Share your top tips for parental leave and getting back into the workplace with Pearson

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Parental leave is a time that can be filled with so many different emotions from excited, happy, anxious to a little overwhelmed. There is also a lot of information out there about how to return to the workplace and for many the difficulty is finding a job that allows them to either be part time or allows flexible working. But most importantly it is a life changing period of time for both fathers and mothers alike. With that in mind Pearson would like to know all your best parental leave tips and how you got back into the workplace.

Here is what Pearson has to say: “Examiner and Standards Verifier, Heidi McEntee who is mum to three (6,3,1), explains the benefits of her role within Pearson and how it fits around her role as a mum. “You can pick how much or how little work you take on. I can reduce my workload to suit what kind of life I want to have with my children, even now as a Senior Standards Verifier.” When asked if she’d recommend the role to other mums she said, “Yes, I would definitely recommend to other mums. Due to the flexibility of the role it means I can attend all of the events at my son's school, which is something I couldn't do before. I can drop my kids off and pick them up from school which I am incredibly thankful for.”

Pearson has maintained a friendly attitude to parental leave throughout, Kevin Lyons, Senior HR at Pearson says, “We actively promote flexible and agile working and also have many remote workers, and have seen excellent take up of shared parental leave. We see work as an activity and not a place, and are committed to a culture of effective working in a flexible and agile way”

What helped you return to the workplace after being on parental leave? Do you have any tips for getting back into the swing of your new life? How did you make sure you were still able to have time with family as well as working again? Do you have any tips or great pieces of advice for how to get prepared on parental leave?

Whatever your tips are for maternity leave and returning back to the workplace, let us know on the thread below and everyone who does will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £300 voucher of their choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw
MNHQ

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Keep in touch with your workplace all throughout your maternity leave and ask to be kept up to date with important news/changes - a lot can happen within a year! This will help you still feel connected to the people there and part of the team.
Plan your childcare nice and early - look at lots of different options to make sure you come up with exactly what is right for you & baby (this will be different for everyone). Start your childcare and new routine before you actually return - this allows time for any teething issues/upsets to be dealt with & managed. It's horrible leaving an unhappy baby somewhere with someone and having to go off and try and act like you're a professional person again with no worries!

If you have the option of going back part time to start with (even if it means going back sooner than you'd planned) then do it. Even just a few weeks will help you settle in to your new routine without it being overwhelming.

Keep some annual leave back and go back initially 2-3 days a week.

A phased return to work would have been great, with shorter days to lighten the load. My sister in law went back four days a week but was paid for five for the first 6 months. It would also be great to have flexibility for the first 6 months as they pick up so many bugs in the first year of nursery.

Ease yourself back in gently! Emotionally this can be a tough time - it's definitely not easy - try to take one step at a time and don't be hard on yourself in any way.

Keeping in Touch days we're great for me. I could work 10 days while keeping maternity benefits which was perfect for easing back into the workplace.

Well, my advice would be "don't work for Pearson" as they wouldn't lete go part-time and wouldn't even consider a job share even though it was an admin type role.

Never mind!

That said, their maternity package was superb so that's why I went back to work for them the second time 😁

dont feel guilt.dont feel pressure.dont expect too much.and dont expect to be sensible with your emotions those first few days.
its going to be tough.your doing so many thing at once from being seperated from your little one.to using parts of the brain you put to sleep or a while.to meeting new and old people at work and getting into a few new routines.its going to be ok but it might not be at first so breathe!
you can do this.but not all at once.so get as prepared as you can.what times will you need t leave.maybe go on a few practice runs with journeys or getting little one to daycare.is there a meal plan you cna do for the wee or anything you can do in advance.
pack yourself a nice lunch if you can.
get yourself a new outfit to make you feel up and ready and confident.
try and get some overlap between you and partner and child.its so important to come home or wake up and have those few moemnts with your lvoed ones.it can really ground and prepare you for the day and is vital to come home and still feel your needing and loved in both places.
can you still do stroy time and cuddles.
what will hepl the both of you adjust together.
keep talking.keep communicating.
your not alone in how your feeling and it wont last forever.
and also if you do jjust flow back into this,if you have no problems at all and are thriving from being back at work then that is fine,brilliant even! there is no guilt.
everyone is different but everyone can do it.it just take a little time and ajustment.to make it work for you.

you can do this

Go part time if you can. Make sure you are using any free childcare hours you are entitled to. Get a cleaner if at all financially possible. Make friends with school mums so you have someone you can text for emergency school pick-ups if you need to work late for a meeting or whatever. And hope to God nobody gets ill

When you feel ready to return to work:

• remember you are still the person you were before. That product with that skills set and all that potential and ambition;
• don’t be afraid of failure or looking stupid or forgetting something. Shake things off like water off a duck’s back;
• companies would be lucky to have you. Everyone struggles to find the correct work force. In interview they want to find someone right for the job - they are on your side!

