Asking to go back part time

[Icklepickle101]

Hi,

I've been with my current company 6 months and am 17 weeks pregnant, as is my colleague who started on the same day as me - oooops!

Financially I can only afford 3/4 months is maternity leave before going back to work, then the baby will be going to my mums during the day.

In an ideal world I want to go back to work 4.5 hours a day for 4 days a week so half my hours and half the salary. This makes me feel less guilty about going back to work so soon but I will be earning enough to cover the mortgage!

Would it be too early to bring this up now? We are a very small team so 2 people going off for mat leave at the same time will be a massive strain and I want to give my employer and idea of my plans as she is starting to interview people to cover me while I'm off.

From an employer's point of view, the sooner you tell them, the better. They don't have to grant your request for part time working thiugh, only consider it. You do know that?

However, a lot can change between now and when you might want to go back to work, so you might want to keep your options open, and not make a decision you can't change for a while longer.

Is your colleague in the same situation doing the same job? If so might she be interested in a job-share? That might be ideal for everyone.

My boss has already said if I wanted to I could come back part time and I said I needed to think about things,

My colleague and I do different aspects if the same job so not sure how well a job share would work, it would be very time consuming learning each other's processes. I am fairly confident my job could be done in part time hours, with someone checking my emails sporadically on my day off for any urgent requests.