What the title says really! Due to go on mat leave in 7 weeks. I work for a small company in a business development role so while all my stakeholders are internal, I’ve got a lot of relationships externally. In the last month or two, when I’ve spoken to people and it’s been relevant, I’ve mentioned my upcoming leave, but there are a lot of people I haven’t spoken to, largely as covid has killed all networking events....
On the one hand, it sort of feels appropriate to let my professional contacts know that I’m going to be off the radar for a year. Anyone I have ongoing projects with will naturally get a direct email (and of course I’ll have an out of office on) but I feel like I ought to get the news ‘out there’ as well. I’m a regular LinkedIn user and imagine I’ll flick through it now and then on ML.
On the flip side, is it unprofessional to ‘announce’ maternity leave online like that? I’ve seen various posts from women before and don’t have an issue with them but I’m aware I might not have the same view as others. Also ‘announcing’ maternity leave feels a little bit like tempting fate, although I accept that’s just me being a bit superstitious...
So yep - did you ‘announce’ mat leave on LinkedIn? Would you? It wouldn’t be anything gushingly cringe - probably just factual with a nod to the fact that with the lack of face to face contact over the last few months a lot of people won’t actually have seen that I’m pregnant!