Tips for Returning to Work After Maternity Leave

Tips for Returning to Work After Maternity LeaveTips for Returning to Work After Maternity LeaveWhen you first beginmaternity leave, it may feel like youll have a nearly endless amount of time away from the office. But all too quickly those weeks or months of leave come to an end. Then comes the transition back to the workplace, which can often be a challenge. Tips for Returning to Work After Maternity Leave If youre approaching the end of your maternity leave, here are some tips to help prepare you to return to the workforce. Reconnect with the OfficeIf its been some time since youve thought about work, do yourself a favor ease into workplace culture. Switching abruptly from days spent entirely with the baby to time split between office and parenting is jarring, and likely not good for you either as a parent or an employee. Do some advance work before your first day into the office to make the transition smoother. Email or Call Your Human Resources (HR) DepartmentIf your HR depa rtment hasnt already been in touch, reach out yourself. The people in human resources can fill you in on important details such as the best date to return to the office, the location of the lactation room, and other good-to-know details on paperwork and getting back into the swing of a work routine. Schedule Your Return DateAim to go back to the office late in the week. Resist the temptation to make your first day back in the office a Monday a full week back in the office makes for a difficult transition. A Thursday or Friday return date will allow you to have the weekend to recalibrate and fix any potential issues with childcare, scheduling, etc. Reach Out to Your BossIf human resources hasnt already done so, tell your manager your first planned date back in the office. This can be a nice opportunity to share any schedule changes that may occur as a result of childcare, pumping, or anything else. Not aya how to communicate with your manager about post-maternity leave schedule chang es? Seea sample email message. Schedule an In-Person Meet-UpHaving a casual lunch or coffee catch-up with your manager or co-workers a few weeks prior to return to work can be helpful. In-person meet-ups give you the opportunity to catch up on work gossip, find out about new projects, and start to feel re-engaged with work. If you cant meet with folks in advance, do be sure to make face-to-face time with them in the office a priority. If you were gone for three months on maternity leave, a lot may have changed. Prepare for Office PumpingWill you be pumping at the office? Make sure youre comfortable pumping before returning to work. Reach out to human resources and co-workers to determine where you can pump at your workplace. (Note that theAffordable Care Actincludes a provision for breastfeeding offices must provide both a non-bathroom location and a reasonable amount of time for moms to express milk.) You may want to block off time on your calendar for pumping as well, so you dont wind up having to unexpectedly duck out of meetings. Make Sure You and Your Family Are Ready for Your Return Before you can venture back into the world of work, youll need to make sure youre prepared at home. This means everything from arranging childcare (and backup childcare) to swapping yoga pants for suits. Do a Wardrobe CheckDo a deep dive into your closet and pull out your office tops, pants, and skirts. Try clothes on to check they still fit appropriately, since both pregnancy and breastfeeding can change your figure. Put the clothes that are still suitable for work in a prominent spot in your closet to make your mornings easier if necessary, purchase new outfits. Have a Trial RunPrepare yourself for your newmorning routine plan a trial run, complete with setting an alarm, dropping off the baby at childcare, and commuting into the office. Getting ready in the morning with a baby packing a bag for daycare, dropping her off, having a meaningful good-bye, breastfeeding c an take mora time than your pre-baby morning routine of coffee on the run. A trial run will give you time to work out any childcare kinks and develop your new routine with your baby. Find Childcare and Backup ChildcareIts inevitable that there will be a day possibly on the same day as an important meeting, deadline, or presentation that your baby will be sick and need you. Prepare for this moment before it occurs. Map out with your significant other who will be the primary contact for daycare or your nanny. If an unexpected pick-up is necessary, who will be responsible? Figure out a strategy for babys sick days, doctor visits, and other events that may require you to leave work unexpectedly. It can also be helpful to develop a list of potential back-up caretakers anyone from in-laws to parents to a babysitter - who can pick up the slack if necessary. Prepare Yourself MentallyJust as those first days with your new baby may have been a challenge, the early days back at the office may also be tough. You may find yourself full of emotions and thats OK Try to think about ways to ease this transition for yourself. You may, for instance, want to schedule a daily check-in either a call, text, or video chat with your childs caretaker. Or maybe its a matter of packing a photo for the office.

