Advice on Mat Leave - What’s Your Ideal?

[AllAboardTootToot]

I know it’s not an aibu but posting for traffic as I’m new to all of this and never really looked at offerings of other companies I’ve worked for as it wasn’t in my thinking at the time.

However, I am now in the position to ask for what I want for May leave. Our company doesn’t have a standard policy regarding enhanced pay, basic SMP but in my role I feel it is a fair request to ask for some of it to be funded, had that chat with my boss and he has asked me to propose my ask.

High level thinking is I will take 6 months but feel I would probably start working around a day a week around month 4 and build up. I’m conscious of KIT days and wouldn’t exceed so there would be breaks between.

My head is thinking:

3 months full pay
3 months half pay plus SMP

From month 3 I would make myself available for at least a day a week to physically work or be around in meetings, would sort childcare, and then from month 6 go back on condensed hours or mix in annual leave to do a phased return until 9 months, I.e 3 days and 2 annual leave days, working up to 4 condensed days for remainder of the months.

Just looking for thoughts as not many out there online of this situation, so:

yabu - too much to ask for
yanbu - the balance feels right with home life/pay/work availability

Also, how would you design yours if you had the chance?

I wouldn't have wanted to go back a day a week when DS was 3 months old.

Sounds a bit of an odd situation to be asking for what you want. Can't you ask for 12 months full pay then?!

You can't go back to work while on mat leave - it has to be a KIT day.

Sounds messy and job dependent working one day a week I think you will just wish you had gone back later properly, rather than bits here and there

Ideal would be 12 months full pay...

What is the basis for what you are proposing? Is I the standard in your job area? I got 3 months full pay then statutory and that seems quite common.

You won't know until you're in the situation if you'll want to be working but as others have said it would have to be KIT days agreed by management otherwise you're ending your mat leave.

Also something to bear in mind is the cost of childcare - with my first I'd planned to go back at 9 months when I stopped getting paid but it didn't work out as financially beneficial and I didn't feel ready so I ended up taking 12 months.

Ideal is a full year off!

Those 3 months will go past in the blink of an eye. Our colicky baby was still screaming 4+ hours a night until around 16 weeks. And a "condensed" day is a very long day of childcare for a baby.

Everyone's entitled to set their own priorities as they wish. However I would make space for yours to take a giant leap towards staying home for longer, once you have your baby in your arms.

I have voted YABU because you clearly don’t understand the basics.

Start with SML and SMP statutory criteria and entitlements including not being able to do odd days unless they are KIT. Occupational is then a top up.

Also look at funding e.g. employers claim back 92% of SMP. This means topping up to 100% is cost effective in the first 6 weeks when you get 90”% SMP.

Also think about when you're going to start mat leave, will you be going off a couple of weeks before baby is due? That eats into the paid segment post baby delivery.
The first 6 months can be so difficult with sleep and everything else so would say 6 months minimum if you can afford it. I wouldn't have had any headspace for work at 3 months and was very sleep deprived, do you commute? I didn't feel up to driving longer distances until 4 months due to concerns about reaction times.

Don't go with what work think is best, you need to put you and baby first, you are entitled to a year if you want.

I wouldn't dream of working before SMP ends at 9 months. With all 3 of mine I've had 13 months off. It's a very odd situation to be asking for what you want. Start off by deciding how long you want/can afford to have off. Then enquire about pay to determine if you've understood correctly that they want you to decide what to be paid on mat leave. You don't need to decide your return working pattern until much later.

Have I read it right that your boss is asking you to basically design the mat leave policy?

In that case, ignore just you and think of how this could be a fantastic thing for your company and all the women who come after you (and then you lol)

Ideally it would be 12 months full pay. Best I’ve ever seen was 6 months full pay then 3 months SMP then 3 months unpaid. I’d also ensure there was no pay back clause (waste of time and talent) Id also put something in for managers to ask them to consider using secondments for maternity cover as a first choice. Then back fill the secondee.

Have you thought about how you’re going to do the days from 4 months? Who’s going to look after the baby? Will it be full days? Are you planning on breastfeeding at all?

My “ideal mat leave” would obviously be full pay the whole time but not exactly realistic.

I took 14 months maternity only on statutory. I would rather have taken that long on SMP than only 6 months even if it was full pay.

That would be a pretty shit enhanced maternity policy. Everywhere I have worked offers 5 or 6 months at full pay, then SMP. No expectation of KIT days.

I had 5 months full pay, 4 months SMP and the last 3 months unpaid. That was fairly standard for my private sector industry. Obviously I would have liked more at full pay. I ended up with an extra 3 months unpaid leave on the end as I wanted to complete my masters before I went back to work.

As a pp advised, other than KIT days you can't work while on maternity leave and being available one day a week from month 3 would take you over your KIT day allocation.

