To feel weird about maternity cover

[Dermadirj]

I've just returned to work after maternity leave. I took 10 months off.

My manager has said that the maternity cover person has been contracted for a year so will be here for a few additional months and that we should work out between us how to divide the work 'while I get into the swing of things before taking in too much'.

AIBU for feeling a little threatened? In term of my role. I appreciate that my manager is encouraging a phased return but I don't feel like I need to divide the work for as long as the maternity cover has been contracted to be here. I feel like there's a bit of a danger in going down that path and diluting my input into the role and then creating two roles with the maternity cover getting the more strategic stuff and me having day to day guff.

I've got a meeting later with manage where I intend on discussing this and saying thanks for the phased return but I'd like to take full responsibility in a few weeks rather than a few months.

AIBU?

The thing is you or your manager cant know how you will feel till you are back doing your job. You could have extended your leave for a year at any point, you could have wanted a longer phased return etc.

The business has to protect itself by having someone in post and it is reasonable to think you might not want to hit the ground running so having someone in to support is sensible.

for example - I returned to work after a 13 month mat leave in March, I am only just back to full time hours. They are better off planning for you to do less and having cover rather than leaving the role understaffed and stretched if you did want to take it slow.

If they will be leaving in two months any way it is hardly an issue - 2/3 weeks of you phasing in then 5/6 weeks of having that extra support isn't threatening you.

Make sure you take the more strategic work then? After all, cover person will be leaving. Then enjoy the lighter load for a while .

My supervisor tried this. She had made friends with my replacement while I was on leave so wanted rid of me and keep her. She told me that "management" wanted to keep my replacement instead of me and was disappointed I had returned to my job, they assumed I'd stay home with the baby. I was assigned other tasks and not given my old duties and responsibilities back.

Where I live the maternity legislation is pretty stringent. So the company would have been fucked had I taken it further. At the time, we had a main client for about 85% of our business who were very sensitive politically. So any kind of employer dispute in court would have been disastrous for our company.

What resolved it for me was informally speaking to a female senior in a different department. She had been asking how I was settling back in and I just told her what was happening and that I was looking into the legalities of what was being done to me. She was senior enough to have the ear of management. I don't know what happened but I do know that within 15 minutes the supervisor was summoned to the MD, and an hour later all my duties were reassigned to me, with maternity replacement gone the next week.

Supervisor was managed out within a few years. I think management had no idea what the idiot was up to and were appalled.

It may be genuinely aimed at phasing you back into work, or it may be aimed at phasing you out... What's the legal maternity protections like where you live?

I manage a team and if I was you I would take up all the work load and do as before . At the meeting make sure to remember then you are expected to return to the same position .