Back to work after Maternity leave - annoyed!!

[whitenoise24]

Hi all,

I am currently on maternity leave, and will be looking to go back to work in June. I work in a project focused office job as part of a big organisation, with a mixture of clients and internal teams. The job is very full-on and demanding, however work can be redistributed depending on capacity etc - for context we are able to split the work so I could essentially manage 80% of the budgets that full time team members do. I also work remotely and go into the office twice a month.

I have made my manager aware than I'd like to return to work 4 days a week, and will be putting the formal request in shortly. She encouraged me to do so and said that in principle, it's fine.

She then went on to tell me how she tried to work 4 days a week when she returned from maternity leave (last year - she was in an equivalent job to me then) yet found she was essentially working 5 days a week as the workload was insane and demands on her were so high, so she was putting the extra work in and not getting paid for it. She said it was unmanageable so she returned to work full-time.

I went on to say I believe 4 days is doable if I am able to protect my time (ie block out an hour to get some non-negotiables done) and work efficiently and she said basically said its not always possible to protect your time if you need to be always reachable during your working hours so she logs on when the kids are in bed and it's the only way to ensure the job is doable.

All I could think was that she should have had better boundaries in place to start with and ensured her work load was manageable within her working days. If the company agreed to let her return 4 days a week then workload should have been adjusted accordingly. Instead she worked loads of unpaid overtime, decided it was too much, so went full time so at least she was getting paid for it, now missing out on the time with her kids.

It's clear now her expectations are now for me to do the same, that I will inevitably have to put extra hours in, log in after hours when the baby is in bed etc, and be unable to protect my time. Her words were 'Im not advocating working late but it's the only way we can get it done to make sure were ahead of the game'.

I now feel quite negative about returning to work though and slightly annoyed she wasn't more encouraging of boundaries etc.

Am I seeing this too black and white, or getting ahead of myself? I read so much about women getting screwed over when returning to work so I'm so keen to have my boundaries in place from day 1! Has anyone got any words of wisdom for returning to work and how to go about being protective of boundaries?! I have a tendency to sit on the fence, not speak up but I know Im going to need to use my voice more than ever to get off on the right foot.

Thanks so much!
X

I know it must be frustrating but I actually think she is coming from a kind place and is trying to warn you.

You can ask for 4 days a week but are not entitled to it. Therefore if you get it you can set strict boundaries around your time and not work evenings. But if the work that is needed doesn't end up being done it may be expected you work 5.

Is there someone else who can take the workload youre dropping?

if I were you I would do 4 days and be strict with boundaries but be very careful not to piss them off

I also think she is trying to be nice.
She seems to be saying get paid for the full time role as you will end up doing it anyway.
You are so much better off financially and reputationally working f/t in reality especially if you care about progressing your career (if you don't, work four days and set your boundaries).

This if from someone who worked 4 days per week max with great boundaries for 16 years including 3 x mat leave, one of nearly 3 years! And once I returned to full time work my career took off like I had never predicted!

Absolutely fine to be clear about boundaries but it does come at a cost so make sure you've considered that alongside all other options like your partner cutting back hours etc

She's right. Everyone I know who's gone to 4 days has ended up with 5 days work for 4 days pay.

Stay on 5 days or go to 3.

This is true of everyone I know who has gone to 4 days. Companies love it, they get to pay you 20% less for the same job. This is why I asked for compressed hours as I knew they wouldn’t employ someone to pick up my role one day a week. Unsurprisingly it was rejected! Despite people doing similar roles in four days.

It obviously depends on your role, but if they haven’t removed 20% of your workload and allocated it elsewhere, then you will be expected to do your original job at a lower rate.

Agree with this.
Dropping one day has not been enough to remove some of the workload for everyone I know who's done this.
They've all ended up being paid for 0.8 and doing a full time job.

Going to 3 days means the employer really has to find someone for the other 2 days worth of work

The problem with 4 days is that it can't really be made into a jobshare so who is going to do the 20% of the work that you don't?

This happened to me going to three days, they grudgingly agreed, didn't recruit a jobshare partner and I had to essentially try and do my FT job in three days (this was in the pre WFH days so no logging on in the evening but absolutely flat out during working hours with a lot of unpaid OT and relying on goodwill from my colleagues). It was extremely stressful and thankfully I got made redundant in the end.

I work a 9 day fortnight, so do all my hours over 9 days and take every other Tuesday off. Would that give you the time off you need?

Didn't work for me. I ended up working for no pay the 5th day and left for another job.

I work 4 days and do my FT job in that time. Works for me now as the day off with dc is more important, but the proper salary would be nice!

I think she’s trying to warn you nicely that as no one else will be picking up the 20% it’s going to fall to you. Could you put a request in to do your full time hours over 4 days?

I’m also going back 4 days in January and just know that a lot of the time I’ll end up doing extra because I have to fit 5 days work in to 4. Fortunately my colleague also works 4 days and we may be adding another person to the team at our level so they could pick up our Monday and Friday that we don’t work between us and do the extra projects that we have coming up but it’s certainly not a given. We are really good with protecting our time at my work but due to the nature of the business I know I will just have to do a bit more some weeks which I’m fine with because I know I’ve got the flexibility to essentially bank the time and take it off later. You could maybe ask about that too?

Thank you all for your messages - very interesting re most ending up doing 5 days, I hadn't realised it was so common!

If they agree to a 4 day week and I physically can’t get all my work done Id like to think I have the right to push back, but I guess thats wishful thinking.

I work in an industry where part of my job is to schedule peoples work. i.e schedule tasks to a designer. If Ive been quoted that the work takes 5 days I wouldn't dream of only giving them 4 days to do it, and if I did I’d be responsible for the poor outcome - I think thats where I’m coming from as its very black and white in my company for some roles but not others.

I think essentially Im irritated as I want to spend time with my baby but I don’t want my career to fall flat - yes Im aware I want it all and that isn't possible!

I’ll do the 4 days to the best of my ability and see where we are!