Odds are who you know isnt going to help get you that job

Odds are who you know isnt going to help get you that jobOdds are who you know isnt going to help get you that jobDont depend on the people you know to get you the job you want. A new PayScale survey of 53,000 workers found that personal referrals from friends and former coworkers to be mostly ineffective and costly to both employees and employers.Survey only 34% of job referrals resulted in jobWhen you send out a reference request, dont expect it to lead to a job offer - only about one-third of employed workers surveyed said that they had been the recipient of one. The most common type of job referral - with 41% of employees being the recipient of one - came from a family member or close friend.While its common for managers to reach out to personal networks of who they know for job leads, the surveys findings challenge the fairness and efficacy of such a decision. The survey found that referrals from friends and families resulted in less engaged employees who said they were less satisfied with their employer and had worse relationships with their managers than geschftliches miteinander referrals. The finding suggests that a sign of professional investment could be in someone you dont personally know reaching out to you on LinkedIn or cold-calling you for a job.As a job seeker leveraging your friends and families for leads, you should also be cautious about how personal referrals can impact you once you get the job offer. You may think that being friends with the CEO can get you a better salary offer, but the survey found that personal referrals were offered an average salary that was $1,600 a year less than those who were referred by a business contact.Job referrals disproportionately help white menNot only are referrals found to be ineffective, they are also found to decrease diversity. At worst, they can be discriminatory. If you want a diverse workforce, you should not be relying on job referrals to find candidates.The survey found that white men overwhe lmingly benefited the most from this practice.The survey calculated that out of every 100 employees referred, 44 of them will be white men, 22 will be white women, 18 will be men of color and only 16 will be women of color, holding constant industry, location, and other relevant variables.The survey also found that the salary offers resulting from job referrals helped men more than women. While referred men could expect an $8,200 salary increase, the average women could only expect to receive a $3,700 salary increase.How to combat referral hiring biasInclusive hiring means examining every part of the hiring process for gaps to improve. If you are not getting the range of candidates needed to get a diverse workforce, its up to you the manager to find the demographics being overlooked.As journalist and managing expert Stacy-Marie Ishmael put it, If youre a white dude, its extremely likely that most of the people you know socially and professionally are also white dudes. And sinceso mu ch of hiring is about referrals, guess who ends up being recommended first?To combat this bias, Ishmael advises employers to actively search beyond personal pipelines for new talent Attend job fairs that specifically target people from underrepresented groups. Sponsor the conferences that are aimed at encouraging minorities in technology and media. Be present, be sincere, and be prepared to put money and time into the work.

