Midwife and maternity cover

13th October

I’ve been to the midwife and the baby is fine, but my urine samples
weren’t. They went to the lab now. More about that later.

I had another chat with my boss about the maternity cover. A colleague
volunteered to take my project on temporarily until a longer-term
solution could be found as long as the day-to-day can sit somewhere
else. It might be an option, but she would have a lot to learn in a
short time and I don’t know how she would be able to do this in
parallel to her work. But I am grateful for the offer. My boss has now
also accepted my invite to discuss my handover plan (or in other words
– who do you want me to teach what) on Friday.

He said that he really struggles getting approval for my replacement.
It is ridiculous. Allegedly the project I run is one of the top
priorities for 2010 / 2011 for the business, but not important enough
to recruit someone to manage it whilst I am away? I know we have a
recruitment ban, but really…

He also asked me – after explaining 10 times that I really don’t need
to answer if I don’t want to and that it is completely confidential –
if I plan to come back after the year or if I want to stay home for a
while, so he can plan ahead. My job will change once the project has
been implemented anyway so it will give his plead for a maternity
cover a different angle depending on if there should be a job for me
to return to or not... I said that I am very sure that I’ll come back
and he seemed relieved. I really hope there will be a job as well…
Truth is that it played on my mind to stay at home after the baby. Or
to work as a freelancer from home. It would mean cutting back a little
but my husband earns enough to make it a feasible option. But I also
know that I’m likely to get bored and my husband really wants me to go
back to work and ‘stay independent’. And I worked hard to get to where
I am and it feels wrong to just end my career completely. I know I am
good in my job. And I know I always thought that my mother (who stayed
at home) was far too dependent on my father. I don’t want my girl to
think that. My secret fantasy is to come back for 3 full days a week.
It sounds like a good compromise between child and career.

Anyway, he’ll try again to get it approved. Maybe I find out more on
Friday, even though I doubt it. The news that I’ll only be here for
another 8 weeks seems to have put him a little more into action. I
started to worry that he was hoping the ‘problem’ would just go away.
I don’t know how much he pushed behind the scenes, but it was just a
feeling that he gave up after the first “no”.

Even if they get approval now I don’t think they’d get someone in
time. Let’s say approval 1 week; getting the agency briefed 1 week;
getting candidates 1 week; interviewing 2 weeks; approval and decision
1 week; notice period 4 weeks – well, that would be if things go
quickly which is unlikely as we need a specialist…. Even if the right
candidate would currently be unemployed that would only leave me with
2 weeks training which are likely already filled with workshops.