I have just resigned!

[homemadegin]

Just posting to tell someone really as DH does know but is at work. I have just emailed my work handing my notice in to partnership.

Back story I have finally been blessed with DD after many years of multiple miscarriages. I have a very demanding exhausting job as a solicitor. All male partners, I used to work 14 hours a day. Aside from the work load I was in court every day and then called out most nights. I asked to reduce profit share and go part time which I still had concerns about but that was out voted. They wanted me back on 1st April, DD would be five months old.

So I've thought about it a lot and for her sake and my mental health sake I have resigned. I actually feel relieved. The decision has been made. I have suggested some alternatives as a sort of admin role which they will also refuse. I have saving for about two years and various options I can now start to pursue.

Despite the relief though it's a huge thing, all these years working towards partnership and I'm done. Anyway new chapters and all that.

Anyone else doing anything exciting today?

Congratulations!

I do think there should be some legislation to ensure women in partnerships have access to the same maternity rights as women in ordinary employment, but that is a debate for another day.

You won’t regret it, you can never get this time back with your child but you can always get another job! Well done and enjoy.

enjoy your time with DD.
You won't regret it. And in time something more suitable will come along that fits better.

Congratulations on both your baby and working out what was best for your family and not bowing down to your employer's demands.

My day has consisted of a supermarket shop and laundry I am a SAHM to 2 secondary school aged children.

I left work 14 years ago when Ds1 was a toddler due to a job relocation for Dh's much higher paid job. I realised after a couple of months that my health vastly improved and as we planned and hoped for another baby (DS1 was a bit of a miracle) there was no point me walking into another job which I could have done easily in the same field.

So here I am 14 years later, loving staying home, being with my children, yes the housework/cooking/cleaning is drudge work but I have the internet, podcasts, radio, audiobooks which helps immensely.

Enjoy time with your baby, I had a lovely year off on maternity leave with Ds1 and loved every minute of it.

Oh welcome out into the sunshine OP! Life after leaving a law firm is a wonderful and exciting place.

In a few months you will be AMAZED that you ever put up with all that shit.

And if you do want to stay in law sooooooooo many options.

I had drinks with a couple of other women late 30s early 40s last week and we are all striking out on different paths after leaving corporate law jobs.

The world awaits! Hooray!

Well done. I’m sure you won’t regret your decision. We tried for 14 years to conceive. When our first DD was born I resigned from my career of 18 years. Two more DD’s quickly followed so we had three under the age of four. I never returned to work as my DH had a very demanding, time consuming job. However, I don’t regret it for one second. I loved being a SAHM. Enjoy this precious time with your DD - they grow up too quickly. With your experience and skill set you will have other opportunities when you are ready.

Well done OP. Best thing you could do with for you and the baby. I did something similar nearly exactly a year ago and I can't believe the change in me in a year. A whole new me :). No idea why I put up with it so long.

Oh wow, thank you for all your messages. I'm in tears.

Yes criminal law, mixed practice so I also do a lot of family and child protection. The others cover the other areas except my friend who is the same as me.

I've no idea what their next move will be. I suspect gardening leave because as I keep telling myself they cannot force me in on 1st April. They are also quite aware of their reputation locally so I suspect they won't want to push me to far in case I tell others why I've left.

Every time I have a wobble I look at DD and I'm fine again. This is time I can't get back. DH is a farmer so we have a home and will be ok.

I might have a wee prosecco to celebrate later.

Yay! I have three kids and left a partner role in professional services. It’s scary, especially when you have been quite institutionalised, but the chance to be there for the kids and also find a new, more satisfying world of work is a wonderful one. Feel good.

Congratulation OP!!!

I did two important things this week. One was to take the week off because of stress due to incompetent management, I’m a people pleaser with a guilt complex so that was a massive step for me.

I’ve also dressed up to go out with DH in a nice dress and boots, I’ve collapsed in my joggers for the last year with exhaustion every day. Not today.

They will also be smugly jumping up and down about the restrictive covenant which says I can't work anywhere else within 50 miles for 6 months. Missing the point that I don't want to work for the next six months!!!

Well done! I did something similar almost 2 years ago, though a very different field of work. I went back to uni to retrain as part of a change in career and it has been the best I've done in years.

