Who does your work during mat leave?

shakinros · November 2014

Spinning off from the post below about when to give notice...

I saw a couple other posters mentioning that coworkers would be covering for people on mat leave and think of the burden on them, etc. Was that true for most of you? Your work was doled out to other people?

I insisted that my company hire a temporary contract replacement. I found her. I left a specific list of tasks (by date) and a weekly general to-do list. I trained her for a week too. I was at a medium sized nonprofit, and there was absolutely way too much work for my coworkers to take it on. Since my company doesn't pay any maternity benefits, they didn't lose any money on the deal. Probably even saved some, despite paying us both for 1 week.

How did it work at your place?

vvvvvfee · November 2014

i work at a small non-profit. some of my work was divided among my boss and a couple of part-time staff members. other things didn't/couldn't get done while i was out (part of what i do is in-house tech support, so people had to do without or go directly to our outside IT company for help).

i was out on FMLA (paid, though, since i had saved up enough sick/vacation time). we are in a union. i suppose they could have put a part-time person on temporary full-time, but it all seemed to work out fine.

aglenn · November 2014

We work in teams so for things that need to be done while someone's out the rest of the team generally pitches in. Sometimes we might ask for help from someone outside the team, but that's harder to do due to the nature of the work and doesn't happen very often. Things that aren't time-sensitive will wait for the person to get back. It wouldn't really make sense to hire a temp for my role just due to the nature of the work and the learning curve.

74dragonfly · November 2014

I am a manger. My lead person stepped up and took on extra work. My boss took over doing one on one's with my people.

PSU_Texan · November 2014

Most of the time in my company (large public company), you are replaced in your current job and come back to a new job assignment. This is the case if you are taking 2+ months off. If you are only taking 6-8 weeks, then someone in your group covers/steps up.

momofcatan · November 2014

I'm in Canada and took the full 1-year leave. Someone else was hired to replace me. She was not hired on contract and others in my dept have quit recently so she is still working at the company.

rubber_chicken · November 2014

when I was out, my work was divided up to my coworkers in the department. if i have another (different department now) it'll be the same. i work in a field where it is nearly impossible to hire a temp, without having to spend 3 months training them.

justjinny · November 2014

I've been lucky that both my last leave and the one I'm about to take happen to fall on time with me wrapping up a major project. The department project managers who I report to will be overseeing any questions that come up while I'm out and will pull someone from within our department to help out with issuing changes that might be needed as the project construction gets underway. My boss has mentioned they might also be hiring a temp this time to do some of the production side of things I'd normally be tasked with since there are a few larger projects starting up in the near future.

jlaOK · November 2014

The only other engineer at my company is the owner. He did all the work before they hired me so he just took over all of our projects while I was out. We don't have the option of hiring a temp since my job requires a license. Luckily my maternity leave timed during a slow period so it wasn't too bad. I also only took 8 weeks off.

I also happened to have finished a large project the day I went into labor. Couldn't have timed that more perfectly.

Mustardseed2007 · November 2014

There isn't anyone else like me exactly in my company. I'm one of 2 attorneys but I'm the work horse attorney that papers deals and reads smaller contracts and makes smaller deals, while my boss mostly makes the big deals.

Both times I was on maternity leave some of my work was handled by a combined effort of administrative assistants and my boss, but a lot of it was handed to outside attorneys. It cost my company money, no doubt about it.

jenn43 · November 2014

I'm a physician in solo private practice. I had another physician cover my patients for any emergencies, and the other doctors in my field at the hospital covered my ER call. But while I was out we obviously lost revenue.

ricekez · November 2014

Some of the work shifted to others on my team, some sat and waited for me. No one specific covered my work. I'm an engineer who does project work that's pretty long-term and on large teams, so it's not hard to plan the work around maternity leave. I worked my butt off to wrap things up before my leave so that no one had any loose ends to deal with.

potbellypig · November 2014

The person who retired from my position previous to my taking over works for me while I'm gone. It's great, no training required and the staff I manage are used to him.

nattyncbride · November 2014

I work in a large pharmaceutical company, so we have a lot of people with the same title. The work I do is technical and specialized, but my coworkers and supervisor are able cover my work.

ECATX · November 2014

My coworker covered for me and will again this time. She's really the only one who can do the work I do, and it would take too long to train someone else to do it. I plan to check in while on leave and will go over her work when I get back, too (which she wants me to do). Some of her work will be on hold while I'm gone, but unfortunately, she'll just be really busy covering both jobs while I'm out. On the plus side, she has 3 kids and took maternity leave with each, so she's understanding about it.

amieeyoung · November 2014

Mine is part being put on my closest co-worker, a few assignments to another, the rest is me prepping for so that it is minimal work for anyone to do. I've had to do a lot of planning and setting up for when I get back as well.

I would feel bad, but it is the first time I've taken more than a few days off at a time. I've covered for the main person covering my duties when her mom was sick and during various vacations. We are actually a close knit group and my co-workers have been nothing but supportive.

QueSrah · November 2014

At the time, I was the only paralegal working for a team of 5 or 6 lawyers. A few of my administrative tasks were passed down to our admin. staff. Most of the more urgent work was passed to outside counsel. Other projects were left undone until I returned.

GreenMonkey1 · November 2014

For my most recent maternity leave my work was covered by my coworkers. I've heard my one coworker did not give my job as much attention as he should have; however, it appears everything was handled while I was gone. Cheers!

I was at a different job (same employer, different department, different position) for maternity leave with DS#1 and they hired a temp. They would not have been able to absorb my responsibilities into the existing staff because there functionally was not any other staff. The temp was a nightmare - really nice guy, but horrible with details and my work was largely detail based. I returned to find some of my files shredded and gone, confidential files in the bookshelf in the break room, and lots of fires to put out. It was a nightmare. Part of the mess was because they hired a temp without the skills needed, just someone my boss liked, and the second part of the mess was that my boss did not supervise him (or train him for that matter).

Slb22 · November 2014

Some of my work got put on another team member and we hired a contractor to handle some of the work. The rest was waiting for me to come back. The timing of my leave was good and we were in between events and I came back before the ramp up of busy season

missamERICA · November 2014

My boss has been clear she does not want to hire a temporary worker -- which I think is silly.. but it's her call. So my responsibilities will be divvied up amongst my coworkers. Lucky them.

dashofreality · November 2014

Part worked out that we had recently lost a lot of my work, but my coworkers covered. And by covered I mean did the bare minimum and I had a crazy mess to clean up when I got back.

Samiantha101 · November 2014

A temp

olenkapdx · November 2014

I wanted to hire someone affiliated with a professional society I am in, but being that we are government, we were forced to use a certain employment agency with whom we contract. So, we hired a last-minute temp. Like, I was leaving on a Friday and we hired her on Wednesday. She was absolutely awful. Did very little aside from trash talk other employees, redo work that didn't need to be done, and watch Youtube videos. She did have fairly good technical skills, but, oof, people and organizational skills were lacking.

I spent my first two months back undoing a lot of messes she made.

ColoradoBoat · November 2014

Thank you to PPs for posting. I started reading this last night and it made me think to ask my boss about putting together a list of consultants/contractors that could help while I'm out. My work is being covered by co-workers, but if people quit or if something unexpected comes up, I'd like to have some possibilities for help. I'm the only person that does my job (fundraising) in my mid-size nonprofit, but there are tons of fundraising consultants out there that could help if needed.

This is my first ML and I've never been gone for more than 2 weeks so this is all new to me.

MirandaHobbes · November 2014

I'm non-union and was really worried about this. Our office budget is tight and because of my advanced position (senior attorney) it can't be covered by a temp, even an experienced temp attorney, because it's a very random narrow subject area. I was surprised that they were able to get a retired attorney from our office to come and cover my mat leave. I was really relieved. The retirees like coming back and earning a little chunk of cash and being in the swing of things for awhile.

IrishTraveler · November 2014

The first time, my company hired a temp to help fill in for me. This time, the plan was for me to move into a new position when I returned, so my former duties were basically dispersed among other coworkers, which actually made a lot of sense. It turned out to be a smooth transition.

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