Little Bit of Green

The Work and Families Act was lauded as being advantageous to mums-to-be when it was introduced in 2007. After all, nine months of statutory maternity pay was available, with up to a year off work allowable. 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. Maternity leave is seen as a basic human right in our caring society, although it can put pressures on both employer and employee as part of an ongoing working relationship. 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. This is bound to cause a certain amount of disruption, but in the majority of situations, this is taken in stride.

There is a new clause available for the mum on maternity, allowing her to “keep in touch” through the allocation of 10 legislatively permitted days, during which she can attend work and receive a certain number of payments. This element of the legislation was introduced by Parliament to try and smooth over the disruption and the disconnection that could otherwise occur between employer and employee over this lengthy period of 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.

When baby came around, Mum may have been particularly busy with a challenging project. In this case, keeping in touch days can be used to help her follow-through on this project and to use her valued skills. In an ideal scenario, we would not want the business to suffer in any way and we would not want Mum to be at a disadvantage of any kind when it comes to her career, due to the fact that she was involved in a pivotal project. In this case, she may simply be “behind” in terms of time spent progressing.

Mum will be able to interact with her temporary replacement during the time that she is keeping in touch, able to see any issues or problems as they are arising and predicting situations that may have arisen without formal supervision, otherwise.

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.

Make no mistake about it, sometimes an extended period away from work can be very challenging and you may need to seek out professional coaching to help you understand how to handle it. Generally, online life coaching helps us to cope with significant issues that arise in our daily lives and coaching for women can really help in this case, to balance personal and business issues.

Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!

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