Should I disclose PND on return from maternity leave?

[Trevatine]

I’m due to go back in spring but I have a meeting with my boss at my request as I want to return to work on a phased, part time basis initially and earlier than planned - aiming for January.

Part of the reason for this (and it is only part) is that I had a traumatic experience around the birth of my baby and have been suffering with fairly serious PND. I am slowly getting better, on medication and seeing a psychotherapist weekly. I’m not sure if to tell my boss about these difficulties or not. Part of me thinks this would help, to give me a bit of time and understanding on my return to work and perhaps more likely to make allowances on my desire to start off PT only, the other part of me thinks this might be career suicide. My (male) boss is generally nice and pretty forward thinking, however he had only been my manager a very short time when I went off on maternity leave.

Any advice or sharing similar experiences would really be appreciated. I feel very ashamed of my problems with PND, I’m very private at work and this is a really difficult decision for me.

Hopeful bump

Firstly congratulations on your baby, and I hope you are starting to feel more at ease with yourself.

I had an awful time with the birth of my child, and it affected me mentally, I sought help etc and started to get myself back on track......when I went back to work I needed to reduce my hours, not due to my health, but my anxiety would have been heightened if I couldn't finish at a certain time.

I'm my request I explained the reason I needed to finish at a certain time and also explained that my mental health had suffered after the birth of my child and wanted to ensure that my return to work wouldn't impact on it further.

I didn't need to explain anything further, and my application was granted...business need couldn't refuse.

Since then my manager is aware of further details, however this this only due to our friendly work relationship and me feeling able and wanting to talk.

I hope you are able to get the working pattern you need and if you feel mentioning any impact on to health would be beneficial to changing your working pattern, I would mention it, but there is no need to go into detail.

Good luck 👍

Forgot to add.....please never feel ashamed, pnd doesn't define you xx

Thanks @WishMyNameWasWittyNotShitty that’s good to hear. Did you put in a flexible working request before your return? Our policy is that PT phased return can be agreed informally with your manager without needing a formal request to HR. Hence I think I’d need to tell him directly

I put it in a couple of months before I returned, mine only had to go to my immediate Management for consideration though x