff happened. Get it done ASAP.