Advice please - don't like working anymore

[N1SEXYTING]

I need some impartial advice, since graduating 3 years ago I have been working in schools as a learning mentor with the view to go into teaching but after 2 years and 2 extremely bad schools I decided against teaching so i took a temporary post last Dec to Aug this year with the view to go back to uni this Sep to do a Social Work masters.

Then I fell pregs so I had to rethink everything, luckily for me I had applied for a job in social services before I found out i was pregs so started that in Aug.

Now the other reasons I took the job (apart from the maternity leave) is that i felt it would be a good way to gain some experience of social work and also I could apply to continue working and still train to be a social worker.

But then when I actually started the job i was placed in a new team which would be based in schools - strike 1!

strike 2 - its a pilot project to last a year!

strike 3 - since i started myself and other colleagues who are not social workers have been treated as second class citizens. After 4 weeks of working there, we came back from training only to find that we no longer had a desk as the social workers had been given priorty over desk allocations so now 4 of us have to desk hop over 1 desk!!!

strike 4 - during supervision after this incidence, my superviser felt that my reaction to this shambles over the desk was 'extreme' and wanted us to have a 3-way meeting with the team manager, during this 3-way meeting, team manager came down so hard on me that i got very worked up and then ended up crying.

so basically in the last 2 months of this new job/new team i have realised the reasons why i wanted to stop working and go back for a professional qualification in the first place.

Now my problem is that if i don't know whether to tell them that i do not intend to return back to work after maternity leave or not!

Personally I would not say anything as it gives you the option to return and you can always resign before the end of your maternity leave anyway (and they have to keep your job open so if they have been mean this would inconvenience them !). However, check your position with regards maternity pay - with mine you have to go back for at least 12 weeks if you take payments above SMP - if you don't return you have to pay it back plus their NI contributions - I will opt for SMP and if I do return after a year they have to give me the 'extra' in a lump sum. You can always say you have no idea how you'll feel after baby' birth so can't make your mind up until after you've had it. Personally I wouldn't go back but you may feel different in a year's time so why make life easier for them by telling them either way ?

Yes my maternity pay is the same but i have to go back for a mininum of 6 months afterwards or pay back my pay above SMP.

I didn't know one could still opt for smp and get the extra pay in a lump sum if you do go back.

I should be meeting with HR in about 2 weeks so will find out about that then.

We can do that where I work (education) so please do check as it is a good option if you don't want to make a decision this early (and why should you !). Hope it all works out