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How to Prep for Maternity Leave

maternity-leave-prepBy J. Mason
Online Career Tips Editor

Getting ready for a long break from work tends to be a little stressful for the busy worker. When that long break is accompanied by the birth of a child then the stress gets compounded. Since I’m nearing my maternity leave I wanted to share my words of wisdom for preparing your work colleagues for this extended loss of your appearance in the office.

Preparing for maternity leave is similar to a long vacation. For me, I always plan out my content in advance and schedule an extra meeting or two. I can’t relax on my vacation if I know my task list at work is a big mess. The same goes for maternity leave. You don’t want to get a month, or even two weeks up to your due date with open ended projects and unanswered questions. Most companies require employees to have a leave plan. What I did for myself was start preparing many months in advance.

Tell Your Boss

Get this out of the way after the first trimester. After you and baby are in the clear go ahead and tell your boss when you’re due. They’ll appreciate having six or seven months to plan for your leave, instead of a few. By law you do not need to disclose this information early, but I did so we could pace certain projects. Take note though, once reported to HR you’ll have to get your paperwork filled out super early! This isn’t a big deal, but can be a pain going back and forth to the doctor to hand in the documents.

For those that may be worried about losing their job on account of the pregnancy and time outside of work, talk to HR first. You cannot be terminated on account of your pregnancy, and there are several programs that will support you on your maternity leave. There’s Short Term Disability (STD) and Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). Depending on your time spent at your current position you could qualify for between 6 weeks and 12 weeks of paid or unpaid leave. Being pregnant is something to celebrate, so let people know early if possible.

Start Mapping Out Meetings

Since I’m due in October I started meeting with members of my team and other departments back in June. This way we came up with a plan to start transitioning items out of my queue come late September. You can still spearhead new projects, but keep in mind a realistic time frame. If some crucial items will have to wait until your leave, then designate someone to cover them when they’re available. Have colleagues named to backup your work.

Find Your Backup

Most companies don’t have extra employees sitting on a shelf waiting to be put “into the game”. This means that your tasks will have to be spread around. Make a list, a few months before you’re out, of your major projects and daily items and put a name next to them. Review the list with your boss then start assigning out. Since your coworker will be thrown new work they need time to transition and prepare for the change. Don’t leave them with a week to learn something new.

Create “How-to” Documents

If you’ve never done technical writing before, now is your chance! Open a Word document and put each of your processes down on paper. This includes weekly calls you make to internal and external stakeholders, reports you create, meetings you hold, and updates to company assets. Be as descriptive as possible for each task and include important details where necessary. This is one place where you don’t need to skimp on the details. Your coworker will appreciate the time you spent on the document, and it will come in handy if your backup is out of town.

Start Training

About two months before my due date I created meetings with various colleagues to go over my long task list. At the time I already had my training documents too. This way they could read along while I performed the task at my desk. Since some people are visual learners it may take a couple of tries for them to complete the task on their own, so don’t get discouraged if they seem clueless in the training. Also ask them to create a list of questions for you during and after the training. This way you can add more information to your document, or scale back on it.

Give Your Backup a Test Run Week

If you’re in charge of high profile projects then give your backup time to adjust while you’re still around. About a month out from your leave assign them a few of your tasks. If something crashes then you’re around to fix it. You want to leave knowing they feel confident in taking over for you.

Don’t Forget Your OOO Message

Creating your Out of Office (OOO) message should be at the end of your to-do list. I just created mine a week ago. With only a couple weeks to go you know who your backups are. Make sure to include this information in your message so that outsiders won’t be turned away. It also helps to include some type of time frame for your return. You can tell them the month you’ll be returning even if you’re not sure of the date yet.

The last thing you should be doing is winding down. Don’t take on anything new a few weeks before your due date. Your boss should be completely prepared at this point to take over if you go out early. Stay healthy and stress free before it’s your time to go, but leave your colleagues with plenty of information so they’ll be celebrating your return.

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