AIBU to feel resentful about repeated maternity leave cover at work

I have worked in the public sector for most of my career including some spells in the NHS.

It is hard to recruit people to the jobs because the working conditions are tough. However, people still feel interest in becoming doctors, nurses, paramedics, lab techs etc. There is camaraderie. Sometimes people thank you.

You know what NO-ONE wants to do? HR!

Therefore there is no proper workforce planning, people are recruited into HR jobs who shouldn't be and things like planning for vacancies are done poorly, late or not at all.

Plus the NHS doesn't even competently do something really obvious which is to run nurseries that serve staff hours.

The government could also help the public sector parents by making it easier for them to access school places and wraparound convenient for work.

There is a total lack of joined up thinking.

Had her misogynist arse rightly handed to her.

We don't "need" all these older people we're currently paying state pension for and who cost the NHS billions a year either, if you look at society this way.

Birth rates have fallen hugely and there is no incentive to have children as it is.

Colour me shocked
OP never came back
🙄

I'm surprised by this because it's not my experience at all for anything except very routine jobs where people can be up to speed quickly - it's always the expectation that work done by specialists, anyone professionally qualified and/or management level is shared out amongst existing staff, there is no attempt to find additional.

Plus public sector recruitment simply doesn't move fast enough to recruit people as maternity cover - the postholder would be nearly back in work before a replacement could be found and onboarded.

Completely agree. Now even maternity leave can’t be our own. Yes there should be a choice to share but there shouldn’t be pressure. I had traumatic births and took a while to recover. I didn’t want to have to go back to work while my dh got to swan around baby groups just after I recovered and the baby got interesting! And he was in full agreement.

This.

I guess its a question of do you want the human race to continue? If so people have to be supported to have babies. Babies are actual human being that need to be cared for and prioritised. Yes there should be much much more equal split in care between men and women. But for now there isnt. Getting frustrated at parents just trying to care for the next generation of humans is not quite right. Someone needs to have babies if we want to have someone to support us in aged care.

Still not the woman’s problem when she wants to have children though.

Surely you should be angry at the managers who are failing to cover leave rather than the women producing children who will grow up to pay your pension?

Shared parental leave is a good mechanism to give both parents time with the new baby, and share the loss of employee between both employers. But hardly anyone does it.

Yabu.
This is a management incompetency, working women will always be having babies and what they choose to do after is really non of your buisness.
I worked part time after my babies were born, it was a mutual decision and not once did my husband suggest we weren't sharing the work load, he appreciated my work load !!!
For many women after having a baby work is no longer their priority believe it or not.
Although I understand how leaving a role can cause disruption for a short while if management fill the gap with a suitable replacement promptly and timely then I can't see what your problem is.

Oooh I love this! It needs up be printed out on a poster ❤️

Understaffing issues are to blame, not the most natural process in the world ie having children.

It's really not that easy in some sectors that need experienced staff they can depend on.
Often you can't find cover at all.

It's down to bad management and pressure to save money. I remember it could take over 3 months to recruit someone into a basic NHS role and it had to get really desperate for them to be willing to pay for any sort of temporary cover. This inevitably made things harder for the staff left behind to cover everything.

I am more cynical about people coming back part time, it just doesn't work in all jobs. You'd get a situation where only Sarah could sign something off but she's back part time so if you need it signed on a Thursday you have to wait until Monday. Some of these cases should have been job shares but management didn't want to fund the second employee. Job shares don't always work well either as some first employees struggle to delegate or the rest of the team teats the first one like the real employee and waits for them to be available.

My point is it's tricky but could be managed better.

You are a woman who is child-free by choice, but if your attitude here was reflected in how your work place runs then you wouldn’t have a job either - you are a woman who in theory could have a baby (regardless of your individual decisions or fertility) so they would hire a man instead.

But it does contribute to the gender pay gap, doesn’t it? That’s just an objective fact.

Yes the global population has doubled in 50 years. That’s not a crisis.
Nearly 20% of 18-25 years olds are NEETS. This will increase as AI takes hold. We don’t need all these children. That age group will become net users of benefits very quickly having contributed nothing.
We need to disincentive child bearing not encourage it including work place benefits. And if only the wealthy have kids well so be it. The planet is not a free for all.

I was thinking similar. In fact, the physical complications I had after giving birth meant I needed my year of maternity to recover and have further surgeries.

It’s really as simple as this.
I’ve worked in female dominated teams and this has never been an issue because we’ve always covered maternity leave properly.

If we want women to have equal access to the workplace ( and we absolutely should!) then we need to acknowledge that women have periods, can get pregnant, breastfeed, go through menopause etc.

So I guess suck it up for your own greater good. plus those people’s kids will be paying your state pension when you retire, so that’s nice of them.

A hopelessly old fashioned view. The future of the welfare state supported by taxing labour is doomed and we are living in the final days. An ageing society, decreasing birthrate, AI taking more and more jobs is remorselessly shrinking the taxpayer base. This is happening across the developed world. Wake up and smell the coffee!

This is an employer/workplace issue, not a woman issue.
Do yourself a favour and turn your resentment to the correct party.

First response has it in one

You're angry at the wrong people - this is your work place who has not sorted this out.
Why should maternity and paternity time off be equal? Did the dad grow a person in them for 9 months? Or give birth? Or breastfeed? Maternity leave is very much needed by the mum, as she has more to recover from - which can be many, many months.