This is for all you lady bosses out there who are prego and wondering how you can possibly disconnect from work to focus solely on your new babe during maternity leave.
I hear you agonizing over there:
I kick ass at work! I’m the best. professional. EVER! No way can I just tune out all things work!
Well, you just do it.
Embrace delegation
First off, think of this as an opportunity to develop your team. Show them how much you trust them and honor their potential by delegating all the crap you do at work every day. Yes, all the crap – the strategic, fascinating crap that makes you tick, and the crap crap that’s so tedious your eyeballs start bleeding when your Outlook reminder pops up.
Put together a maternity leave “exit plan” detailing how to do all the crap and then designate who on your team gets to own each piece. (Woohoo! More crap for everyone!) And train them 4 months before baby’s due date.
Four months may sound ridiculous, but sometimes babies show up before you’re ready for them. Or your OB decides you need a C-section RIGHT NOW. And people are busy and scheduling training times around their already-full plates is hard. Also, this gives them plenty of time to shadow you and ask you tons of questions before you check out. They will be SUPER prepared when you disappear from the corner office.
The trick is to make yourself obsolete. To essentially write yourself out of a job. Crazy, right?
Or is it brilliant?
Make yourself obsolete
A couple things will result from this.
1. You discover you’d rather be a stay-at-home-mom
I don’t know how this happens, because I am not SAHM material. But I did ask “what if…?” a lot. While the #RockStarDad in my life responded, “No way, Jose.” Because he knows I’d die if I was a SAHM.
YOU might be an AMAZING one. So making yourself obsolete at work helps everybody out. You’ve already transitioned all your crap to other people and they’ve found a way to live without you.
2. You discover you hate your job
Or your commute or your boss or your officemate. And would rather work ANYWHERE ELSE. Because having a baby does things to you. Being out of the office for a “couple” weeks (or YEARS if you up and move to Denmark) gives you a chance to reflect on what’s important to you. To envision a whole NEW you.
Like a future where you’re no longer the Chief of Everything at some giganto corporation poisoning the earth that your tiny, innocent, pure child wants to explore. Back to that fancy word, obsolescence: it’s the key to skedaddle to greener (eco-friendlier) pastures because no one misses you.
3. You discover you’d rather do other things when you return to work
You team is now fabulously handling your workload. You can take things back (um, they are probably rooting for this!) – or you can propose a whole ‘nother job when you return.
Say your company lacks an eCommerce manager and you’ve always dreamed of doing that. (Hello, ladies of STEM!) Why not propose a complete shift of duties or work with your team to take back a teeny, little bit of the crap and spend the rest of your time learning how to sell stuff online?
Turn off your email
Now that I’ve sold you on the benefits of maternity leave coverage, I need to tell you something you probably don’t want to hear: TURN OFF YOUR DAMN WORK EMAIL!!!
You will survive. Your team will survive. Your company will survive. If you’ve been transitioning work duties for 4 months, they are MORE THAN PREPARED to handle ALL THE THINGS while you’re gone. LET THEM HANDLE ALL THE THINGS.
This is why you have one of those “out of office” reply options on your work email. Did you know this?! USE IT! Tell people who to go to for everything you used to do. Don’t make them guess.
Have you ever analyzed the junk that shows up in your work inbox? Spam from some company that gave you freebies at the last trade show you went to. Random internal announcements about somebody’s car getting towed. Company memos about some upcoming training in Vegas. Blah blah blah.
How many of those emails do you really need to read? Especially during maternity leave?
I hear you jumping up and down about how you don’t want to miss out on Vegas. Yeah, maybe, but if your company is enlightened enough to offer employee development, they will probably do this again after your 3-month baby-leave is done.
But what about all the IMPORTANT emails?!!!!
Your maternity leave coverage plan should include a contact list of folks your people can go to for answers while you’re out. To answer those important emails. You do not need to do this. Look in the mirror and say, “Obsolescence is beautiful. To hell with email.”
If you’re so important that corporate life will collapse without you (which means you’re probably a pretty sucky boss, just sayin’ – see note above about DELEGATION), give your personal email address to your boss to ONLY USE WHEN METEORS ARE ABOUT TO CRASH into the nuclear power plant where you work.
Also, your cell number will suffice. Not that anyone should ever need to call you. Since, of course, you’ve now taken the time to put together a comprehensive, maternity leave coverage plan and trained everyone to do ALL THE THINGS.
Bring your baby to work
But only for a visit. And only if you’re sure no one has the flu. And only if you really, really want to do this. Because: diaper blow-outs are real.
Ok, fine, if you think the world will completely fall apart and you’re RICH, you can go the Marissa Mayer route and bring your baby to work permanently – with a full-time nanny. Then again, Mayer was rated the “least likable” CEO in tech and went on to resign get canned from Yahoo.
Seriously, boss lady, your baby is only a newborn once. And you are going to be SO DAMN TIRED! From staring wistfully into baby’s eyes at 3 in the morning for nights on end.
Use maternity leave for SLEEPING. Or other fun things, like lunch with your new mom-friends from prenatal baby yoga class.
Y’all, would you rather check email and follow up with Bob the random guy from the Print Room when Sarah could’ve just talked to him for you? Or attempt to take a nap? (A 10-minute snooze is a lifesaver!)
Maternity leave is a one-shot deal for you to bond with baby. You never get this stressful, sleep-deprived, crazy, lovely time back. Don’t squander this opportunity to lay the VERY BEST foundation for your new family. Your work life can wait.
Check out this post with tips to make maternity leave amazing once you’ve figured out how to leave work at work: The working girl’s guide to survive maternity leave.
Share your thoughts on how you created a kick-ass maternity leave “exit plan” – below or on Facebook at MothersRest.
Photo credit: Oliver Lakenmacher from pixabay.com