Returning from mat leave and being signed off sick.

[PiercedPixie]

After my maternity leave I applied for part time hours and it was rejected without any attempt at negotiation. I've appealed it but am still waiting to hear and HR have said there's no timescale, it takes as long as it takes. My boss agreed a phased return so part time for 12 weeks and on my first day back I was moved to a different department (but the same directorate). I'm supposed to be starting full time in my original role in October unless my appeal is successful and although I keep emailing HR and my boss (who is a director) I'm no closer to knowing what I'm doing long term than I was on my first day back. If I can stay part time in this "temporary" role I will be happy and it's really close to home so I don't want to look for another job incase I could stay there (I've been there 7 years), but I don't want to be suddenly doing full time because I will have to look for something else. DH says I should stick it out for now and if I'm made to do full time go and see my gp 😔 I've never been off ill with a sick note but the not knowing and stress of what we will do if I suddenly have to work full time for someone who has made me feel so rubbish is making me so ill. I cry every day, we argue, I have headaches and stomach pains. I don't know what to do and every time I approach HR they just tell me it's all allowed. I feel like screaming how is this an ok way to treat someone?! Any advice would be appreciated. It's the NHS so I do have occupational health xx

I don't think you understand that they are doing you a massive favour re the 12 weeks. Of course you can leave and then pay back the maternity pay.

This. ^

Sorry you feel like you're getting a hard time here OP. But I think people are being honest with you.

If you want show part time hours could work then it would be best to work hard, with enthusiasm while you're part time. Looking stressed and anxious at work and pining for your baby are just going to confirm to your employer that part time hours won't work.

If you're only back part-time at the moment, don't you have to do longer than 12 weeks? I went back 2.5 days a week, but had to do so for double the length of time to maintain the maternity pay. But then, that was 20 years ago, so things might well have changed.

Ah OP. I'm sorry it's stressing you out so much.

I don't think going off sick in these circumstances is going to help anything. It certainly won't help your relationship with your employer. I think you need to plan to either make full time work at the current place, or look for other part time work.

I hope you find a solution that works.

I'm bemused, do some of you have six figure salaries and stay at home nannies so you don't mind going to work all day every day

No, some of us had just 5 months' maternity leave (standard in teaching 20 yrs ago) and went back to a full time job, juggling the baby/childminder around DH's full time job together with house upkeep (just moved house when baby was 3 minths old).

It's called 'that's your lot, get on with it, look to the future.'
The future plan being DS through uni in 3 yrs time, going part time for a couple of years after that and taking early retirement at 55. That wouldn't have been possible if we'd gone part time in the early years.

I'm bemused, do some of you have six figure salaries and stay at home nannies so you don't mind going to work all day every day?!?

Any sympathy I might have felt for you was lost with this comment.

Exactly what gobbin says. Another teacher here, returned when Dd1 was 12 weeks old because that was paid ML back then. Yes, it's tough, bloody tough, but try to be grateful for the fact you have a much better ML deal in the first place. When I was struggling a bit with 5am breastfeeds before dropping Dd with her childminder, or arriving home at the end of the day to more breastfeeding (plus housework and dinner!) I tried to remember that compared to my predecessors I was fortunate to at least have the option of work... My grandmother was a teacher and had to give up her job on marriage and children.

Also as gobbin says, often the payback is evident in the long term, not immediately...If someone had given me the option to stay at home and be topped up with benefits when Dd was 12 weeks old, I'd probably have taken it as the easier option. But we just had to get on with it. And in retrospect it was the best thing I could have done because my career and pension would never have got back on track if I hadn't gone back to work quickly.

You sound judgemental and entitled OP. There are people who are genuinely sick, yet you seem to want to play the system just because you're finding the idea of being a parent and working unpalatable. And stop assuming that those of us who do it have some cushy lifestyle earning mega bucks and having nannies 24/7... Nope for many of us it is, or was, the usual early morning childcare drop offs and large childcare bills.

Any sympathy from me has completely evaporated too

If you have been treated poorly by your line manager you can raise a grievance separate to your flexible working request.

It sounds like you work in the public sector op, in which case can you keep an eye on internal job postings that may be part time?

It is good that they have let you come back part time for 12 weeks.

You need to try to stop thinking about the appeal and start looking for other jobs. If you get your request granted then you can stop looking.