AIBU to feel resentful about repeated maternity leave cover at work

but it is really hard to not feel resentful of women for this.

It’s actually very easy to not resent women due to an employers mismanagement of their staff.

You will get locum doctors to cover. It's posts where there are already a shortage of suitable people.
In my workplace it takes an average of eighteen months to recruit a senior manager. There is a big focus on succession planning

Work in the nhs for a few years then try telling yourself this!

So are there 'senior managers' out there who are happy to take on a role that's only guaranteed for 12-18 months at most? Also professionals like accountants, solicitors, doctors etc?

Obviously your’large corporate companies’ have never included the NHS!

Every where I have worked does this, replacement is sourced months before and then there is a one month cross over to onboard them. Mat leavers are expected to prepare full handover packs. Mat covers are contracted for just over a year to account for cross overs. I actually thought this was just normal as it’s been the same in every company I have worked in.

Maternity cover is not covered in my workplace as it takes about a year to train someone up. So unless someone retired would come back, there is no point.

Have you not seen adverts for "maternity cover"? Yes, we hire someone for the time period to cover. Usually contract work.

I bet you would not breathe sign of relieve if you are directly affected by it.

Maybe they’re too busy providing cover at work for those mums-to-be!

A question for all those saying 'it's a management issue', which I do agree with by the way - are you saying that in your workplace, there is actually proper maternity cover? For all jobs, including where the person taking leave isn't someone who's job is easily picked up in a few days/weeks at most? How does that work?

Oh that’s interesting maybe it varies by job type, I’ve worked in a few large corporate companies at senior levels and may cover has been sourced and onboarded before mat leave starts, with a one month cross over either side for onboarding.

People have children for themselves (and good on them if that's what they want), please don't make out you're doing some great act of continuing humanity. People who are never born can't regret not being alive.

The planet would breathe a sigh of relief if mankind died out.

This. Your anger and resentment are misplaced. Any well-run organisation would have a proper, well trained maternity cover, and would organise the return in a way that works for the company as well as the employee.

The way you word your OP @Kedgey55 shows a lot of resentment towards mothers and women in general. You need to check yourself as it seems there are other issues at play here.

Maternity and paternity leave can be shared. Nothing stopping couples doing this.

No.. it’s an NHS problem… not enough staff.

Women staying in jobs after having children does not help those that have to cover their work while they’re on maternity leave!

Nobody needs to breed children, we can bring in as many grown ups as we like, have you not noticed they are queuing up to live here?

You obviously have never worked in the NHS!

Men are more likely to move jobs for a better position than women. People with families are more likely to stay put.
While it's not great for roles that mainly employ women to have repeated maternity leaves, when the mums come back to work they will stay if the job and conditions are good.
If they don't stay then that's an HR issue.

Well you could easily solve this by just asking women not to have children.

We will then die out as a species and thus the problem is solved.

Sorry, I couldn’t resist that little dig. Yes it is really difficult and I agree with you, but like others have said, YABU because your organisation will employ HR professionals whose job it is to minimise disruption and impact while supporting everyone. But maybe they are all on mat leave too!

You’ve got a management problem not a maternity leave problem.

Yes, it’s easier to cover up for poor management if no one takes any kind of leave, no one changes role and everyone has a fixed 9-5 work pattern. However that gives you no evolution and can make meaningful change unlikely.

You point out that a more equal split between parenting between men and women would help. That means more people working part time, not less.

It’s fine to be pissed off about the outcome whilst accepting that the leave itself is essential.

There simply aren’t spare doctors/chiropodists/accountants/solicitors knocking around, waiting for the opportunity to work as a temp for a year or so. The rest of us have to suck it up with no choice in the matter.

I agree with the OP.

By extrapolation you are saying that the lives of those of us who don’t have kids are meaningless- bollocks. I find this line of argument incredibly insulting and demeaning, especially to women who don’t have kids. You are basically saying we are “less than”.
Life has no intrinsic meaning, it is what you make it. You don’t get to dismiss mine for not having sprogs.

I actually don't blame the OP for feeling resentment. Whether she has children herself or not doesn't actually affect the difficulty of managing without a key person. It just means she never personally gets the leave.