How to tell work

[40andprettybored]

Hi all, me again!

Although this is my 3rd child (9 weeks pregnant now), this is the first time I'll ever have to tell work and get maternity leave as I have never been on a permanent contact before due to nature of work.

I am hoping for some advice on how to do it / say it. My main concern is they will not have thought this was going to happen at all (neither did I) due to my age and my other 2 children being nearly teens.

I am a manager there with a team. I'm concerned as I feel like I'm basically saying by the way I'll be off for a year and it'll highly inconvenience you all. Soz. It shouldn't matter but I'm concerned it will jeopardise my job and create a lot of resentment. Anyone else felt like that?

So advice welcome. Thank you.

Yep! I am 40 and this is my 1st pregnancy it came completely out of the blue for my employer. I told them at 16 weeks so gave more notice than I needed to. They were great very supportive and just said not to worry about work, it's just a job and they will manage. That was my immediate manager though who is very laid back and also new so doesn't really know what my job involves (I manage a sales team and my own territory of customers) our general manager was probably a bit more concerned. However your job is protected and anyone resenting it, well that's their problem really..6 or even 12 months isn't a massively long time in the grand scheme of things and once they know its up to them to make plans to cover your role..with your input if necessary.

Frame it as needing to get cover sorted. I just said to my manager “I’ll be taking maternity leave from this month to this month, I think my role definitely needs someone to cover it in full, do you agree? Can we set aside some time to discuss?” and that was that. Told my wider team by email!

I'd just keep the initial comms fact based and succinct, and not tell them before your 12 week scan - they'll have plenty of time from that point to ascertain for themselves whether they need mat cover and how to implement it. Don't say sorry! Mat leave is part of having a female workforce and any company worth their salt will have strategies and finances planned around it.

Lastly, congratulations!

This is great advice. I didn't think of Framing it like that. I would say sorry if someone hit me with their car so I have no clue how I'm not going to profusely apologise. I've had a manager in the past who really resented people going on maternity leave .... think it has given me an odd view of it. They acted like it was a trick to get money from the company and do nothing.