Promotion while on Mat leave?

[FunnyOrca]

I am currently on mat leave with my first baby. A promotion has come up at work. I fit the job description well.

Internally, I don’t think anyone has a better shot than me unless there has been a very large shift in my absence. Externally, I believe they could find an excellent candidate that could surpass me. It is in a specialist subject knowledge area, which is why I think I have the edge internally.

I had my husband read the job description, which my line manager forwarded. He thought it was written with me in mind and I should apply.

I am hesitant as I would be going straight into it from mat leave and it involves line management, which I have never done before. I have managed a team, but for things like annual review and grievances/support we all had the same line manager.

I also really don’t want to leave my baby for more time than I have to. I had been planning on returning and flying under the radar, doing what I do well and leaving sharp. A promotion obviously does not allow for this.

Any insights on what you would do in this situation or if anyone has taken a promotion following mat leave, how they found it?

hello! I took a quite a big promotion while on maternity leave and it actually worked out really well for me. In some ways I think it helped because returning from mat leave is a big adjustment anyway, so I thought I may as well throw myself in at the deep end. I probably would have had similar nerves even if I’d just gone back to my old role.

One thing I would suggest considering though is whether you might want to reduce your hours when you return, and whether that would be compatible with the promotion. You don’t want to accept the role and then find out the flexibility you might want isn’t possible. Thankfully in my case I was able to reduce my hours, so I felt like I had the best of both worlds and due to the salary increase for the promotion, it had little impact on my pay in that I was earning pretty much the same as I was full time in my previous role.

Good luck with the application, it sounds like you’d be a really strong fit for the role. 😊

Thank you @bubbletubble unfortunately due to the nature of the role it will have to be full time.

But that is good to know that you viewed it all as an adjustment. I think looking at it that way feels encouraging.

I could have written this! I did apply/get/take it and it worked out well for spending more time with my son as the extra money meant I could go back 4 days a week on the same money. I felt like if I had to leave my kid I was going to make it worthwhile- I would have struggled leaving him and not fulfilling my potential. Different ways to looking at it! Best of luck

I got promoted the day before I went on mat leave and came back after 10months away into the new job 😆 On the one hand, I felt more pressure to do more hours than perhaps I would have done in my old job, but it was far better in the long term for my career than waiting for the next vacancy. My manager was really supportive about helping me settle back in and into the role, and the extra money was so so helpful when we came to planning for baby #2.

Can I ask how you managed balancing your time? This is also my fear and I was already working silly hours.

It was tough. We ended up being very routine driven - strict bedtime etc so there was time in the evening for me to log back on. Lots of days she got picked up from nursery at 5.59, which was not ideal. DH also did his share so at least twice a week i was able to work in the office late and not worry about rushing home. We massively prioritised family time at weekends - so didnt agree to loads of meet ups / outings / rushing around to different events, so that we had lots of special time just the three of us.

We discussed and I decided i would do it until we were ready to try for #2 and then reassess. There's about 2yrs 9m between the two so i'd done nearly 2yrs at the new level when I went off on mat leave again. After I went back after #2 mat leave, i was established enough that I said I was dropping to 3days a week and noone argued with me. And actually, it has been much nicer being able to pick up DD1 from school at 3pm now on my non working days. So even though it was tricky at the time, it has given me more freedom now.

Thank you so much everyone! I have applied 😵‍💫🤣🤞

Good luck @FunnyOrca🍀🤞🏼

Well done for applying. I went back full time after first baby, in October, and honestly it is such an adjustment anyway, I don't think it would make that much difference going into a new role. This is so obvious but has caused tension for us - but have a proper discussion with your partner about how you will manage taking time off for baby sickness. It shouldn't just default to you, it needs to be shared fairly.

I applied for a promotion at a different company whilst on maternity leave. I got it and it worked well, as going back it feels like everything is new anyways.