Covering maternity leave

[MadHouseUpNorth]

I've been back from maternity leave a couple of months. Been full time before but came back to 4 days and slightly smaller workload. One of my colleagues is about to start her maternity leave and I've been asked to cover it. That would mean that I'll be covering a full time position as well as continuing with my normal duties. Nature of the job will mean that it will be relatively quiet over the winter months but I still feel like it's a bit much to ask? No mention of pay rise of course. Everyone just assumed that I'll be doing it as my workload is not quite enough for 4 days. I can't decline to do it but should I ask for a pay rise?

It's a bit much to ask as in you don't have the capacity? Or it's work which is at a higher level of responsibility/requires a different skill-set?

If it's something which is an additional level of responsibility and/or would require you to work longer hours, you absolutely should ask for a pay rise before you agree to do this.

if it's that you don't have enough work to fill your hours and this would be extra work which is the same/very similar and you'd be able to do it without increasing your hours, it's difficult to see how you could justify wanting a pay rise/refusing it.

So it really depends why you think it's a bit much to ask.

Thank you flowery!
The job is the same level but would require at least full time hours. I'm unwilling to increase my hours, four days a week combined with a waking at night baby is exhausting enough! What will like happen I'll keep my hours, using every single minute of working day, possibly no lunch break and finishing things of at home...it's a small private company and there's never been a proper maternity cover. We've just managed it all between us but perhaps it's time to change it.

I would be brutally honest and say "That's not possible in my current hours, I will likely only be able to cover 50/60/70% of her winter workload as well as my own"

I agree completely with RandomMess. If it’s not possible to do it in your hours, tell your manager that, and ask him/her what task he/she would like you to prioritise, which can be dropped and what other arrangements can be made for the remainder.