My company offers 20 weeks at full pay, then SMP then nothing for the last 3 months. This seems to be quite standard for a ‘good’ policy. Can’t you ask for something like this and then negotiate from that? What you’re proposing already sounds like you’re trying please/appease your employer without thinking realistically.

You could also look at NHS and teaching to see what they offer - more realistic perhaps than 6 months full pay but a lot more than basic SMP. Are you aware that even if you work 2 hours, that counts as a full KIT day used up?

Three months full pay three months half pay would be very generous.

With regards to return to work, I've had two mat leaves. DC1 I took just over a year. DC2 I was back on my usual (part time) hours at six months having being doing two KIT days a month from six weeks.

Personally I felt like a year was too long. The readjustment to work was horrible. My shorter mat leave with early KIT days was a far easier transition. And I'm taking from a MH perspective, not work.

I got 26 weeks full pay, 13 weeks stat mat pay, then 13 weeks unpaid if I wanted it. I officially went back after smp finished but added 8 weeks annual leave on so went back to work around 11 months.

This!

With the exception of KIT days (usually there a maximum you can take), you’re either working or on mat leave. Not both at the same time. So your proposal to work 1 day a week isn’t possible. You wouldn’t be paid anything for the other 4 days.

Both companies i’ve worked for offered 6 months full pay. The first company then offered 3 months SMP. The company i’m at now offers a further 3 months half pay.

I would really recommend not going back to work until 9-12 months if you can afford it.

I once had a manager who was barely at work because she put her 6 month old in a nursery full time and he was constantly ill from picking up all the bugs.

Just to add, i’d be highly suspicious of a company who doesn’t have a robust maternity policy in place.

Agree with others saying don't commit to working during mat leave and technically you can't anyway except the maximum 10 kit days.
I'm nhs so I get 8 weeks full pay, 18 weeks half pay, smp for last 13 weeks then 0 pay for any more time up to a year. We also get the full annual leave allowance so can use that to make a phased return.

I would not have been ready to start thinking about work at month 3- my kids were still barely sleeping and breastfeeding every couple of hours. Plus I just wasn’t in the work zone- I couldn’t have cared less! I was definitely ready to go back by month 9.

My package which I think was reasonable was 3 months full pay, 3 months half pay, 3 months SMP. I then went back to work around month 9, but took a bit of leave (you still accrue holiday on mat leave).

I would in your position be asking for the above, but not agreeing to start part time until at least 6 months. I’d also as part of the package be thinking about your work pattern when you do return (part time, compressed, etc).

Assuming you are UK based.

Just a few words of warning for your plan:-

There is a 4 month sleep regression. Its hell, and lasts a good few weeks and, frankly, is like torture some days. I'd not want to combine that and even part time work

Mat Leave (aside from KIT days) Has to be taken in one block. You can't do a half mat leave/ half work situation. You can drop in up to 10 KIT days without it affecting your Mat Leave.

There is no legal obligation on your part to notify your employer of how long you intend to take off. It is also illegal for them to demand a return date. Employers must work on the assumption you intend to take the full 12 months leave available to you.

You then notify your employer no later than 8 weeks before your intended return date. So if you are post baby and intend to return at 24 weeks, you must notify them by 16 weeks.

Cover for someone half in and half out would be a nightmare - by taking mat leave in a block they can recruit the right person to plug the gap.

You cannot underestimate how much recovery time you may need. Physically and mentally. It would be unwise to make any rigid plans before the baby is here and you are settled into life with a newborn.

Your dp/dh can also make use of shared parental leave, which you could plan after the baby is here. He can take whatever is left of your 12 month entitlement himself to extend time off where a parent is with the baby. Your mat pay doesn't apply to him. He would need to refer to his own Employers policy on that.

You may find it difficult to nail down childcare with such a quick turnaround. Childminders and nurseries often are full and holding waitlists.

You do not, and I cannot stress this enough, owe your employer anything outwith of your maternity entitlement. You will do yourself no favours bending over backwards for them. Instead, you should make plans that suit you, your baby, and your family. It is sensible to wait until baby is here before you start to look at your return to work.

With regards being contactable during maternity leave, do not make any promises to them that you will log on, or be available at all during your maternity leave. Reach out to them after baby has arrived to discuss KIT days and return to work.

I'm not saying in the above that you should take the full year, or you should not. Just that you shouldn't agree to anything with them until after the baby is home and you are settled.

Sorry so the TLDR of my above post is - don't promise anything yourself.

As for pay - look at what SMP is and negotiate full pay for X months on top

I think you’re being naive about how quickly you will be able to return unless you will be putting your child in childcare or have a nanny from 3 months.

I would look at negotiating being fully off on my leave rather than a kind of hybrid.

I would look at negotiating being fully off on my leave rather than a kind of hybrid

You don't need to negotiate being fully off. It's a legal right.

I went back at four and five months each time pt and used nursery. No sleep regressions. Luckily.
Any longer would have had me climbing the walls. Twelve months would have been my idea of hell, so you can see just how different people find it.