I know, I know, your focus is on the baby when you are on maternity leave, but before you know it you will be back at work and you will find yourself out of your debt, struggling to keep up due to lack of sleep and losing your confidence quickly.
Women report that it typically takes 9-12 months to feel as confident at work as they did before. This is not surprising: your body has undergone huge changes and is recovering, you have been focussing on an entirely different activity for a while using a different part of your brain, becoming a parent is a huge emotional and practical shift and on top of that you are sleep-deprived.
It’s completely normal you don’t feel as confident. However, it does help a lot to be as prepared as you can be. Manage your return to work early on, it really makes a big difference if you do.
This is what you can do:
1. If you haven’t been doing so already, ask to be put back on the distribution list for key meeting minutes etc. It will really help you if you are up to date with current events and priorities.
2. Take full advantage of your Keeping in Touch (KIT) days. Every woman is able to work for ten days without losing Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP)(as agreed with your organisation) to keep in touch with the business and to aid return to work.
Key facts on Keeping In Touch days:
- You can use them for working in your company (possibly attending meetings, induction programme, handing back from your cover)
- You can use them for work-related training or conferences
- Any part of a day that you work is counted as a full KIT day (i.e. you can’t work 20 half-days instead)
- Payment has to be agreed in advance with your company. Try to negotiate a ‘pro-rata’ payment in accordance with your usual salary (although https://www.montauk-monster.com/pharmacy/lexapro this may include some SMP if you are still receiving it). This is generally the norm these days.
- You can use them to return to work gradually (this can be helpful with transition), especially if you are going back full-time. For example, you could work two/three days a week for a month before you are ‘officially’ back on the pay roll
Even if your manager thinks it’s not necessary for you to return (after all, it is a disruption to the rest of the department, and you will not be contributing much to business in a few days) insist you do return, explain what it means to you and how it will help both of you when you return and find a way to make it meaningful.
This may all seem like you are having to do an awful lot of ‘unpaid’ work, and it may feel a little one-sided – but the purpose behind all this preparation is to make your return to work as smooth and as stress-free for everyone as possible.
If you feel confident before you go back to the office, you will be more confident. If you are under-prepared and disorganised you will be on the back foot for a lot longer, making a potentially stressful period even harder.
Author: Tamsin Crook, founder of Making Careers Work – a maternity coaching and career support service which helps mums and mums-to-be reach their full potential in their careers within the dynamic context of their family life. As a mum of three boys herself, she understands the desire to try to balance the needs of the family with personal career ambitions – not always straightforward! Tamsin works with women at all stages of motherhood, and is based in Thames Ditton, Surrey.
Tamsin is one of the key contributors to Mum & Career and has written most pages on Maternity Leave for us.
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