Pregnancy work stress

[Brum1992]

I’m 24 weeks pregnant and due to go on maternity leave in august. I have a senior job managing people and projects. We are consistently under resourced for our discipline which is specialised.

i put together a plan for coverage of my responsibilities while I am away and presented it yesterday. As they would not be able to employ someone with the right skill set for temporary maternity cover, I looked to divide my responsibilities among a number of people. Basically I am told they're not necessarily available, they would be prioritised for other clients etc. We have someone new starting anyway, who is really my only option for support, and all the comments from management is that that person needs to be trained up and they can’t be expected to hit the ground running. I know this, but there are no other options! I’ve been getting no constructive feedback or help or suggestions, just negativity.

I know training someone up is not ideal. I will struggle for time on top of everything I need to keep ticking over. I have no other choice.

Am I bring unreasonable to feel that they’re being unfair on me here?

There are other project stresses related to lack of resources and me having to cover for that and keep things ticking over…and I’ve only had a few hours sleep stressing about it. When I raise that I am struggling with the lack of resources I get told that everyone is in the sake position. So basically I need to shut up and put up with it.

Very unfair and it’s going to be their problem if they won’t help.

I assume you’re planning on returning after maternity?

Your employer has a duty of care to you and needs to be careful, especially given your pregnancy. This should be a special time for you and stress isn’t good for you or the baby.

If it were me I think I’d draw up a plan to train new person but point out pitfalls of not having any extra resource to help.

Also remember your doctor would sign you off in a heartbeat - especially if you’re losing sleep through stress.

Good luck.

@Flipper1234 thank you for your comment. Yes - will probably return after 10 months. Your comment has helped me loads. It’s not my problem if they keep taking on clienT work when there aren’t enough resources to do it

Don't bother with the succession planning if you're getting no help. So long as you exhaust yourself worrying what's going to happen when you're off no one else will care.

So just do your day to day tasks and let them sort it out in August.

It sounds like my situation was very different but I was so disappointed with how my employer handled the covid guidance for pregnant women. They basically just kept hoping it would change and week-by-week let me know what I would be doing and who would be covering my normal role which I couldn't do as it wasn't possible to do socially distanced. In the end I got fed up of the lack of communication and went on maternity leave 3 weeks earlier than planned (and gave a months notice of this plan) On the Wednesday of the last week I had an email asking me to "spend this last week" doing handover to another member of staff, prepping things for the coming weeks and generally preparing for me not being there. Luckily I had been organised and done most of it anyway but the lack of management and support from management has really made me question my role there.