To not take maternity pay and keep working with a newborn?

[lostandconfused2]

I'm a journalist and I have two jobs, one five 9 hour days a week where I'm on £550 pw before tax, and another where I only write four 800 word articles a week for £850 pw.

I am 19 weeks pregnant and I have been asked by my five-day job to start filling out maternity forms. I will get six weeks at 90% of my weekly earnings, another 12 weeks of my normal salary plus any SMP due, eight weeks of 50% of my salary and then £148 a week for remaining 13 weeks.

But I will not be able to work for the other place during this time.

And so I'm wondering, with a newborn, will I be too tired to write four articles a week, which I could do while he naps or when I've got some childcare help? Or should I play it safe and just stick with the maternity pay? (I don't qualify for maternity with the higher earning place as it's a new job and they're in the US).

Just want some advice on what to do that is going to be the most practical? I'm just a bit worried as my rent is almost £1,000 a month.

I managed to do a couple of hours work at the PC each day with my baby in a sling, but it was hard.

But OP thinks she can't work for employer 2 at any point during maternity leave from employer 1 but she can. Her whole thread was about foregoing maternity pay from employer 1 so she could work for employer 2 but she doesn't have to do that.

After the mandatory 2 weeks she has to take from employer 2 then she can start working for them again after that while still getting maternity pay from employer 1

I could have done that with my first baby, after the first couple of weeks. Second baby, no chance (despite the eldest being in nursery full time).

It really depends on your birth, your physical and mental recovery, how healthy/easy your baby is, how you choose to feed the baby etc

I am self-employed and started doing small amounts of work about 3 weeks after the birth, then gradually built up how much I could do while baby napped in the sling or on me. But anything with tight deadlines was impossible as some days were/are a total write-off for unforseeable reasons, and that's with a relatively easy, healthy baby.

If possible I'd sign up for longer leave then shorten it if everything is going smoothly, rather than take short leave and find yourself struggling to cope.

I've got an 'easy' baby right now who has slept through since 9 weeks. The DC before him was colic for 9 months and there was no respite, it was hell. In fact I gave up work because I couldn't see how I could cope going back (was still very clingy) or even function tbh.

Are you employed in your second job or are you self employed? Because you can do as much freelance work as you like while you are on maternity from your main job (which is incredibly frustrating if you are full-time self-employed, but that's another matter!).

Are you able to pre-write some articles before you go on maternity or are they topical? I work for myself and did this so that I was covered for a month or so after having my second and then I used my (outrageously stingy and VERY long) KIT days to write more batches once those ran out and that covered me for long enough to go back to work properly.

I did it, and did far more work than you're proposing, to be fair. I'd keep going with the articles work.

”Are you employed in your second job or are you self employed? Because you can do as much freelance work as you like while you are on maternity from your main job”

It doesn’t matter whether her second job is employed or self-employed. As she is already working there she can continue throughout her maternity leave from first job.

If you could tell us how long the articles usually take to write each week that might give us a better idea.

If it turns out you’re unable to find childcare help for a newborn, would getting help with the housework/cleaning instead be an option? I think I could have managed to do some work with my newborn sleeping, but only if I had help with all the other stuff that needed doing. It is really hard to predict though.

Can you write one extra article a week to build up a "stash" or are they related to current affairs? Even if it meant only having to write 2 a week for the first 8 weeks, it would help massively.

I went back to work very early (think balancing a feeding baby on a pillow while I typed over him) but it was very hard with the sleep deprivation and cluster feeding.

It might be possible for you OP. For what it's worth, my DC slept through from birth, breastfed like a dream in the daytime and was very quiet all the time.

I could've written a book with him! But I just cleaned and watched Netflix

I’m a journalist predominantly working from home too. I couldn’t have done this with my first DC, but with the second I took two weeks off and was straight back into it. It’s very dependent on how high maintenance your baby is, but also for me I found I was exhausted and stressed looking after the first one, I wouldn’t have the capacity to work for a bit, at least the first few months. By the time DS was born I was much more confident (and had a good routine in place) and mostly could manage it. It wasn’t much fun at times but doable.

