Thought I'd give a snap-shot of the return-to-work situations of my Mum friends and their partners following having a baby. Most women are permanent employees. Paid maternity leave was mostly 6 weeks, with some at zero, some as high as 12-14 weeks, and mine taking the cake at 36 weeks paid. Ah, you win some, you lose some! Here goes :
1) Lawyer: returning to work 3 days/week as negotiated prior to having baby. Is early on in a 5-year contract with her employer. Her partner (lawyer in public service) has negotiated working 4 days/week once Mum goes back to work.
2) Marketer: her partner got a promotion whilst she was on maternity leave, and decided once having her baby, that she'd rather work part time at the end of her Maternity Leave. Employer at first said "yes" to 3 days/week, then changed their mind 3 months later, saying "Full time or nothing". She found part time work at her husband's work place, working in the area of "glorified data entry", which is neither in her previous area of work and is far below her previous salary rate. Previous employer requested to meet with her again, recently - they seem to be changing their mind a lot.
3) Dietitian, public hospital: returning to work 3 days/week. Found someone to job share with, so the only issue was agreeing on who would work which days and organising child care.
4) Worked for international firm: Company has pulled out of Australia. Budgeted and decided that they can survive on one income for about 18 months, and then they have plans to travel. French Canadian, and may do some translation work from home.
5) Cafe Manager (CBD): has decided that her former job doesn't really fit with motherhood. Is retraining, doing accounting certificate at TAFE, and may use this to help out with partners' small business. Works a few evenings a week at a different cafe.
6) Long-haul air hostess: Has loads of leave up her sleeve due to long service with company. Plans to go back to work 3 long weekends out of 8, with possible nanny on weekdays if needed, shared with others from her work who will try to coordinate shifts. Awaiting announcement on industrial agreement/large scale retrenchments to see what happens, and may put her hand up in that case. Partner runs a small business.
7) Professional, multinational telco: Negotiated and granted return to work at 3 days/week after her year maternity leave. Partner (corporate law firm) has negotiated working from home half a day/week.
8) Teacher/administrator, tertiary institution: has negotiated 3 days/week since going on maternity leave. Partner (civil servant) has negotiated working 3 days/week also, starting in a couple of months.
9) Civil servant: still negotiating returning to work 3 days/week, and one of those days is a Sunday.
10) Admin, not for profit org: returned 3 days/week after 6 months leave (as planned to get pregnant again then and wanted to work for a bit).
and finally me,
11) Senior non-academic staff on a fixed term contract, tertiary institution: see previous posts (April, 2006) regarding what happened when I went on maternity leave. I seem to be pushing the frontiers of my Employers maternity leave policy... Having worked on continuously renewed contracts for at least 2 years prior to going on maternity leave, they granted me the same whiz bang paid maternity leave provisions (36 weeks) as a permanent employee who has worked there > 2 years. Was also approved to return to work 3 days a week.
What differs for me compared to permanent employees is my return to work. They have until 11 April to formally notify me of the fate of my position, and haven't done so formally yet, but I'm not holding my breath. Therefore, find myself in the job market for part time work. Partner not in a position to go part time for a couple of years, having just started a new job in a new field.
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