To want to punch my maternity cover in his egotistical face?!

[McFox]

I come off work in 11 weeks - yipee! However the boss has thrown me a massive project before I go off, so I've had very little time to go through the whole advertising and interview process to find a replacement. We were offered someone from a sister organisation with the same background to me, albeit from a completely different industry (I work in a very specialised part of the healthcare industry) and so we hired him and brought him in early to take over the more routine bits of my job while I concentrate on directing the major project.

So far so sensible, but he is really ambitious, a total climber. When I've asked him to do something over the past 2 weeks (that's how long he's been here) comments I've had back include "I don't understand the context so I can't give you an opinion on whether that's the right thing to do or not" and "I'm not sure that you're coming at this from the right angle, I would suggest..." - I want to scream. I wasn’t asking for opinions, I was asking for it to be done!

He has also: kept ideas to himself until we're in external meetings with clients where he makes the suggestion, putting me in an awkward position; been telling my staff to make changes to things without discussing it with me first; telling me that I should be considering doing x/y/z. This is all driving me mad – partly because I’m a control freak and have built and been successfully running this department for 3 ½ years, and partly because I have a horrible feeling that the minute I leave he is going to dismantle lots of my hard work to show what he’s achieved while he’s been in the post.

He’s on a fixed term contract, I’ll only be off for 9 months, and will be working a couple of days a month from December onwards, so he knows that I’m not walking away entirely (and I don’t think that he’s happy with that, but tough, my CEO is very happy with that plan).

So, what do I do – he has an awful lot to learn about this industry and is going to cause problems if he carries on being so opinionated. Several colleagues have commented that he rubs people up the wrong way/thinks a lot of himself, so should I keep schtum and let him hang himself so to speak, or speak to my boss and raise these concerns? I am so nervous about leaving at a critical time in the growth of the business anyway, and my boss knows this, that I don’t want to come across paranoid, but neither do I want him messing things up!

But that still won't put you inside the six month limit, will it? You have to come back at or before 26 weeks of maternity leave, or lose the job protection. That is the only way your role is protected. The company could very easily turn around in December and say, "oh, sorry, we think that for it's not reasonably practical (that is the key term here) for you to return to your role now that your cover is so well settled in. We're making him permanent and you will be in the exciting new role of ". Then you will see him get the promotions you would have been in line for.

This is how it happens. It doesn't matter how much you impress on people that you are coming back. It doesn't matter how many KIT days you do or extra things you do. As long as you have been away over 6 months, they can shunt you into another job and you won't be able to do anything about it.

I wouldn't normally encourage paranoia about this sort of thing, and I think people should take the amount of leave that is best for them, but this is so clearly a case where your cover has no respect for you and is very ambitious - what makes you think he won't be doing his utmost to be taken on permanently in your job if the chance is there?

Sorry to chime in on a similar vein to FairPhyllis, and really don't want to make you paranoid, but alarm bells started ringing for me too reading your posts.

My maternity cover was already starting to annoy people during my handover period, and soon after going off I was hearing grumbles from colleagues and boss about quality of work, inability to get along with others, working outside job spec etc. As awful as it sounds, I was delighted to hear this sort of feedback as it was reassurance that I'd be welcomed back to my role (wouldn't normally have worried about this as I'd always performed really well and had great relationships with colleagues/boss, however the cover had openly stated on several occasions that she was hoping to somehow manipulate herself into the role on a permanent basis).

Halfway through my maternity leave though, my boss left for another role and shortly after, their boss moved on too, meaning that the new management structure had no experience of anyone else in the post except for heinous cunt maternity cover, or how the role had been better performed before I went off. Anyhow to cut very long story short, I was elbowed out under the guise of employer being unable to accommodate my flexible working request (which had already been informally agreed with previous boss prior to ML). Still very very hurt, angry and bitter about the whole experience a year on, and it's killed my confidence to seek further work in the industry that I'd loved

So as FairPhyllis has said please be sure to document everything agreed, and keep file notes for yourself of conversations both with fuckwit cover and with your boss. Annoying that you need to, but your plan to stay in close-ish touch with work whilst you're off should hopefully offer you some protection, both as you'll be able to keep an eye on what fuckwit's up to and also to maintain your profile in the event of any management shift.

Your boss could be saying one thing to you to keep you on side then saying another thing to him.

If your boss is uber flexible and really wants you back, plus your mat leave is in place and budgeted for 9 months try floating the idea of a part time return for 6-9 months just to see what response you get.

Ultimately it's what you want as a job when you return. If a sideways move with regular hours for a few years appeals then great - take all the time you can get. If you would be devastated by that then you need to protect your back. I say this as someone has learned the hard way by returning at 7 months plus accrued hols. I had been flagged as "top talent", earmarked for personal MBA training, all kinds. I was put at risk after 3 months and it ruined my mat leave as I tried to remember my achievements and prepare to be interviews by a new management team. Apart from DH I had no family support, baby was an atrocious sleeper and bf. I had to take her to my 'at risk' meetings....I held into a job but had to take a sideways move with lots of travel. Ideal with a young child. I left after 18 months to a new role. I took 3 months ft mat leave the second time around and then went back part-time but managed my cover.

It's a balance, if you really love your job and don't think that will change, returning 2 days a week or even one day a week at 3-4 months just to rein him in might be worth it for peace of mind. That way all big decisions can easily go through you. OTOH, you could find you just don't care so much about work when you have the baby and are happy to take the full leave and deal with the cover situation when back. It's a tough situation, why can't people just behave fairly in jobs...