What did you do on KIT days? (Maternity leave)

[StickerMadness]

NC as there's probably some identifying stuff under my previous username!

I'm on maternity leave with second baby who is 4 months, also have a 4yo. Employer wants me to use my Kit days for a training course over the summer. 4.5 days teaching time; 5 half days on a project; and an unspecified amount of prep work and independent study probably leading to assessed work. Course fees (upwards of £3k) repayable if I resign within a year or if I fail to complete.

Am I being ridiculous to say no? I'm scared that they might make me redundant or downgrade my role if I refuse (have threatened this previously). But it seems like a huge amount of work, when I'm supposed to be on leave and my brain is cheese. I don’t have any childcare in place until my planned rtw date.

I may need a constructive, alternative suggestion. What sort of things did/do others do on KIT days? Last time I just popped in for people's leaving lunches and nobody asked anything more of me . . .

I can't remember how many KIT days you're supposed to do? That does sound a lot. I'm sure I only had 2 or 3.

In my case, there was a major project ongoing that I usually oversaw. On my KIT days I reviewed the project status and all the documentation attached and attended a couple of briefing meetings with internal clients to get them moving in the right direction as the people covering for me didn't have the same experience and ability to get internal clients on the same page on this one.

My boss was hilariously happy to see me the day I walked in as he'd been battling with a few internal clients for a few days! He rushed me down to their office with somewhat unseemly haste!

I also attended a farewell drinks event for a colleague on one of my days!

I started doing kit days when my baby was 3 or 4 months, I had a 4 year old too (good age gap isn't it!) I help my boss with monthly reports so I arranged my kit days for end of the month and would spend the day helping to run the reports so just like a normal days work really. I was allowed to arrange mine at my leisure, I'm not sure they can force you to use them like that!

www.gov.uk/employee-rights-when-on-leave

They’re optional. You can say no - and also, when are you planning to go back? I’m not going to use my KIT days until about a month before I go back. If you’re on maternity for a year (for example) why on Earth would you spend some of you maternity leave half way through that time being at work?
also, pretty sure she’s not meant to contact you? (Maybe someone in HR could clarify)

I did none. Are they obligatory?

I'm planning to go back in January.

I don't mind a reasonable amount of contact as I have a very technical role that id rather advise on than have them mess up. I've probably had a 10-15 minute call every few weeks.

@DressingGownofDoom it's a lovely gap! 4yo is super affectionate towards the baby!

Not me, but my colleagues did things like mandatory training (short online packages an hour or two at most), small, one off pieces of work such as client reviews that would take no more than half a day or maybe going through their client files to make sure they were tidy and stuff that had gone past the 10 year retention period had been deleted, going through their email inbox to delete most of it but check if there was anything that might need attention, that sort of thing. Basically bits and pieces rather than anything in depth or ongoing.

I thought it was supposed to be a maximum of 10 days, which that sounds like it would exceed with the prep and private study?

I went in to help out on a project for one of my KIT days. It turns out that as I was in receipt of employer maternity benefits (I was on half pay at the time) I only got paid for half a days work despite being in for the full day - the half pay I was on apparently made up the missing half of my salary. I'm sure that's normal, but I felt a little cheated!

Needless to say, I didn't bother doing any of my other KIT days.

They are optional OP, so you don't have to do them if you don't want to and I think that any HR department or tribunal would take a very dim view of you being put at the risk of redundancy or demoting you for choosing not to do them

I did no KIT days last time and won’t be doing them this time either. Not remotely interested in keeping in touch, I’m on maternity! It’s not mandatory.