To return, or not to return: that is the question
Guest Blogger: Jessica Burrus, WLCP - Work-Life Project Liaison, WorldatWork

March 25, 2009

…Not only is this my first week back from maternity leave, but this is my very first blog and as the Work-Life Project Liaison here at WorldatWork I thought I would start off my new year with blogging.  You may be thinking, “…but isn’t it March?” and you would be correct, but for me this is my first week at work in 2009.  On December 5th of 2008 I was lucky enough to give birth to a beautiful little girl, Madison Starr Burrus.  I was also lucky enough to take the twelve weeks of leave with my job protected by Family Medical Leave Act or FMLA…

That was the first paragraph of what was to be my very first blog, but before I could finish it and get it out the hooey hit the fan.  Returning to work after being gone for twelve weeks is no easy task.  You definitely have to hit the ground running.

So this is now my second blog and it’s almost April.  I would love to say that the twelve weeks I spent at home were all daisies and roses, but the truth of it is, having and taking care of a baby is hard work.  And that’s not factoring in my three and half year old little boy or my husband, both of which need just about as much care and attention as the baby does.  Does that mean I’m relieved to be back at work?  The answer is yes…and no.  Those of us parents know how much work it is to raise a family and those of us who have smaller children often struggle with the question to stay home with them, go back to work, work from home, work part-time, and the list goes on.  So obviously I have decided to go back to work or you wouldn’t be reading this, but it wasn’t easy.  I stayed home with my son Caden until he was thirteen months old.  By then I was ready for more adult interaction and it was safe to say he was ready to move on as well.  Things were different with Madison though.  Leaving a little one at twelve weeks was a lot harder than leaving my son at thirteen months.  It’s not to say I didn’t miss them both dearly, but she’s so small and vulnerable.  So I struggled with my decision.  In an ideal world, at least for me, I would have been able to stay home with Madison for at least the first 6 months and then return to work.  But FMLA only protects my job for twelve weeks and only some of those weeks are paid (which I feel very lucky for).  Plus, with our family’s health benefits tied to my job, as well as our pretax flexible spending accounts, I couldn’t even consider leaving my job to stay home with Madison, even if I had wanted to. 

So what’s a girl (or guy) to do?  Luckily, I was able to ease into it by working only part-time the first week.  With this schedule I was able to work one day, stay home with Madison one day, work one day, and so on.  Doing this was so helpful, more so for me than it was for Madison.  She’s not the one who cried like a baby when I dropped her off at daycare the first day.  My manager suggested that I should have considered taking Madison for a trial day at daycare before I returned to work so it wouldn’t have been so difficult.  I did consider that, but what it meant to me was one less day I would have with her before I had to go back. 

We both survived though and now it’s week four and we are both in a routine.  I miss her dearly and hopefully she misses me too, but I am glad that I’m back.  My next step?  To work on a flexible work arrangement…my commute is killing me in more ways than one! 

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of WorldatWork and its affiliate, Alliance for Work-Life Progress (AWLP).