Boss demands to know my return to work hours - baby not born yet!

[SJC74]

Hello All,

I'm in a fairly stressful situation at work at the moment and need some advice/tips.

I am due 30th March and finishing for maternity leave on 7th March.

I handed in my letter confirming this on 13th December. I know I don't qualify for SMP (hadn't worked here long enough) but can apply for Maternity Allowance. In my letter to my line manager/boss/company I had to spell out exactly what they needed to do, that they needed to give me a FORM SMP within 28 days of my letter. Come day 27, still no form from them. So I chased and they panicked and threw something together in a day, whilst making me feel like a burdon.

The owner of the company keeps asking me out right, in places like the kitchen, in front of colleagues, all sorts, what I plan to do hours-wise when I return to work. I have absolutely no idea. The baby isn't even born yet, we have no idea what we're dealing with, how we'll cope, how to investigate child care (we are first time parents, so haven't a clue yet), whether my husband's job will change, whether I'll want to come back fulltime/drop a day or two.

I am finding it stressful and unfair that he's asking me to decide NOW. I'm pretty sure there's no legal reason to ask, or company policy in me deciding.

I understand the laws of making a Flexible Work request are that you can only do one every 12 months, so I'm certainly not putting anything in writing now that wouldn't be feasible in 9-10 months time.

He wants to know this week and I just keep dreading him coming over to me asking me to decide.

I know that I WILL be returning to my job, but they obviously need to hire maternity cover. I am sure he's asking because he wants to justify to the board giving someone a permanent position based on what I'll come back to. But that's not really my problem, is it?

I WANT to say 'I cannot make this decision before the baby is here and we know what we're dealing with. At best I'll return full time, but I may reduce my hours. I will confirm this in writing to my line manager/HR within the time-frame required to make a flexible work request"

but I just KNOW he's going to say 'no, I need to know now' and we'll reach a stalemate.

HELP!

I'd just assume for now to be going back full time, treat it as such and leave it at that. If it needs to change then you can deal with that as and when it happens :)

I would just say your current plans are to return full-time and leave it at that. Then if necessary you can put in your flexible working agreement later (but I wouldn't mention that at this stage). As you say you don't know how you'll feel until after your baby is born so you can't make a decision now, and you certainly wouldn't want to waste your opportunity to put in a flexible working request when you may change your mind or you might not be able to organise childcare. Personally my plans prior to having my DS was to return full-time. When he arrived I couldn't imagine leaving him to return to work at all but by the time he was six months I was able to consider returning to work and ended up going back 3 days a week.

he wants to justify to the board giving someone a permanent position based on what I'll come back to. But that's not really my problem, is it?

Technically it's not your problem but I can see his point and it would be nice to help him out because you might need his help when you return to work.

As everyone else says, confirm that you will be returning full-time then you can forget about it for the time being.

Yes, just say you are planning to return to the same job and hours. If it changes in 10 months time then deal with it then.