Several Useful Points For Using KIT Days To Your Advantage

The Work and Families Act was lauded as being advantageous to mums-to-be when it was introduced in 2007. After all, nine months of statutory maternity pay was available, with up to a year off work allowable. Families celebrated that they would be able to allocate more time and attention to the vital task of preparing, accepting and then raising the child during this critical period. Within the caring society that we live, maternity leave is seen as a human right, even though certain pressures can arise between the employee and the employer as part of the ongoing working arrangement. While employers must accept that pregnancy is possible and must accept the letters of the law, they must also be prepared to take on temporary staff as necessary to account for the woman on maternity leave. Of course a certain amount of disruption can be expected, but the majority take this in stride.

There is a new clause available for the mum on maternity, allowing her to "keep in touch" through the allocation of 10 legislatively permitted days, during which she can attend work and receive a certain number of payments. Parliament decided that this legislation was appropriate and that it would help to smooth over any element of "disconnection" or normal disruption that might take place in the work place and between the employer and employee over time.

There are many ways that Mum can take advantage of "keeping in touch" days, looking at it from different angles. Mum will be able to keep on top of those latest trend changes. It is certainly possible to do a lot of research while remaining at home and to get all kinds of e-mails and other notifications when on leave, but there is nothing to replace that feeling of actually being at your work place, talking and interacting with other staff members and seeing how new policies and procedures are actually working. By "keeping in touch" strategically this way, especially as time approaches to go back to work, the employee is more likely to be able to hit the ground running.

When baby came around, Mum may have been particularly busy with a challenging project. In this case, keeping in touch days can be used to help her follow-through on this project and to use her valued skills. Otherwise, the business may suffer or in certain circumstances, mum may be at somewhat of a career disadvantage when she returns simply due to the fact that she had not been available to work on a pivotal project. By using those keeping in touch days, she would just be "behind" in terms of her time spent moving forward.

Mum will be able to interact with her temporary replacement during the time that she is keeping in touch, able to see any issues or problems as they are arising and predicting situations that may have arisen without formal supervision, otherwise.

Each "keeping in touch" day is also paid by the employer and does not affect the amount of maternity leave pay that she may have. Don't forget that this can be a nice little boost, financially.

Make no mistake about it, sometimes an extended period away from work can be very challenging and you may need to seek out professional coaching to help you understand how to handle it. Generally, online life coaching helps us to cope with significant issues that arise in our daily lives and coaching for women can really help in this case, to balance personal and business issues.

Amanda Alexander is Director of Coaching Mums and a highly acclaimed ICF-accredited coach who delivers professional coaching programmes to working mums who yearn for success, balance and fulfilment. Are you a juggling mom? Download our free eBook for working moms that will give you 5 simple and instant ways to balance your life right now!