Working Mums?

gettingtheresometime

Without knowing what field you work in does this sign off actually require you to be in the same building?

Could it be that the documents are scanned/emailed to you and you give them the electronic ok -and if they need your physical signature then what about you printing them , signing them and then rescanning / sending them? Or so long as you scan them and have emailed your ok then will sign them on your return to the office.

A side issue, given your last comment. If you do become pregnant next year, have you thought about what happens then?

theoretica

Mrs_A wrote: »

snipped by request

You say working from home is common so could you work 3 days in the office and then the other two days be on call by some agreed method? So signing things off when working from home and keeping track of the hours put in? It might mean being away form your phone such as trips to the swimming pool wouldn't really work, depending on how rapidly things need to be dealt with, but might be the basis of a workable compromise.

CH27

Where would baby go when you were working from home?

Mrs_A_2

Theoretica - I had thought of this.

Gettingtheresometime - It doesn't require me to be there in person.

Mrs_A_2

CH27 - To their normal childcare provider. The only benefit to it is I can change the commute time into some extra 'work' time.

Mrs_A_2

Please could I very kindly ask those that have quoted me to remove them from their posts and to not directly quote?

Gigglepig

If your employer turns out to be inflexible and you must return to full time, perhaps some unpaid parental leave can help?

you and the baby's father can each request 4 weeks off every calendar year as unpaid parental leave (up to a total of 18 weeks each before the baby turns 5.) It can only be taken in blocks of full weeks unfortunately, but is better than nothing and migh really help if childcare is not available during holidays.

https://www.gov.uk/parental-leave/overview

jackomdj

Are there any other roles in the company which house could do.

When I had my eldest (10 next week) I met with my then boss and said to him I was aware my role was not suitable to part time (I would often have to work 3 or 4 hours extra a day during budgeting, year end, forecast, half year periods and if someone wasn't available it would fall on the others who were) but I wasn't prepared to go back full time, I wanted to do three days and would be happy to move into another area to accommodate this. They came back and arranged for me to have a meeting with another senior manager who had a role perfect for me.

I have since had another child, after child no 2 I changed my hours to two long days (which meant only two days of child are), then 3 days mixed hours to fit in with school/after school club, and now I do 4 days with one early start and two where I use after school club.

Talk to them, I know in my company if you are good at your job they can be accommodating as they would rather have you part time than have you leave.

gettingtheresometime

Mrs A - Done.

I guess in some respects it does depend on how urgent things needed to be signed off and what days you were expecting to not work as I know that would have a greater impact.

By that I mean I used to work with someone who wasn't a senior member of staff but who was relied on alot. She returned to work originally working mon-wed which meant that if something came up late wednesday then it basically had to wait 48 hrs.

She then altered her days so that she didn't work a tuesday or a friday which meant that anything urgent or she knowledge of only had to wait 24 hrs.

Could you do something like this?

Mrs_A_2

Jackomdj - Thanks. I guess I'm battling the whole wanting to be at home with baby but still wanting to earn enough money to have our cake and eat it! If I were to ask for a different role it would 100% be lower grade than I'm in now and the pay cut as well as reduced hours would really hit home.

Gettingtheresometime - Yes. I had thought I'd be happy to do (perhaps naively as it may be hard to switch off!) Monday, Wednesday and Friday so that it was never that long until I was around again.