What did you do on your KIT days?

[Pinkturtles]

My manager is a bit clueless when it comes to maternity leave etc. I want to take some KIT days and he’s asked me to suggest some ideas of what to do on them.

How did you spend your KIT days? And how long did you work for, as my HR department have said they don’t need to be a full day?

I know this will vary by job but I’m an office based professional, mid management with a team of 4, usually work managing accounts for various clients. I’ll be on a different team when I return so won’t have the same clients but the thread of my job remains the same.

Teacher so a bit different but has included marking and moderation, handover meetings, planning, exam data analysis, training (of others and catching up on statutory requirements I missed while off), return to work coaching.

basically whatever’s helpful to literally ‘keep in touch’ and make the return easier

I just joined my team for a charity day event. I didn't even discuss work! We painted a school classroom :-)

Just go to the monthly team meeting

Do you have to work the full day to get paid for the full day? Sorry if that’s a weird question. I’m salaried so would like to know

Someone in my team joined us for team meetings/ planning sessions
didnt work the whole day just came for the meetings so they could catch up with the team and see what was happening/ any updates etc

I would send them a list of all team sessions coming up and they could pick and choose which ones they wanted to come in for.

Whether they pay a full day is up to your employer, but any work done on a day counts as a full kit day. My employer paid me in full, even if I just sent an email!

My first mat leave I needed to apply for a new job within my organisation, so I used KIT days for job hunting, application, interview, etc. My second I did a bit of online training, had a catch up with my job share partner, had a meeting with new manager who had started while I was on mat leave.

I used the time to clear down emails and made sure things were simple for my return.

I did one department meeting (all morning), then went out for lunch with colleagues and went home. And then another day of catch-up meetings on new processes, plus lunch and quite a lot of chatting in the kitchen.

You really just need to be caught up on anything that's changed and reconnect with colleagues.

I ask my team what they want from kit days. Most like to join a few meetings, catch up with the people they manage,, read any progress reports for their projects and have coffee/lunch. Tend to stay around 4/5 hours. I expect nothing in particular from them on the days.

I went to our annual planning day which was about 3 months before my return. The team meetings in the 2 months before I went back, meeting was 2 hours, then did about 3 hours of mandatory online learning, then went home, did a half day about 2 weeks before I went back where I got familiar with the new way the online drive was set up, cleared a load of emails and amended my out of office and set up some meetings for when I'd be back. I only did kit days in the unpaid bit, otherwise they wouldn't have been worth it.

@settlethisforme - usually yes, though some companies differ. My company pays an hourly rate for hours worked so if I work two hours, I get two hours pay (on top of maternity pay). My company doesn’t, but it is legal, to deduct maternity pay. So if you get statutory maternity pay, that’s £36 a day approx. You could work a few hours and not get any pay eg if you earn £12/hr, the company doesn’t have to pay you on top of mat pay for the first 3 hours as the mat pay is your pay.

In my KIT days, I have:

• trained a new starter on a system that I am the company expert in
• done my own compulsory training (we have to do a data protection video every year and some others)
• supported on a project that was time urgent and they needed a spare hand on. It was the kind or work I do regularly in my role, so I could easily pick it up and save the team some time.

i have attended company socials and our annual fundraiser but it wasn’t a KIT day and I didn’t get paid - it was just to say hi and for the fundraiser I bought the baby! (We were doing a sponsored walk so she was happy in her pram).

I didn't bother with them on my second Mat Leave, but on my first I basically did a week's holiday cover for the team and tried to clear up as much of the mess made by my cover as possible in that time. It was pretty full on, but actually it did wonders for my confidence as I had to leap back in with both feet and found I still "had it" (I suffered from anxiety after both pregnancies, which leached into other areas of my life).

My employer has been pretty relaxed about mine which I'm thankful for, I've done three so far and every time I've taken little one in for an hour and a half and just chatted and caught up with my team. Later in the year I might do more work related stuff but so far I've just been using them to check in and see how everyone is doing!