As I am preparing for my maternity leave, continuity at work has been on my mind a lot.
1) At which point do I wrap up work?
Since I was technically full term 3 weeks ago (!), I've been reluctant to make any time-sensitive commitments in these past weeks. I cautiously took on projects that could possibly be completed, but could also wait if I had to drop them on the floor and run to the hospital. So on one hand I am very glad that no one is waiting for me, but on another, my progress has been hampered by these "should I even start this?" worries.
Also, although I originally planned to work till the very end, I am now uncomfortable and exhausted enough to have decided that I am not going to work starting on my due date. This has actually helped a lot with many of the above issues, drawing a line in the sand instead of playing the waiting game forever.
2) How involved do I stay while out on maternity leave?
Do I just fall of the face of the planet and even ignore my email? For how long is that acceptable? Or do I try to at least get back on email as soon as I possibly can? Will people assume I have time to work if I am back on email? Or will they assume I am totally lazy if I am not?
I pretty much decided to go half-way on all of the above: I told my coworkers that since I can't predict how things will go, I would rather make no promises. Even if I manage to read anything in the first few weeks, I doubt I will be sending any responses. But I do think that doing email for 30 min a day will be the first step to getting back to work.
3) Should I plan to do any thesis work while out on maternity leave?
Technically, that's working for myself, and the sooner I am done with it, the better. Also, as usual, this is the easiest thing to put off since it is only time-critical to me. At the same time, this is completely independent work, so I could tinker with things on my own without letting anyone know that I am slowly getting back to work.
Again, I highly doubt I will see straight enough to even think about my thesis in the first few weeks. Also, although this work is fully independent of others, it is also requiring the most thought, which implies concentration and ability to think. When am I going to have those? Who knows. For now, I tried to carefully write up where I am at in all of the sub-projects, hopefully leaving myself enough bread-crumbs to get back to it when I am ready. Whenever that actually happens.
scientiae-carnival
The perverse incentives of academia
6 years ago
4 comments:
I thought I'd left myself good notes, but when I came back after 8 weeks maternity leave it was more like coming back after a year away. It really felt like a different lifetime. It took me about 3 months after coming back to work to finally feel like I was accomplishing anything. Don't be surprised or angry at yourself if you find it's the same way for you.
I've been thinking about this a lot too. I have a laundry list of things that I would like to get accomplished before I leave the lab. Of course, it's difficult to know exactly how I am going to feel eight weeks from now.
As far as working during maternity leave goes...that depends on what I get accomplished before I leave. If all goes reasonably well, then I should be ready to write two papers (one from grad school and one from post-doc). I am hoping that I can write some while I am on leave. People that already have children laugh at me when I tell them this, which makes me think it's unlikely, but I'd rather at least have the option to get some work done IF I find that I have some time.
I wrote some notes when my first child was born. I thought I could think straight at the time. I came across them a couple of years later and had the biggest laugh. Take the first couple of weeks to rest and get to know your baby. Once she gets into a routine then you can start to go back to doing things you normally would do. Most people are pretty understanding once they realize you have an infant in the house.
Rebecca - I suspect coming back after a break will be tough, and even my boss acknowledged that that is to be expected, so I hope it is not too big of a surprise/disappointment for any of us!
MXX - I didn't quite get through my laundry list, but oh well. And I too was laughed at when I asked if anyone was able to get anything done while on leave, so I am not holding my breath. I think that if I am able to look at my notes and start wrapping my head around what I was working on by the end of my leave, at least the return will be easier.
A - out of people I work with closely, only my boss seems to understand that (although his kids are teenagers now). With his help, I attempted to prepare the expectations of the others, but we shall see if that actually worked.
Post a Comment