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XII. Before and After: Maternity Leave Transitions at Work
If you’ve followed our suggestions thus far, you’ve already determined (or at least, started considering) the extent of your maternity leave. You’ve figured out how long you can take for leave – either by law, by company policy or by your preference. You’ve decided when you’re going to start your leave. Now you’ll need to put together a transition plan to make sure that your work gets done – and done correctly – while you’re gone. No one wants to come back to a disaster of a desk/cubicle/office.
On the front end, you may want to consider implementing the beginnings of your transition plan as soon as you reach about 32 weeks. You shouldn’t assume that you’ll make it to 40 weeks – always plan for the unexpected.
These suggestions are geared towards someone with an office job. Retail and manufacturing jobs are unique and won’t necessarily fit into the schedule discussed here. But you can still use this as a basic framework to create your own transition plan.
Depending on your job specifics, of course, the best place to start your transition plan is to do some simple organization. Clean up your desk, organize your computer desktop, clear old emails, straighten up your office and your files.
Make it as easy as possible for someone else to walk into your office and find something in the event you go into labor early in the middle of the night and aren’t available for consultation on any random morning!
Talk with your boss or supervisor about who will be taking on your job responsibilities in your absence. It may be helpful to provide your supervisor with a list of the things you do on a regular basis. Chances are good that you do several things that your supervisor doesn’t realize.
After you determine who will do your job while you’re gone – a temporary replacement, a co-worker or several co-workers – you should find a way to communicate your job responsibilities to those people. You can begin writing status memos – updated as necessary – regarding your clients, cases, assignments, etc. that will allow your replacement to step in and immediately understand where a particular project is situated.
If a temporary replacement will be coming in, a simple desk manual might be appropriate – include frequent contacts and regular procedures. Any efforts you make to this end will be appreciated by your supervisor and make your “re-entry” a little smoother.
Don’t forget to change your outgoing voice mail message or forward your calls as necessary (or leave someone else the code to your phone to allow them to change the message if you aren’t able to).
Also decide how to handle your emails – you can have them forwarded to your home email address, you can access them from home via webmail or you can have them forwarded or monitored by someone else at work (the best choice for a peaceful maternity leave!).
In order to make the transition back to work after the end of your leave, you’ll need to reverse the process. Ask your replacement (whether a temp or a co-worker) to keep updating your status memos while you’re gone – then you can figure out where things are situated easily upon your return. Request that you be left some sort of note, report or memo regarding anything important which might occur in your absence.
If you can, take a few partial days at the end of your leave to stop into the office while your replacements are still working your job so that you can chat with them about what has been going on.
Even an hour or two before you dive back into the workforce can help re-acclimate you to the job, the projects, the clients and your co-workers.
Last but not least, you may need to have a discussion with your supervisor about any schedule changes you may have after returning from leave. You may choose to breastfeed your child and will need breaks and an appropriate location in the office to use your breast pump. Whereas you may have been an employee happy to work late most nights before your baby was born, day cares charge a hefty penalty if you are late to pick your child up.
Your ability to alter your schedule at the whim of your employer may be limited now. These are some things to talk about with your boss before the situation comes up. Even if you have the conversation a few days before you go back to work, it will be better received than if you wait until the boss asks you to stay late and you have to refuse his or her request.
So, as with almost every other aspect of maternity, transitioning to and from maternity leave is best accomplished with the appropriate planning. Preparation usually makes everything go as smoothly as possible.
There will always be bumps. Someone will always call you at home, during your second week of leave, frantically looking for a client’s file or a report. But a good transition plan will cut down on the number of those phone calls and emails so that you can pay attention to your new job: being a parent.
Proceed to - Maternity Leave Checklist
On the front end, you may want to consider implementing the beginnings of your transition plan as soon as you reach about 32 weeks. You shouldn’t assume that you’ll make it to 40 weeks – always plan for the unexpected.
These suggestions are geared towards someone with an office job. Retail and manufacturing jobs are unique and won’t necessarily fit into the schedule discussed here. But you can still use this as a basic framework to create your own transition plan.
Depending on your job specifics, of course, the best place to start your transition plan is to do some simple organization. Clean up your desk, organize your computer desktop, clear old emails, straighten up your office and your files.
Make it as easy as possible for someone else to walk into your office and find something in the event you go into labor early in the middle of the night and aren’t available for consultation on any random morning!
Talk with your boss or supervisor about who will be taking on your job responsibilities in your absence. It may be helpful to provide your supervisor with a list of the things you do on a regular basis. Chances are good that you do several things that your supervisor doesn’t realize.
After you determine who will do your job while you’re gone – a temporary replacement, a co-worker or several co-workers – you should find a way to communicate your job responsibilities to those people. You can begin writing status memos – updated as necessary – regarding your clients, cases, assignments, etc. that will allow your replacement to step in and immediately understand where a particular project is situated.
If a temporary replacement will be coming in, a simple desk manual might be appropriate – include frequent contacts and regular procedures. Any efforts you make to this end will be appreciated by your supervisor and make your “re-entry” a little smoother.
Don’t forget to change your outgoing voice mail message or forward your calls as necessary (or leave someone else the code to your phone to allow them to change the message if you aren’t able to).
Also decide how to handle your emails – you can have them forwarded to your home email address, you can access them from home via webmail or you can have them forwarded or monitored by someone else at work (the best choice for a peaceful maternity leave!).
In order to make the transition back to work after the end of your leave, you’ll need to reverse the process. Ask your replacement (whether a temp or a co-worker) to keep updating your status memos while you’re gone – then you can figure out where things are situated easily upon your return. Request that you be left some sort of note, report or memo regarding anything important which might occur in your absence.
If you can, take a few partial days at the end of your leave to stop into the office while your replacements are still working your job so that you can chat with them about what has been going on.
Even an hour or two before you dive back into the workforce can help re-acclimate you to the job, the projects, the clients and your co-workers.
Last but not least, you may need to have a discussion with your supervisor about any schedule changes you may have after returning from leave. You may choose to breastfeed your child and will need breaks and an appropriate location in the office to use your breast pump. Whereas you may have been an employee happy to work late most nights before your baby was born, day cares charge a hefty penalty if you are late to pick your child up.
Your ability to alter your schedule at the whim of your employer may be limited now. These are some things to talk about with your boss before the situation comes up. Even if you have the conversation a few days before you go back to work, it will be better received than if you wait until the boss asks you to stay late and you have to refuse his or her request.
So, as with almost every other aspect of maternity, transitioning to and from maternity leave is best accomplished with the appropriate planning. Preparation usually makes everything go as smoothly as possible.
There will always be bumps. Someone will always call you at home, during your second week of leave, frantically looking for a client’s file or a report. But a good transition plan will cut down on the number of those phone calls and emails so that you can pay attention to your new job: being a parent.
Proceed to - Maternity Leave Checklist
