Working after pregnancy

[BunintheSlowCooker]

Wasn't quite sure where this belonged but here we are.

I am in the early stages of pregnancy and i'm due to share the big news with work shortly. I've been looking ahead and thinking about what my working routine will need to look like once I return from maternity leave.

I currently work full time (37hours) in a hybrid working role (1 day WFH /4 days office) but i'm wondering what this is going to look like once there's a little human to look after. Organisation has got options for compressed hours, hybrid working etc.
I do intend to put baby into nursery following mat leave for a couple/few days a week but wanted to ask the ladies of MN what their experiences were and whether they had any suggestions.

Baby will need to be in childcare whenever you're working.

What kind of suggestions do you want? Whether to apply for a reduction in your working hours or location? How to apply?

Baby will need to be in childcare whenever you're working.

^^This

We require parents working from home to have another appropriate adult present doing childcare unless the child is wholly capable of managing without an adult - i.e. an older teenager. So if you were thinking of only two days in a nursery then dad or someone else would need to do the childcare, unless you plan to reduce your hours.

You should bear in mind too that you are not entitled to any changes to your current working pattern. Agreement isn't automatic just because you have a baby, so it would be up to your employer, and if what you want isn't possibe, they can refuse or offer you an alternative arrangement that suits them - even if that alternative doesn't suit you. Your right to return is based on exactly the terms that you have now. Anything different and all bets are off.

Thanks both. Yes absolutely there would be a non-working adult looking after baby. Will not be looking after baby whilst WFH. I guess I was really asking about what option would be best (appreciate this is subjective). Condensing hours sounds like a good idea but then there will be 10hour work days for 4 days.

This will be my first child so I'm just trying to work out what options provide the best balance between work and home life.

Provided you understand that your employer doesn't have to agree to anything other than what you have currently, unless you can't afford to drop the money (and I would think that whole thing through very carefully) I would be very hesitant to recommend condensed hours if you retain full time hours anyway. You will not be working a 10 hour day. You will be working at least approx 10.5 hours (you can't work 10 hours flat without a break at all, and the breaks are for you to spend some time recovering, not doing childcare or anything else domestic (assuming working from home days). If you are working from the office - add the commute. Then add domestic tasks, spending time with baby (who will almost certainly not turn out to be a domestic god themselves and will insist of not sleeping when you are most exhausted etc., etc), and some time for yourself. I have never met a single person who has successfully pulled it off.

So much so that when staff ask for this I always insist on a maximum of 6 months trialling it with the right for either party to go back to the contract for any reason. I am still open to discussion about other arrangements, but I won't lock in condensed hours that I can't see working easily. For them or for me. So far, not one person I manage has survived more than three months of it before either going back to contractual terms or going part-time. Maybe it works for some resilient folk, but I have so far not met one. I guess the role also matters - frankly I don't need someone in work for 10 hours on a single day and for our service it doesn't work well for most roles anyway. I'm always willing to try to accomodate people's wants, but in the end I have two priorities - that they can meet my service needs and they can do so without killing themselves in the process. Of course I care about their child, their relationships and their "whole person" too, but I am paid to ensure a service is delivered, they are paid to deliver it, and neither of us want to see attempting to do that cause damage to the person.

Babies are stressful (and bundles of joy, but did I mention stressful?), and so are jobs - there has to be a balance and many women think they need to do it all. They should be able to, but that isn't the real world - be realistic and then cut your "employment cloth" accordingly to try to do the least damage to your career. Because having a child shouldn't damage your career either, but it's the real world and it does.

I went back to work after 10.5 months (mid September). Because I had so much accrued annual leave, I'm currently working 4 days a week and using my annual leave for the 5th day. I'm using a childminder who lives 10 mins away. DH and I both work from home, he does drop offs, I do pick ups. My contract states a 37.5hr working week with 1hr lunch break. We get away with paying for 8hrs a day in childcare as I start work earlier whilst DH continues to look after DS until drop off, then I finish before DH for pick up.

From Jan 2023 I'll go back to working 5 days a week and keep an eye on how I cope.

Not sure if this helps?

I suppose it depends on how things are now and what you'd be trying to achieve by applying to change your terms. What commute you each have, what hours you each work, if you regularly work extra hours or bring work home, what hours childcare would cover and where that's located, how you're going to share sick days and emergency cover...

You don't necessarily need to look to change your working pattern so long as you have the right childcare in place.

Eg if your commute is tough then applying to work a higher proportion of your week remotely might take some pressure off, if that is your concern.

Or if it's about balancing costs and responsibilities, maybe you and your partner can each apply to work 4 days instead of 5 so there'll be 2 days each week with one of you at home.

In terms of compressed hours, 9 in 10 might stand a greater chance of being sustainable. 4 in 5 is a tall order.

At this stage it might be more practicable to just make sure you are clear on what your employer's process is for applying to change your terms so you can submit anything during maternity leave when the picture will be a bit clearer for you.

Remember that applying to drop a working day is a hit to your pension as well as your salary, which has a bigger long term consequence as your pension fund growth will be lower too.

I worked 4 days a week, DP did 4.5 condensed into 4. With DPs commute they were out of the house before wake up / after bedtime anyway, so made sense for them to fit in some extra hours. We both felt that 5 days condensed to 4 really meant 4 days of potentially not seeing DS properly.

Have a look at the finances. Can you afford to reduce your hours - either you, DH or both of you. Look at childcare costs as a shared family bill, rather than offsetting it against your wage. Consider the pension implications of reducing your hours.

Personally, I loved working part time and felt I was able to do my job and look after my children well, but it has taken its toll on my pension (I don’t have a partner to pick up there).

You don’t need to make a decision on this until a good while after your baby is born, so there’s an element of seeing how motherhood works for you.

Congratulations!