Well done you!
I left a job six months ago to spend more time with DS, I now work two days a week in a stress free role, once I leave the building that's it for the day. Time with DS is so much more important!
Enjoy the time you have off, and bond with your baby
Can't say I've done anything quite as exciting this week, but enjoying reading everyone else's excitement!

Well done, a friend of mine's sister worked as a city solicitor, and horrendous hours, they were all men and really sh*tty when she was pregnant, she never went back and set up doing wills and trusts around her growing family, hugely popular, she did Saturday mornings and 2 evenings of 3 hours a week (her husband put the kids to bed), and some daytime weekday appointments.
Is there something you can offer part time from home?

You really won't regret it. I became a SAHM when DS1 was born, my firm wouldn't take me back part time, before the days of them supposedly having to consider flexible working. My DS2 was then DXed with ASD so going back would have been very tricky.

Even though I was divorced a few years later, (ExH couldn't handle the lifestyle of a parent with a DC with SN, mid-life crisis, affair etc) and my career had completely stalled, I still don't regret the time I spent with my DSs. I work full time in a poorly paid term-time job now, but my DSs are amazing!

Good decision op!

I wasn't as brave if you. I tried to juggle work and home and eventually got bullied out by my boss.

However, I have had the last laugh!

We move tomorrow to a cheaper area which means I can afford not to work. My only sadness is that my youngest started school in September and I would love to have that time back.

Good for you, OP! You'll never get DD's baby years again, when she's changing every week.

I walked away from my job last Summer as the big boss was trying to force me away from something I was good at and into something I would have failed at. It didn't help at all that I'd been moved away from a lovely supportive line manager to a cow. (I found this out by glancing at a management structure chart in the new staff handbook. Yes, it was a really caring workplace.)

I lost weight because I stopped stress eating and my friends tell me how much happier and younger I look. I haven't regretted it for a moment and I hope you'll feel the same.

Congratulations and well done.
I took voluntary redundancy 2 years ago and have not regretted it for a minute. All happened really quickly but looking back the best thing for my mental and physical health..
I had no concept of how much of 'me' my job took up, chasing impossible targets, being managed by utter imbeciles and chasing about the county was never ending. Realised after I left I wasn't valued or respected, despite the organisation's mission statement.
Money has been very tight. But I have been given time to spend with my increasingly frail mother and DH who nearly died last June. I dread to think what pressures work would have put on me if I'd still been there.

I have since been involved in some really interesting voluntary work - where my skills and experience have been welcomed and used in really great ways. Have met wonderful people and am in the process of setting up a CIC.
Oh and yesterday had an interview and today heard I have a temporary part time job.
Enjoy your DD and plan your future once you are ready. Your skills and expertise will always be in demand and quite possibly in circumstances you never thought.

They will also be smugly jumping up and down about the restrictive covenant which says I can't work anywhere else within 50 miles for 6 months

I know you don't want to work for 6 months anyway, but my understanding is that that sort of covenant is quite dubious anyway and difficult to enforce. And, of course, it doesn't prevent you from making preparations, looking for jobs, using personal contacts etc in advance of going back to work if you want to.

Firms of solicitors are notoriously hard nose; they don't give a sh1t about the staff

Nothing unusual in my expercence your the usual shite poor Managment

Plauges a lot of industries it does:(

Enjoy your prosecco op🥂

I resigned today too. We are at risk of redundancy but I found another job much closer to home and same part time hours bf days so don’t need to change childcare! It’s at s women’s refuge which is what I’ve always wanted to do.

Well done on making the leap and enjoy being st home.

50 miles for a criminal/ child protection solicitor?! I'd like to see them enforce that.

OP there's a woman near us who used to be a solicitor but wanted to spend time with family. She now does people's wills for them. She gets a steady stream of work from school gates and word of mouth as most people our age don't have wills. Not exactly exciting, but stress free and good pay for the very short hours. And keeps her with a toe in th ebusiness if she wants to return.

Just in case that might work for you.

I worked for quite a high profile firm of solicitors ... I know your pain
Hours were ridiculous
Then you added in all the charity work hours

Nightmare