To be annoyed colleague is taking two months off?

[galleo]

My colleague (and friend) is expecting. She is going to take July-January as mat leave, then she is taking July-August next year off as split mat leave.

Our team is very thinly staffed and manager isn’t getting someone to cover maternity. That’s fine we will manage. However, it does mean that there’s not enough staff to cover holidays. So we are being discouraged from taking more than a week at a time off during the time my colleague is away. We are very busy in the summer months so only one member of the team can be off during the school holidays - but as colleague is taking the split mat leave in July August, that means for next summer holidays, I can’t take a single week off to spend time with my kids!

She is enjoying valuable time with her child, as is her right. She will never get this time back. This awful workplace will always be there.

I used annual leave for a phased return from May leave, do do part time over 2 months. Sounds similar to this maybe.

I sympathise deeply, my colleague has done something similar but more cheeky

The issues is with the manager - the manager need to get cover.

what your colleague is doing is legally possible in the UK—but only through Shared Parental Leave (SPL), not traditional maternity leave.
Here’s how it works:

• A birth mother must take at least 2 weeks of maternity leave after birth (4 weeks if working in a factory).
• After that, she can end her maternity leave early and convert the remaining time into SPL.
• SPL allows her to take leave in blocks, return to work in between, and even take more leave later—as long as it’s within the first year after the child’s birth.

So if she’s taking July–January as maternity leave, then returning to work, and planning to take July–August the following year off again, that can only happen if:

1. She curtailed her maternity leave early to create SPL.
2. The July–August leave falls within 12 months of the child’s birth.
3. She and her employer agreed to the SPL arrangement.

If the child is born in, say, June 2025, then taking SPL in July–August 2026 wouldn’t be allowed—it would be outside the 12-month window. But if the child is born in August 2025, then July–August 2026 would just squeeze in.

"unfortunately"

I don't really know why most of us bothered marching, protesting and agitating for women's rights when i read shit like this

Lol I didn't meant it in that sense, more just unfortunate for the colleague. Don't worry I made sure I got my full quota of entitlements 😅

I agree that it’s a management problem and in your shoes, I’d speak to your manager about the issue.

People can take their leave as they wish. We’re in the US and the company my DH works for gives 12 weeks paternity leave. One of his colleague took a few days off every month for a year and played golf most of the time!

You’re right to be annoyed but not at your colleague though. It’s shit planning by your employer and they should be sorting it out properly.

Complain to your employer about the lack of maternity leave cover or, alternatively, apply for parental leave yourself for next summer. You’re entitled to 18 weeks per child and it’s a statutory right. 4 weeks per child, per year and your employer can only postpone it once

Poor management, what if one of you is off sick?

Your colleague has asked for leave and been given it. There is nothing wrong with doing that and no reason for you to be annoyed at her. If management have failed to realise that other people would want/need leave during that time and have failed to see that giving your colleague this leave would mess up everyone else's summers' and childcare, they are either total idiots, or don't care about their staff. Neither of these is your colleague's problem! It's also possible that she is struggling to find childcare for a baby, and has negotiated this because she needs it to cover an absent childminder or something. Again it either shouldn't have been granted or it's the management's job to minimise it's impact on the staff.

@Chinsupmeloves Exactly, someone could have an accident or a nasty bug and they’d be screwed! It’s poor management.

What does your contract of employment state about holidays or unpaid leave for breakdown of childcare? What would they do if you or your child happen to be sick for a week during next summer's school holidays? They'd have to manage. I don't advocate pulling sickies, never did, but I think your employer needs to realise the effect this is having on the workforce.

Yanbu to be annoyed but Yabu to be annoyed at her. She's taking maternity leave as is her right as an employee. Aim your annoyance at your employer where it belongs for not organising maternity cover. They are the reason you can't take a single week off to spend time with your kids op not her.

I would be annoyed at your manager for agreeing it without a plan to look after the rest of you, not annoyed at the pregnant colleague

Companies / management that don't get maternity cover really annoy me. It acts as a disincentive to recruit young women and impacts on the rest of the team. I manage a team of three women and two of them have been off on maternity leave at once, yet I still had to fight to get cover. The hmrc refunds 92% of statutory maternity to businesses too so companies aren't actually paying 2 salaries at once.

They have to agree it- imagine if they didn’t on the grounds they didn’t have cover. Instant complaint, of course they could get cover. I dont understand why anyone on that team is accepting the idea they can’t take a summer holiday.

You might find the situation stressful and a couple of weeks off to recover should help ! That’s always an option if your employer is useless.

It’s not cheeky. It’s her right. The manager is being ‘cheeky’ by not covering it. Is the same true with your colleague?
(By ‘cheeky’ I mean the manager is being totally incompetent, for clarity).

That's a resourcing problem. Flag with your manager as legally you can take leave if giving a reasonable amount of notice. They are being cheap..

As for your colleague she'll be working her socks off. Mat leave is wonderful but brutal 😂

I fail to see why pregnant women or those who've just given birth, expect everyone else, including other parents, childless women, and women whose children have grown up, to adjust their lives around them. In other words, other people have to change their entire arrangements etc because of the results of some woman's sex life.

It’s got nothing to do with people expecting everyone to change their schedules. You sound so bitter. She is entitled to up to a years maternity leave. She can share that leave with her partner. A woman is pregnant for 9 months and has to let her work know within a reasonable time what her plans are. It’s then up to their employer to find cover for their work. Because shock horror, work is not the be all and end all to people’s lives. Having a baby trumps needing to worry about their manager finding cover. It’s a employer problem, not an individual problem.

If OP is upset by the lack of staffing, take it up with her manager or find a job where she’s not expected to do two people’s jobs due to short staffing issues

You can’t take any time off next July and August? Is this the same for other employees too? Honestly, I would tell them you’ll be looking for a new job before then if something doesn’t change. You have a year to find something so I truly would do that. Hopefully they’ll change their minds when they realise you’ll be off (and possibly others too, if it effects them!)

They don’t. The law (rightly) allows time off. The manager should account for it so others aren’t inconvenienced.
Honestly, that’s a worrying view you have there.

We are only allowed to take one week off over the summer anyway. Pretty much the whole team has children so this is supposed to be more fair.