Why Youre Not Getting Good Job Search Advice - The Muse

Why Youre Not Getting Good Job Search Advice - The MuseWhy Youre Not Getting Good Job Search Advice Im just going to go ahead and admit it Sometimes when my husband gives me advice I dont like or wasnt expecting, instead of embracing it, I tell him he doesnt understand, he doesnt know what hes talking about, he just doesnt get it. This leads to exactly nowhere as he attempts to get me to explain myself better, and I shut down. My excuses for claiming his advice isnt good are just that- excuses.Sound familiar? If youve ever dismissed someones advice as bad and bemoaned the fact that none of your friends dont have anything worthwhile to say when it comes to your career, you may want to take a moment to look at yourself. Of course, notlage all the advice you get is going to be great, but often the problem isnt with the information youre getting, its with how you internalize it. Read on for three situations where its not the advice that isnt good, its your refusal to embrace it as legit. 1. Your Best Friend Advises You to Tailor Your Resume and titelseite LetterIts not your best friends first rodeo. He recently snagged a new job at a company hed been eyeing for months. After weeks of sending out his standard resume and a basic, generic cover letter and not getting any responses, he did some research and discovered that personalized application materials were what he needed to get an edge. Once he created a resume and letter of interest tailored to the companies he was applying to, the interview invitations came fast and furious, and before long, he had an offer. He attributes it to revamping his professional documents, and advises you to do the same. But, instead of digesting this information and seeing the validity in it, you grow annoyed and decide that Your Skills Speak for ThemselvesAt this point, youre applying to several jobs a day, and you cant even imagine sending out different versions of your cover letter. You know your friends story, but yours isnt ident ical, which means you dont need to follow his advice, right? Wrong. If your generic resume were getting you interviews and offers, you probably wouldnt be getting this feedback in the first place, but since what youre doing isnt working, its clearly time to try something else. 2. Your Brother Suggests Cleaning up Your Social Media AccountsAs your older brother and one of the people closest to you, hes read all of your distasteful tweets, and he knows you still have those ridiculous spring break photos up on your public Facebook account. You dont have a professional LinkedIn photo, and you dont have a summary either. So, what youve got is a huge presence on Instagram (pictures of hamburgers and not much else featured prominently) and FB (see above, re rowdy spring break photos), but youve got nearly nothing to show on LinkedIn, the site that nearly all hiring professionals look at when theyre hiring, and, whats more, your Twitter page doesnt really give any insight into your characte r and depth. In spite of that reality, when your brother tells you to take an afternoon to get your social media presence hiring-manager ready, you balk. The advice is worthless, you think, because You Think the Right Employer Wont CareOK, first of all, you dont think the spring break shots are that bad. Youre only holding a beer in a few of them- its not like youre tossing back shots or are participating in a wet T-shirt contest. Just because you want to tweet out all of your customer tafelgeschirr complaints, it doesnt mean you should be penalized. Youre on LinkedIn- what does it matter how active you are? Once the recruiter sees your work history and experience, shell know youre the best person for the job. Um, not exactly. No doubt your skill set would make you an immediate asset to the role, but hiring managers are getting dozens of applications, and if and when they look into your online presence and are bombarded with unflattering images and unprofessional language, youll be moved to the bottom of the pile. Change your privacy settings and be as clear as day that your future boss would be happy with what he might come across. THINK YOU HAVE ENOUGH ADVICE TO GET STARTED ON YOUR SEARCH?Great, your new job is right around the corner.Start applying today 3. Your Mentor Tells You to Brush up on Your Interviewing SkillsShe offers to role-play with you, encourages you to ask questions, suggests that you put more of an effort into researching the company before you go in for an interview. In her position, she interviews candidates often and can point out the mistakes made in the process. Shes not claiming to have all the answers, and, no, she wasnt with you in any of your interviews, but she has a lot of thoughts on how you can ace this part of your job search. Its nothing you havent heard before, and so you brush it aside and refuse to believe that you actually need help in this area. Youre doing everything right, you say and You Respond That Its Not You Whos the Problem, Its ThemAdmittedly, your last couple of in-person meetings werent so great. You didnt always have the answer to the questions you were asked, but hey, not your fault, there were some hardballs, and you were honest when you explained why your last job didnt work out- your boss, you know, wasnt a good manager and made it difficult for you to get anything done. But, no one has a perfect interview. No one has the answer to all the questions. Theres only so much you can learn about the company unless youre working there. While there may be some truth to these things, theres probably plenty of truth to the fact that youre, well, getting to the interview process and bombing it. Your mentor is looking out for you, trying to help you succeed. Dont shun the advice because your egos getting in the way. Typically, if youre finding advice hard to swallow, its because theres something you dont want to face. Like I said, Ive been there. Coming to terms with our shortcomings and the w ays we need to improve is challenging and can make us feel vulnerable. But, instead of risking relationships and losing friendships simply because you want to chalk up all the advice as no-good, take a long, hard look at yourself and what it is that you could be doing differently to get the results you want. Photo of man having a serious conversation courtesy of Nikada/Getty Images.