Parenting Magazine
Dear Anna,
I’m about to leave the job, company and people I thoroughly enjoy, to go on maternity leave for 12 months. As much as I am looking forward to being a Mum, I want to make sure I don’t go stale over the next few months so I wondered if you have any ideas about some things I could do while I await the arrival of my baby or even afterwards to keep myself up-to-date?
Bronwyn S – Mt Albert
This is a question we do hear a lot these days. Firstly, getting to know your new baby is a precious time and can be challenging so remember to look after yourself, enjoy yourself and don’t put too much pressure on yourself to compete with your colleagues...however, to keep that feeling of ‘corporate connection’ here are a few ideas:
• Keep reading the newspapers/magazines that you normally would read.
• Ask your colleagues/manager to email or post you copies of articles and updates that get distributed or are recommended to read.
• One proactive approach is to organise to go out for lunch or coffee with your team or manager every month or so, even better, offer to bring the lunch or coffee to them!
• Ask to be invited to Client functions, team events and some meetings.
• Offer to do some work from home: set yourself up with a computer/email/ broadband so you can easily be remotely available to help out with certain projects in the comfort of your own home (and at a time to suit)
• Organise a baby sitter/caregiver/preschool care for a few hours, or one or two days a week, and offer to do part time work.
• You could help by assisting the person who filled your vacancy or other departments, and even if it’s not the dream role you left you will benefit from being back in the team environment.
Anna McHardy
