"Negotiating" Maternity Leave

[Scraggyaggy]

Hi,

Having read through a few of the threads here, I was wondering if anyone has had an experience like the one I am verging on, or if anyone can impart some words of wisdom.

I'm almost 14 weeks pg, and haven't yet informed my employer. There are several reasons for this, the major one is the fact that the company is going through a huge change at the moment and there is a possibility that I could become a quarter shareholder (obviously I don't want my circumstances to influence how this negotiation goes). I was also holding out until I had had my pay rise, which has now been agreed.

I would like to tell my employer in the New Year, and clearly set out when I want to take my leave and when I intend to come back etc.

My "problem" is that we are a very small company (5 employees), so I don't think I'm going to be granted AML (although I take on all the personnel function as my boss doesn't have a clue so I could probably blag it, if I wanted to!) In addition, as we are such a small company my role is one that I would consider to be primary. My boss (the company owner) is never in the office, and busy running another company of his (Co C), which leaves me to run our office / company (Co A), run a partnership we have with another company (Co B) AND help his staff in Co C, as they are all new and I know the business backwards. I'm also expected to travel back and forth to London (I work in Cardiff) to spend 1-2 days there a week to help with client meetings for all 3 Cos.

So, from his point of view, I think he is going to find it extremely difficult to cope without me (even when I am on holiday or off sick I get calls from all of the companies to be asked questions!) And from my point of view, I'm not sure that I really WANT to be away for a full 6 months, let alone 12. I'm going to find it very hard letting go.

Therefore, getting to the point.... (sorry for all the background), can I negotiate some kind of deal whereby I get my 6 months, perhaps even my 12 and work from home on a sliding scale? Say I start doing 10 hrs/week after a month, then 10 and a day in London, then 15, then 20 etc. BUT I don't want it to interfere with my statutory requirements, so can I claim this as self-employment? Or should I get it all paid to me after the OML period ends?

I hope this kind of makes sense and I'd love to hear from anyone who has some view on what I'm saying, even if it's to tell me that you disagree with my plans!

Scraggy x

To answer part of your question. You can not work whilst you are receiving statutory maternity pay (uness you had 2 jobs before your maternity leave started and you worked for one and claimed SMP from the other but this doesn't apply to you).

SMP, as you probably know covers the 6 months. You could negotiate to work from home but your SMP would then stop and you would be on whatever salary you negotiated for this time.

You don't know at this stage how you are going to feel after the birth of your baby. I returned to work one day a week (my dh runs his own business) very quickly after the birth of ds and it was very hard. Many mums take several months just to get to grips with coping with life with a new baby. You may not be up to working at all in the first few weeks so I would try and leave your options open for the moment.

Julie,

Thanks for clarifying that for me. I just need to have a think now as to how I am going to go about this.

Thank you for the advice.

Scraggy

I know I am a bit late in this conversation but thought I would let you know my siutation as there are some parallels........

I also work for a small company (9 staff) and have a key role (Head of marketing,with HR and Office Manager jobs thrown in for fun!). Whilst I am not yet pg (ttc#1) I decided to tell me employer early about my plans in order to get the maternity package I want when I do eventually get there.

As a key member of the team (as you are) I realised I need to still be 'in the loop' when I am on Maternity leave and as you say I wouldn't be happy simply cutting all ties for 6 months, let alone a year. Basically I worked out with him that it would be best for all concerned if I were to be kept upto date with important decisions/ actions via email during my leave and that I would be available to come into the office for 'important' meetings as well. By important I mean shareholders meetings and those deciding things like staff changes, redundancies mergers etc....Bit of a risk to take but I decided it was worth it if I wanted a company to come back to!

I also managed to swing 6 months on full pay and working from home after that, but that was down to me training someone else to sort of follow my direction in my abscence. Is there someone you can groom to hold the reins while you are away?

It all boils down to how well you get on with your boss really and how approachable he is. If you are irreplaceablem, play on it and make sure he is aware he needs to keep you happy during this time as you won't be able to stay after you have the baby if it is difficult to fit your job in with your new role as a mother......make him realise what he has to lose whilst reassuring him you are willing to be flexible to help him out - as you know it will be diffciult for him with you being away.

Hope that helps.