It's great you can spread the leave out over 2 years. My concern would then be about making the transition back to fulltime work but it's great Possum if you can have the option of only going back part-time. My own thinking on maternity leave is that rather than make it unpaid for 12 months employers should be encouraged to allow mothers to be able to come back part-time for the first 5 or 6 years after the baby is born. It wouldn't cost them any more (I mean they will still be paying the same salary just spread over 2 workers) and it would allow alot more women to have the energy to spend quality time with their children and not come home exhausted from a 40 hour week when you have an 18 month old or whatever.
I have mostly worked part-time throughout my daughter's life. Started with two 4 hour shifts when she was a baby, and got up to 30 hours a week by the time she was 3 years old. I tried working full-time when she was 3 years old (took up my first primary teaching post) but I would have her in daycare from 7am to 6.30pm each day so I could do some preparation and marking at school and come home exhausted. Have a few hours with her before she'd be asleep and I would have a little bit of chill time on my own before going to bed absolutely exhausted. I only managed it for 10 weeks and quit. It wasn't fair on her or me (and being a single mum we only had each other). My next job was teaching 4 days a week and I would still put her in childcare 5 days a week so I had the 5th day to do my preparation and marking etc and not be so exhausted each night and we would have our weekends free to really spend quality time together.
Ideally I'd like to not have to work more than 3 days a week if I can afford it.
I think it's a pity there are so few "career" type jobs that are part-time. I have 4 qualifications and one of these is as a librarian. The two nearest library networks to where I live both have a policy that they won't allow librarian positions to be part-time so the qualified librarians and library managers have to make the choice after having babies of either going back full-time or coming back into a lower paid library technician position part-time. It really annoys me and I think it is discrimatory but legally so long as they have allowed the person to have some maternity leave they don't need to negoiate for them to be able to return to work part-time after kids and I think the government should do more to facilitate this.
I have job-shared in a couple of previous positions and I think with the right staff it can be a win-win for everyone. The employees win by not being so exhausted from work, their families win by having mum (or dad) have more energy when they are together, the organisation wins because when their employees are at work they are able to put in 100% because they aren't so exhausted, and the clients / customers etc win because the workers are working at a high standard (due again to not being so exhausted). I just wish more bosses realised this.
Both my experiences of job sharing have been really positive with me and the person I was sharing with being able to work well as a team (leaving notes for each other etc) but I know that sometimes it isn't so easy so it does really rely on both staff members (and their manager) being committed to making it work.
Lori
DD - 14
Bub due 28th Aug after 4 years on the trying to concieve merry-go-round.
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