Congratulations! A pregnancy kit or your hospital lab has confirmed the news. You’re pregnant. Maybe you’ve been planning and hoping for the Big Fat Positive. Maybe it’s all a bit of a shock. Still, it requires you to make a number of decisions quickly. Who to tell? When to tell? How to organise your home for a baby? How to organise your life? And very importantly, what about work?
We don’t have all the answers but we do have a few tips based on research and our experience as working mothers. So here goes.
1. Tell your boss first.
As soon as you can. Tell your boss before your colleagues know (she won’t appreciate learning about your pregnancy via office gossip). You don’t need to work out the details but just a simple, “Hello, boss. So I thought you should know: I’ll need to take maternity leave in December.” is enough to give her a heads up.
2. Re-prioritize your work goals.
If your performance ranking is going to be based on the work you complete before going on maternity leave, then it’s important for you to spend your limited time doing the right things. Also realise that, if you haven’t started experiencing it yet, you’re probably headed into the period of morning sickness, hyperemesis and super low energy levels. You need to manage your energy levels effectively, so you can’t work the way you did before. Ruthlessly prioritize, going after high-payout assignments and securing quick wins on your goals for the year.
3. Prepare for handover.
Your maternity leave means that a vacuum will be created by your absence. To make sure that your return is as seamless as possible, you have to plan your exit properly. Don’t just up and leave. Break down your responsibilities into tasks that you can assign to your subordinates, team mates and superiors. Your team might hire someone temporarily to do your work. It makes sense for this person to resume work at least a month before you leave so that the transition is smoother. If you’re delegating your tasks to subordinates, be sure to tie it to their developmental goals. Your absence provides an opportunity for them to stretch a bit but only if you manage it as such. Don’t make it look like you’re dumping the work on them and fleeing.
4. Decide how long you’ll go for.
Most companies in Nigeria offer paid maternity leave of 10 to 20 weeks. Most women add their annual leave days to this leave and so you could be looking at between 12 to 26 weeks off-work. Again, you need to decide if you’ll take all the leave you can get and if you want to negotiate for longer. Some companies offer the option of taking another 1 to 2 months leave unpaid, so explore that with HR if it’s something you’re interested in. If you don’t ask, the answer is always No.
Read Also: Handling Pregnancy With A Toddler
Decide how you’ll stay in touch.
Will you check in via email once a week? Do you want to be cc-ed on relevant emails? Even though you won’t. be actively working, it makes sense to keep in touch via email so that you aren’t completely in the dark when you return. Also explore the option of “check-in” days and a phased return to work. Is it possible to come in for, say, 2 days a week, then 3 days, then 4 days instead of jumping right back into a 5-day work week? Would you like to dial in for a team teleconference once a week when you’re a bit more settled after the baby? Decide what works for best for you and negotiate with your boss.
Return in the middle of the work week
It can be tempting to resume from maternity leave on a Monday. But that means you’ll go from about 5 months of no work, to 5-straight days of work. It can be distressing, to say the least. Instead, plan to resume work on a Wednesday or Thursday. That way, you can spend 2/3 days at work as a test period, go on a weekend to recuperate and then resume the following Monday.
Don’t Change Your Hours or Tasks
Some companies offer flexible work hours or part-time work hours, for a commensurate pay-cut. It can also be tempting to plan to cut your work hours after baby is born. Or, if you work part-time already, it might be tempting to decide to switch to full-time after the baby is born to earn more money. The advice is to not make any changes to your work hours before the baby is born. Let the baby come and then you test your old hours and see how well you’re coping. That way you can decide if it really is necessary to switch. This also applies to deciding if you’ll work from home. At least go to the office for a bit to let others see that you’re back at work, and then you can kick off your work-from-home plans.
And what about Dad?
When we talk about maternity leave, it’s often easy to leave Dads out of the equation. But working fathers are entitled to some paternity leave days (too little, to be honest) and vacation days. Those days can come in useful in balancing your family’s work and childcare responsibility. So be sure to test all the assumptions you have and know what’s available. Again, many companies offer unpaid leave days and if your family can afford it, take advantage of them.
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