Depending on the type of baby it could be doable. The main issue is whether sleep deprivation would wipe you out. With my first, I had to do a dissertation. It nearly killed me. She hated the sling and we had major feeding issues. I couldn’t work during the day so did it at weekends when my husband was around or at night after she’d gone to bed. By the time I handed it in I was hallucinating. That is not an approach I’d recommend! My second was an easy newborn during the day and loved the sling. I could have got loads done with her if I’d needed to. I often had to wake her up as she was sleeping for too long. But, she was a colicky baby and screamed for 2-3 hours between 6 and 10 so doing anything of an evening (evening cooking) seemed like an impossible task. My husband couldn’t check emails or do anything work related during that phase as the screaming is just all encompassing. Once she grew out of that she was an easy baby until 7m.

The problem is you don’t know what sort you’ll get.

Is there any way you could have your articles planned & part written before your baby is born? So they just need a final polish before you submit them. That way you could get everything done.

You are entitled to do 10 "keep in touch days" during your maternity leave. If you work with job 2 is paid my the article, no one would be any the wiser as to whether it took more than 1 full day each week. This means you could start back at job 2 after 29 weeks maternity leave, without losing out on any maternity pay.

It might be manageable. I did informal locum work taking DS2 with me for a few hours a day when he was about 2 months old. He'd sleep under the desk, I was breastfeeding, and it worked ok. But he was an easy baby, and I was doing someone a favour, so they were very easygoing about it. I reckon if you have childcare you could do it. How long does each article take to write?

@Cyw2018 any of OPs KIT days would be with employer 1. She wont lose out on any maternity pay from employer 2 as they wont be paying her any. She can work for employer 2 as much as she wants without affecting maternity pay from employer 1

DC 2 & 3, yep easy peasy I could’ve worked after a couple of weeks. DC1, no way! Basically it’s impossible to say until you have your baby.

With dd I would have said yep, no problem.

With ds, hell no. I do the books for our business, and spent many an hour typing 1 handed with ds latched on, or over my shoulder or asleep on my lap as he was a bit of a velcro baby.

I would aim for at least 3 months proper maternity leave, then review at that point and see what you think you can do.

Even making a sandwich was difficult with ds somedays. Having to think about work would have pushed me over the edge.

@lostandconfused2

No chance.
Even if you have help and your baby is an easy one and you actually get some sleep you will be so brain dead that you won't be able to write down even 2 sentences that make sense.

Congratulations on your pregnancy x

I could have written a PhD with one of my babies.
With the other, I barely got dressed.

I went back to work when ds was 16 weeks as was normal then. So I would plan on taking at least three months as straight maternity leave.
If you have easy baby you could do some research or freelance.

Would it be possible for you to prepare copy in advance for the employer you want to keep working for? You can't guarantee that you will be able to find 2 of your braincells to rub together in those first few, very hazy, weeks and there's no guarantee that you will have a birth that you bounce back from physically, either. I was in hospital for the best part of the first 2 weeks of DS1's life after a complicated labour.

If you can take maternity leave from your primary job, I would have thought that you would be able to do the other job as long as that's legal. I didn't take leave at all because where I lived there was none - I worked with a newborn and a toddler doing accounts and estate management 15 hours a week

I’m not a journalist, but am in a similar work from home set up.

My first dd was so easy that I thought I’d easily be able to resume work after 2 weeks with dd2.

But dd2 ended up being born at 26 weeks, and was in hospital for 3 months. What with spending most of my time at the hospital, and then adjusting back at home, while trying (and often failing) to still be present for dd1, I wasn’t ready to start working again for a year.

It’s just so unpredictable. You simply cannot know what position you’ll be in after birth.