Going back on Maternity in 8 months

[Glikooli]

Looking for some advice - any HR specialists would love your opinion.

I work for a large company in finance. I returned from mat leave yesterday after having my first child and found out I'm 5 weeks pregnant with my second.
The person covering my role was hired and offered a fixed term contract ending in 3 weeks and as we are doing handover I'm realising it would be so beneficial to keep him on as anything could happen. If I go on sick leave or give birth early it would be a huge help to the company and also me to not worry so much as he is already up to speed. My workload has also increased as the team has won new contracts - I do not feel it's manageable by just me. I also have lots of accrued annual leave which I'm planning to spread out and make every week a 3 day working week instead of block chunks off.

I haven't announced my pregnancy and wasn't planning too until 12 weeks .

My manager has already said the company are not able to hire anyone else to help out with the new contracts however it's inevitable they will have to start the hiring process again in a few months time. My role isn't small enough to be taken over by an existing colleague temporarily.

Any advice on what I should do?

I was planning to approach HR myself and request that my replacement is offered to stay however this would mean disclosing my pregnancy so early on. For everyone's best interest it does make sense he stays on but I'm not sure how to convince them. I plan to go on leave again in 8 months time for another 52 weeks.

Everyone in senior management is male and I am worried how they will take the news. My suggestion is we work alongside each other for the next few months and the two of us sharing workload should mean less burnout and better productivity.

To add my replacement cover is more than happy to stay in the company as he likes the role and stability.

Thanks for your help all

In this case, I'd chat to HR or your manager and explain the situation. I think they'd be really grateful for your honesty and transparency. And I'm sure the guy who covered your role will be too if he wants to stay!

I would have an informal conversation. I seem to remember certain protections are put in place as soon as you inform your manager that you are pregnant (from what I remember from reading my HR policy)

Are you sure they’d let you use your AL like that? Many companies don’t and they can tell you when/how to take AL.

I definitely want to tell HR but I'm afraid of my manager thinking I'm trying to "get out of work" or go above his head in anyway by going directly to HR. Also don't know how to delicately say "I'm not happy about having double the workload to come back too"...

Thank you for the encouragement

My manager jokingly asked when I'm ready for number 2 and at this point I hadn't found out so I said no not for a while!

I hope so - it's such a big well known company I doubt they would risk messing with pregnancy protection for employees. Just hope that they can be understanding and accept my proposal!

Yes I've had the ok aslong as I don't miss key deadlines so I can't be doing the same day off each week. It'll have to tailored to what I have due that week and I'm fine with that

That’s great, as I said I know some don’t like it.

Personally I would say nothing until 12 weeks or even later. This will still give a lot of time to recruit a replacement for you and it’s not essential that it is the same person who covered last time.

The company shouldn’t discriminate against you and you have the right to sue if they do but all that means is they will pay you off. It doesn’t mean you keep your role and if anything goes wrong with this pregnancy (and obviously I hope it doesn’t but 5 weeks is VERY early days) you will have affected your relationships unnecessarily.

Almost the same thing happened to me but I told work before I came back from mat leave 1 that I was pregnant with number 2. I’m a lawyer so they didn’t fire me but they did offer me a deal which I didn’t take and my ongoing career with that company then foundered. Pregnant and Screwed exists for very good reasons! Don’t take this risk!

Honestly, I would try and link it to your three day week proposal and the transition rather than around your new pregnancy (congrats btw!)

We've kept mat leave cover in place whilst people have returned like this and it's really helpful. By the time you would be going back full time hopefully you'll be able to share the pregnancy news and then the business can decide what to do next.

I don't think saying you are pregnant again and that they should keep the mat cover on puts you in the best position (and I say this as someone who went back to work after 9 months leave pregnant again 🙈)

If it was a small company that had been very good to me I might decide to tell them. It's a nice thing to do for them, but it may be at your expense.
But you seem to work for a big company, which should be able to absorb these kinds of things easily. AND they've used your mat leave to sneakily double your workload? Screw them.
I would have a meeting with your line manager and point out that the workload has increased substantially since you left, so who should you pass on the extra work to?

They might also not want to keep the cover on as presumable by the time you return from a second maternity leave they would have been there well over 2 years and have employment rights?

In my job it takes weeks to get someone on boarded with IT and probably 3 months minimum for them to understand the job and do it unassisted . It was incredibly stressful for me during my first pregnancy as they could only recruit once I'd submitted my Matb1 after 20 weeks and getting the ad past HR, interviews and accepting meant he started after I left. I had to document everything so meticulously I dread going through it again!
I know they don't HAVE to keep him on but I could see it being so useful to them to have him already up to speed.
I am more worried about them being off with me for suggesting this idea instead of being off with me for having another child
Thank you for this it is food for thought indeed

Totally forgot about this! Good point..

Thank you!!
He's on a FTC so once the remaining 3 weeks are up he has to leave and this really puts pressure on me to decide soon.
I plan to do 3 day week even after he's gone as I've got that much leave still in the pot!

I can definitely see the benefits to this but my company would say a flat out no to, effectively, paying two salaries for 8 months when they think (rightly or wrongly) that the job can be done by one person.

Honestly I'm really leaning towards this! I am just way too polite and frightened of destroying the relationship to say anything yet. My thoughts were let me settle into work give it a month or two and then say "sorry I'm drowning here I can't keep up". Atleast that way I will have actually proved I've tried to manage the workload.
They can absorb it easily but only by additional hiring - which apparently isn't possible now..

Unfortunately I think this is that'll happen and I'll end up looking silly for thinking I could even suggest it
Realistically the upcoming replacement will be needed in 5 months time for them to witness and learn to properly take over but either way you're right it could be taken on by one person.

If they don’t have the money to hire an additional role that’s it really. All you risk by disclosing your pregnancy while your mat cover is still available is to be managed out and your role being offered to them. All the more so if you say you can’t keep up with the work, if the alternative was more productive and was already doing this at the time you came back.

Your handover manuals are all written already and will only need a small amount of updating so the time you spent creating these for your first mat leave is a bit of a red herring.

it’s not ideal to come back to a greater workload after mat leave as it’s a struggle getting used to parenthood plus working and adding in a new pregnancy makes it harder again, so I am sympathetic to you but you need to be aware your employer may not be!

So the company makes hundreds of millions in profit a year it definitely CAN afford to keep us on both on together for a few months. Handover manuals are just a tiny part and now they are obsolete with all the new workload it's a drastic change...
Understood, I agree saying I'm not coping well with the workload doesn't look good but I haven't considered bringing that as a reason for my suggestion. My first pregnancy I disclosed at 8 weeks as I was worried about being nauseous and unwell and needed some understanding if I was away from my desk. This time I do think I'd be happy to let HR know earlier and then my LM if I could.

And yet on two separate occasions they have told you they can’t afford this. The amount of profit they make annually isn’t all that relevant particularly if they are a listed company and need to pay a dividend or have other obligations to meet (pensions, servicing loans, etc). The relevant metrics are their cash flow and their operating margin for your part of their business.

They had to postpone recruiting for your mat leave last time around because they couldn’t fund a long concurrent period of you and your replacement and they’ve already told you that they won’t keep your mat cover on to help whilst you are working short weeks using your annual leave. This does suggest that they genuinely can’t afford it. I suspect you have very little idea of what goes on in the CFO’s office and what their financial situation actually is!