Organisation is key, and if the business is large enough to allow some flexibility that really helps.

I think it makes a difference psychologically to get even just a few hours work in to feel a benefit and get back into the working mindset.

Go and visit the company before returning.

You can pop in and see colleagues and just touch base a couple of times to see that, usually, nothing has changed!

Our anxieties can sometimes get the better of us when we have been away from the work environment for what we believe is a long time - to our colleagues it usually feels like a couple of weeks as they are just getting on with things!

Go and say hello as just setting foot inside your company, when possible, can really help you prepare to return.

Another thing - don't expect everyone to want to spend hours talking about birth and new child things! Some people do, in which case they will ask you, and some just don't want to know. Give yourself a break from the 'child talk' too as it's a time for you to settle back into work.

I agree with a lot of these comments. Don't feel guilty, there is no right or wrong answer it's up to you and what works for your family.

If you can, make use of your KIT days - you get paid for them so could still be worth it financially even if you need to arrange childcare. KIT days allow you to spend time in your place of work, find out what’s been happening with work while you haven’t been there and let you catch up with colleagues. They are also a good time to have a catch up with your boss and share any concerns you might have about going back. My KIT days really helped me feel confident going back to work after my leave. I think after a whole year off, even walking through the door would have been a challenge if I hadn’t been in during my leave. They also gave me a break from being mum and made me feel a bit more normal for a day!

Remember that all over the world there are mums returning to work, and that depending on the country they happen to live in, there are vastly varying lengths of parental leave and different childcare set ups AND they manage. So don’t sweat over whether you’re returning after 3 months/ 6 months/ a year or whether you’re working 1 day/3 days/5 days .... there are many many mums who have gone before you whose children grow into happy adults

Planning and organisation. And be prepared to have a Plan B.
What I struggled with most when I returned to work is the acceptance that I wouldn't feel as though I was giving 100% to work, family, baby, housework, relationship or friendships. It was a juggle and some areas had to have 90% of me while I focussed on others.
The house wasn't as tidy as before. Sometimes baby's bedtime routine slipped a little, I wasn't able to stay late at work at the drop of a hat, I wasn't able to meet up with friends as often as previously.
That took some accepting and adjusting to, but the reality is that everything still bumbled along, it was only me feeling as though I was no longer good enough. Everyone else saw a coping woman. In retrospect, I should have let them know that I sometimes didn't want to cope, I needed someone to notice and to tell me I was doing more than ok.

Expect to feel that you aren't good enough at work or at home.

You are good enough, any job change would take at least 6 months to get used to and now you are having to remember a job you haven't done for months and the job of parenting is harder again as you have to plan for others to help. It's a double whammy in one go.

My top tips are

• stay in touch with some colleagues while on leave. I didn't go in for KIT days but stayed in decent contact with my closest colleagues so I felt "in the loop" and wasn't surprised by any office politics /other developments on my return

-get a cleaner if at all possible. Scrimp on other things. It's too much to be a parent and an employee and run a house, and that applies to both parents. A cleaner /home help will make your work life balance much better

I've never gone back. The only way I could go back is to a job that was purely within school hours - short of working in a school those roles don't exist! I would say that, for everyone's sanity, it's best to be honest with each other on your return. If you have new needs you need to be honest with your employer but, equally, they have to be clear about what they expect.

Re-think your plans once the baby arrives.

I made all kinds of promises to my workplace, but when I'd had the baby, my priorities changed.

I think there needs to be more support pre-natally, telling women that whatever they think they'll be able to commit to afterwards will almost certainly change.

Eventually, and because I work in the NHS, I went back just at the weekend so that my husband could look after my baby.

When I'd had two children, I added a late shift on the Monday, so only needed childcare for five hours, until my husband came in.

That reduced the need for expensive childcare, which is a big factor for women who are not high earners.

I am a midwife and love my job, but never earned huge amounts even when I had a senior post.

Being realistic about childcare is very important. Most women think that they will use nurseries or childminders but change their minds when the babies arrive.

It is also important to factor in facilities for expressing breastmilk whilst women are at work. This was immensely important to me.

Don't expect life to be as it was pre-babies. Delegate jobs around the house so it doesn't always fall on you to do everything. And lists... make lists for everything. There's something so satisfying about crossing something off a list when completed!

Give it time. I found it was a huge shock to the system returning to work and I hated it initially. It took time to get into a routine.

Try and shed the guilt of not working while you are off, and don't ever worry about 'falling behind'. It took me a while to realise that (in my workplace at least) training is updated regularly, so everyone gets a refresher a few times a year, so I wasn't as far behind as I thought. Don't be afraid to ask questions, and ultimately enjoy your parental leave.

The thing to bear in mind is that depending on how much leave you have off, your workplace will have changed, that was a bit of an adjustment for me. I also found that I had changed as well, having a child have me better insight and more understanding of what life throws at you. I am a better team player now and I am better at managing my time.