Sharing Parental Experiences

The Work and Families Act was lauded as being advantageous to mums-to-be when it was introduced in 2007. Up to a year off work could be enjoyed, with nine months of statutory maternity pay. For the family, much more time and attention could be devoted to the task of getting ready, receiving and raising the child during these critical periods. Within the caring society that we live, maternity leave is seen as a human right, even though certain pressures can arise between the employee and the employer as part of the ongoing working arrangement. While employers must accept that pregnancy is possible and must accept the letters of the law, they must also be prepared to take on temporary staff as necessary to account for the woman on maternity leave. Of course a certain amount of disruption can be expected, but the majority take this in stride.

For the mum on maternity leave a new clause entitles her to “keep in touch” by taking advantage of 10 legislatively allocated days, allowing her to attend work and receive payment accordingly. Parliament decided that this legislation was appropriate and that it would help to smooth over any element of “disconnection” or normal disruption that might take place in the work place and between the employer and employee over time.

Mum can take advantage of keeping in touch days from several different perspectives. Mum will be able to keep on top of those latest trend changes. While it is of course possible to research at home and to receive notifications, e-mails and so on while on leave, often there is no replacement for actually being at your place of employment, interacting with other staff and, for example, actually seeing how a new procedure plays out. By “keeping in touch” strategically this way, especially as time approaches to go back to work, the employee is more likely to be able to hit the ground running.

Mum may have been involved with a particularly challenging project when baby called. Those keeping in touch days would be particularly advantageous for her in this case, allowing her to continue to follow through and to impart her valued skills. Otherwise, the business may suffer or in certain circumstances, mum may be at somewhat of a career disadvantage when she returns simply due to the fact that she had not been available to work on a pivotal project. By using those keeping in touch days, she would just be “behind” in terms of her time spent moving forward.

Keeping in touch also will allow mum to interact with her temporary replacement and that could potentially help to smooth over any issues or problems that may arise without this type of informal supervision.

Each “keeping in touch” day is also paid by the employer and does not affect the amount of maternity leave pay that she may have. Don’t forget that this can be a nice little boost, financially.

As an extended period away from your work can be challenging indeed, you may well have to seek out professional coaching to give you a good idea how to approach it. These days, online life coaching, specifically online life coaching for women, is a service dedicated to helping us understand how to cope with every distinct phase of our personal lives and business careers.

Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance.