In 2007, when it was introduced, the Work and Families Act was extolled as being extraordinarily advantageous to soon-to-be mums. From this point forward, up to a full year away from work was possible, along with statutory pay for nine months of maternity. Families everywhere cheered, knowing that they would now have the opportunity to give more of their own time to the cherished task of nurturing, loving and caring for the baby during this incredibly important period.

In our caring society, maternity leave is viewed upon as a necessary human right, although at times, it can and does place significant pressures on not only the employer, but the employee as well, most notably on the ongoing working relationship between the two. Employers have no option but to accept that pregnancy may occur at any time, and they have to follow the law without fail, also being well prepared to bring in temporary assistance as it’s needed to account for any women who happen to be currently on maternity leave. Of course, it has to be expected that some disruption will develop, but for the most part, people just take this in stride.

For the mum on maternity leave a new clause entitles her to “keep in touch” by taking advantage of 10 legislatively allocated days, allowing her to attend work and receive payment accordingly. This element of the legislation was introduced by Parliament to try and smooth over the disruption and the disconnection that could otherwise occur between employer and employee over this lengthy period of time.

Mum can take advantage of keeping in touch days from several different perspectives. She can certainly keep up with the latest trends at work. While it is of course possible to research at home and to receive notifications, e-mails and so on while on leave, often there is no replacement for actually being at your place of employment, interacting with other staff and, for example, actually seeing how a new procedure plays out. By “keeping in touch” strategically this way, especially as time approaches to go back to work, the employee is more likely to be able to hit the ground running.

Mum may have been involved with a particularly challenging project when baby called. In this case, keeping in touch days can be used to help her follow-through on this project and to use her valued skills. Otherwise, the business may suffer or in certain circumstances, mum may be at somewhat of a career disadvantage when she returns simply due to the fact that she had not been available to work on a pivotal project. In this case, she may simply be “behind” in terms of time spent progressing.

Keeping in touch also will allow mum to interact with her temporary replacement and that could potentially help to smooth over any issues or problems that may arise without this type of informal supervision. Each “keeping in touch” day is also paid by the employer and does not affect the amount of maternity leave pay that she may have. This can be a little boost, financially, when it is much needed.

Make no mistake about it, sometimes an extended period away from work can be very challenging and you may need to seek out professional coaching to help you understand how to handle it. Online life coaching, specifically online life coaching for women, is a service dedicated to helping us understand how to cope with every distinct phase of our personal life and business careers.

Amanda Alexander is the Director of Coaching Mums and a widely renowned ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums across the globe who long for more time, balance and fulfilment in their busy lives. Download our free eBook especially for working mums with 5 easy ways to achieve balance at http://www.coachingmums.com.

Jeff Fredette ISDE Tire Change / Work Period

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