What support did you get from your employer when you returned to work after mat leave?

[Joolie22]

Just curious about other people’s experiences. I was on mat leave for a year and was effectively managing a new team when I returned. It was straight back into the deep end and one of my colleagues recently mentioned that she felt my return was badly managed.
I haven’t been on mat leave before so had no expectations and whilst it was pretty stressful, in a way I was kind of happy to just get on with it. That said, a year later I still don’t feel up to speed!
Just wondering what other people’s experiences have been? If you had a bad experience what could have made it better?

I took 10 days over the period of my mat leave to ‘keep up to speed’ it was extremely useful to ‘pop’ in occasionally.
My manager at the time also asked me what could help me settle back in to work. He had also researched legal aspects of parents returning to work, flexiablity and my breastfeeding needs.
I had my own little fridge to store my breast milk and I didn’t even need to ask for it.

The manager that took over was not clued up at all. And we had a lot of meetings that were basically me quoting my rights as a parent.

This is a really interesting topic. With my first child who is now 9, I returned to work and was treated like I'd not been away, no acknowledgement or updates on what had happened since I'd been off and expected to just switch my brain on - it was hard! I had constant comments about "baby brain".

The second time with my son was very different, I went in for KIT days to make sure I didn't completely switch off and was welcomed back in a very different way. I think because of the previous "baby brain" comments, I worked doubly hard to prove my maternity leave had no impact on my brain.

I'm now running my own business which supports people back into work after a career break, so any experiences you have or ideas of support that could be offered by employers would be very welcome!

A massive thing is part-time / flexible working requests. Mine was accepted the first time, but I was required to move to a new (lower status) role and given lower level work. In a totally new area. Manager didn’t have great people skills and never asked how I was.

None.

I wanted to return part time. They knew that before I went on mat leave and I was led to believe it would be possible to do a job share with the girl I interviewed to cover my mat leave.

Not ling before my return I had a call with my supervisor and it was discussed again. She said she'd feed this back to the manager again, but couldn't see an issue with it as I'd trained my mat cover well.

But days letter I received a letter, not a call but an abrupt letter, from the manager basically saying "come back full time or don't come back at all. If you want to come back part time you need to write a detailed report on how you returning part time will benefit the company"

It pissed me right off, so I quit. I would've lost money paying childcare just so I could go back to work. I was prepared to do tgat, but on a part time basis. I'd suffered with pregnancy losses before, which management knew about, so knew how much my healthy surviving baby meant to me....

And my role was working at a fertility clinic

Zero support. Less than six weeks after my return, I was put in scope of a restructure, had to interview for my own job (that I'd done for five years before mat leave). Didn't get the job and was made redundant 10 weeks after returning to work, along with the only other mom in the team... So yeah not a great return to work.

Well, people asked how I was, a couple asked me to remind them of the baby's name and then life was back to normal within a couple of minutes.
Mind, back then we only were off for 3 months.
Aren't these 'KIT' days there for keeping in touch with changes / updates / progress / how work is tootling along ??

I was off for a year both times. I was given a reduced workload for the first term back. Went down to part time hours the second time. They were very supportive, told me my dc came above anything and if they were ill (they were!) I was given paid leave. I couldn't have asked for more support.

I work at a university.

None

I'm getting a grand sum of ... none. I start back on Monday and they've been totally clear that despite everything about my job changing, they'll be no support in place and I'll need to 'hit the ground running'.

I'm actually terrified. My KIT days haven't been enough to prepare me for all the new systems and procedures.

I'm trying to negotiate flexible working and it's not going well. I cannot afford to do more than 3 days due to the cost of childcare so asked to do compressed hours. This was refused. Because I commute to work I earn slightly more per hour than I would where I live plus part time jobs where I live seem to be only 16 hours so I would be even worse off. Considering doing 2 part time jobs. Has anyone on here done 2 jobs rather than go back full time

Little bit different here Handy, I threatened to walk and my employer suddenly agreed I could go down to three days (It'll be reviewed in a few months to make sure it's 'working' for my company. I'm doing three days there. Then I'm doing some contract work in the evenings.

I've only been back a week and two days, but it's exhausting trying to cram two jobs in to be honest. But it depends on your circumstances as to whether it'll work, like if you have your DH/DW/DP around a lot to help out, if they're a good sleeper and allow you to get work done with them there, it's not impossible, but I wouldn't say it's easy.

Thanks Theressomebodyatthedoooorrr I don't really want to do 2 jobs but may have to financially. I was wanting to do 30 hours over 3 days but they are refusing. If I do an extra day it would cost me what I earn in childcare so no point. If I look for a part time role where I live I would be losing about £3 per hour. I may have to look at getting a second job on an evening or a night to cover the 9 hours they won't let me do

None. I went back last time after dd2. First mat leave with a different employer.