"I've let you attend Maternity Appointments"

[HB2019]

Just a rant.
TL;DR my boss is a dick

I've got 17 working days left before my maternity leave starts, currently 34w4d. My manager used to ask me what my plans for my maternity cover were. I kept saying "I think that's your job" (to plan for the impact to the team) anyways we haven't really resolved what to do about my cover and I'm getting increasingly stressed that I can't hand over my busy job to anyone so today I went to him and said "I'm thinking of using some holiday days before my leave starts as I feel generally unsupported" he said:

"I've been letting you work from home and attend your maternity appointments so I don't know why you feel unsupported"

I've worked from home twice when I've had a consultant and a midwife appointment in the middle of the day over an hour away from my job, but that's not the point, i said "I think you've got to let me attend those, it's more that I want to perform training and a handover but my cover hasn't been sorted"

Anyways I'm now using a fortnights holiday for weeks 36&37 and starting maternity at week 38 which may mean I'm off for AGES before the baby is born but at least I'll be de-stressed

And relax

Agree it isn't your responsibility to find your cover (unless that's already agreed) but I kinda think it is your responsibility to make sure there is "something" for your replacement. How would ypu feel going in to replace someone with no guidance?

So maybe write up a comprehensive list of what you do with instructions/contacts for each part then email it to your manager (bc your private email address for your own records).

Then at least you have been proactive with doing something rather than just shrugging and taking no responsibility.

God it's a job do people really worry about whose going to do it while they are off.
They'd have to pay me so much money to give a damn.

OP I completely sympathise, I am anticipating something similar happening in my job. I go on mat leave in the third week of September. It takes two months at least to learn my job, which includes two weeks of mandatory company training and induction and then the on the job training after. So so that means the person needs to be in post by the third week in July, give or take,and assuming they have no holidays prebooked over the summer. There's no capacity within the team for someone to step up as we're already short a person at my level as it is. Bringing someone in from outside means a potential 4 week notice period, which takes us back to third week in June for them to hand in their notice. So we have just over a month to advertise, interview, and offer, and for the potential person's references to come back ok. Given that nothing has happened yet in terms of advertising, I am very sceptical that there will be a smooth handover. Which would be fine, but my clients matter to me and I don't want my accounts to go to shit while I'm off!

The finding a person bit is not my problem, I'm not allowed to write job descriptions or contact head hunters, or conduct interviews, we have a fully staffed HR team for that and they are very good at it to. But until my team manager tells them they need to replace me they won't do anything. He seems to be sitting on it, and I have already done everything I can do in terms of documenting my role and prepping for the handover. So I am just waiing, increasingly nervouosly, for something to happen. I also know that baby could come early, or I could eed to start my mat leave early for health reasons, so it drives me crazy that they are just sitting on it!

Blimey. Your manager is a bit of a knob, it is the law that you attend those appointments, and "letting" you work from home? He / the company got the benefit from that because you could work much more than leaving early or coming in late due to an appointment.

As for whose responsibility the cover is - well, it's up to him to get cover in or decide which of your lucky colleagues get to cover your work. I'd say that your part is to make sure you make a tidy handover, possibly a handbook of How To Do HB2019's Job kind of thing.

Whenever I've started anywhere I've had to wing it, but whenever I've left anywhere there has been a Bref's Job For Dummies book for whoever does it after me. And I've also made a list of open issues and walked someone through it and made them sign each page and kept a copy. And THAT has saved me a lot of hassle over the years.

Enjoy your maternity leave!

Sounds like they'll be an absolute joy if your child gets sick when you go back.

I'm sure the OP would have been happy to do a handover if they hired someone to take over for her! I'm shocked at the suggestions that OP should start recruiting for her own replacement - I've never heard of that happening, but maybe it's industry-dependent?

I'd love to handover my job to one person / the group, it's just that I don't think it's my job to find the people to do those tasks which are currently mine. I'd have been involved in the recruitment of a temp and I'd have been great at interviewing but it hasn't been approved that there would be a temp doing my job. We're totally covered with SOPs and I've done cheat sheets for my way of working (within the procedure obvs) but there's just no one here to give it to so I feel like I'm just going to go and it'll fall over.

I want to handover I really do but there's no one to give it to and that's stressing me out.

I work for a large international company and I’d have no say at all in my maternity cover. That goes for the whole company. Your line manager sorts it and then, if they sort it in time, you might get to train the replacement. In no way would I be allowed to recruit or organise my own cover.

^This^
My supervisor tried to sort my maternity cover out, but upper management dragged their knuckles too long about whether or not I was getting any cover. By the time it was advertised I was on maternity. I did however leave copious notes on what to do and how to do it, so at least the replacement or put upon colleague would have a fighting chance.

You ideally should be making suggestions about your maternity cover, but ultimately, it is your manager's responsibility to ensure that there is a handover planned and implemented. It called, you know 'management'.

It's a common fallacy amongst managers that they aren't responsible for 'people'! I used to make my living teaching them otherwise.

Oh yes, we had the same when I had a baby. Told my boss at 12 weeks and kept asking about recruiting another person, especially as another person in our team of three was leaving the company at the same time as I was due to start maternity leave. I was ready to hand everything over and kept adding important dates etc into shared calendars, but my manager just didn't seem too keen. Literally on my last time he realised that he would be on his own and panicked. I just left and I was told that six months later he had found someone. But he got there in the end. My manager is pretty bad at being a manager but he gets away with it because he's so damn friendly.

Set up an out of office with your managers name on it. There your handover is sorted

It is not the person who is going on maternity leave responsibility to recruit to her job. It would be her manager. Unless her manager has specifically asked her to do this.