Congratulations! Babies are wonderful. However, the ‘telling-your-boss’ anxiety might be keeping you up at night (good prep for those upcoming night feeds). Will you face discrimination? Will you have a job to come back to? Will you manage financially?
Don’t fear for your career!
These days, there are plenty of forward-thinking companies who provide a good maternity package. And with shared parental leave on the rise, there’s no reason why you should lose all that you’ve worked for.
Here are our top tips to keep your career on track while pregnant and beyond…
Take charge
It’s easy to lose control of the career reins when you’re juggling your job with everything that comes with your new little (in)sidekick. According toAllyson Downey, employers often make decisions in your best interests. But these can be with little to no consultation with you.
The safety aspect of your job role will be in the hands of your employer. But it’s important that you’re vocal about how you expect to continue in your job whilst pregnant.
This includes the way in which your workload is covered in your absence and by whom. Make a plan and go through it with your manager.
Pregnancy Symptoms
The symptoms of pregnancy can be unpredictable, especially if this is your first time. While some women breeze through, others suffer from early and late symptoms. And these can affect your health and job performance.
Early symptoms include faintness, morning sickness, and tiredness
Late symptoms can be hip pain, backache, and exhaustion
Unfortunately, symptoms like heart-burn and sometimes morning sickness can last the entire pregnancy. Let’s be honest, it’s a big change your body’s going through.
So it’s important that you’re honest with yourself and your employer. Make it clear to your employer what’s affecting your performance. You may want to include a doctor’s note. This way you can be given the necessary support and make reasonable changes.
Maternity Leave and Pay
It’s inevitable that your pregnancy will interrupt your career. But, it shouldn’t impact on your progression and your value as an employee.
You’re entitled to return to the same (or equivalent) position at work as when you left.
UK employees have a statutory maternity leave entitlement of 52 weeks:
First 26 weeks ordinary leave
Last 26 weeks additional leave
Find further info on Statutory Maternity Pay on thegovernment website. This includes a handy maternity pay calculator to help you budget for your family.
At James Andrews, our enhanced maternity policy strives to reward long-term service. Staff with at least 2 years of service to us will receive enhanced maternity pay (providing they return to work after their maternity leave is over).
How Does Our Enhanced Maternity Pay Work?
At James Andrews, we value our staff. The longer they work for us, the more experience they give back to the company. After the life-changing event of becoming a parent, we want to see them back with us again.
So, for those who have completed the minimum qualifying period of 2 years, we give an added benefit:
For each complete year of service, our staff will receive 2 weeks of full pay in return during their maternity leave
This will begin after SMP of 90% pay for the first 6 weeks of leave has been completed
These monies will be paid in 4 equal monthly payments
There are T’s and C’s to this policy, of course (the main one being mandatory photos of the baby for us to coo over), but we’ve designed it to support our staff during one of the biggest changes of their lives. Allowing them to ‘bank’ their service to us is an exchange of thanks for their loyalty and hard work.
Like the sound of our work culture?Get in touchto enquire about a career with us.
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