Returning to Role Post Mat-Leave
Hi all,
Looking for a second opinion on a tricky situation as I feel like I’m going a bit crazy and would be interested in other perspectives.
We have an employee returning from maternity leave in a few months. Their role pre-leave was an executive assistant to one of our C-suite and it regularly requires out-of-hours working across evenings and weekends and in-office hours linked to their executive’s schedule. This can vary based on a number of factors but it has been included in the job description since day 1.
A few months ago as part of a scheduled KIT day the employee wanted to discuss their role on their return to work. They shared that they had concerns about out of hours working and childcare responsibilities and time with their little one. They also raised concerns about career advancement opportunities and the ability to work on new projects (their existing role has no further career progression prospects or time for new projects).
We took this feedback on board and offered them a suitable alternative role with a similar title, same rate of pay, job level, stable working hours that could fit flexibly around childcare, career progression and new projects. The employee turned it down, confirming they will return to their pre-leave role.
In a follow up KIT day meeting, the topic of out of hours working was raised as a requirement and the employee became quite upset, saying that it would be unfair to ask them to work in the evening during their time with their child and that they aren’t the first person in the company to have a child so why are they expected to work. They said they expect their boundaries to be respected on their return.
This leaves us in a tricky position as the role requires out of hour support and we have already considered job sharing but for a number of issues won’t work. It feels like an incredibly sensitive topic and we want to do the right thing but need to manage expectations.
How would you approach this situation?