Returning to work

A time has arrived, which I knew would come some day and I have always dreaded it. The end of my maternity leave.

I can't complain with the amount of time off I've been allowed - just under 9 years in all.  Obviously this has not been granted by one employer, but has been made possible by a sketchy combination of employer contributions, a generous tax credit allocation and various overdrafts, not to mention downscaling from our house in Coventry in the midlands of England and moving to the remote Isle of Lewis off the NW coast of Scotland.

But it is a time which has allowed both me and Mark to enjoy raising our wonderful boys and to see every stage of their development and safe entry into the school system... plus a couple of years just for good measure!

Looking back on what I felt was a turbulent time working, I can now see how decent people at my old work place did everything they could to wave goodbye in the kindest way.

I had been working for the Learning and Skills Council for 7 years and at the same time as applying for maternity leave, I was also applying for voluntary redundancy. I was given both, and 2 weeks before my due date, I waddled away with some lovely leaving presents for the baby and enough money to set us up for a whole year.  I couldn't have been more pleased to be leaving.  Regardless of the happy circumstances of having my first child, I had not enjoyed being a very small cog in a very large machine and had grown very bitter and insular despite outward appearances.

So naturally I had dreaded returning to the professional open plan office environment, with no soul and no love allowed, where decisions were purely business and people are forced to be schizophrenic, splitting their personalities between work and home.

However, things are different now. I am different. We are in a different world on the Isle of Lewis and I do not have to go back to where I was before.  I have been given a job which just ticks so many boxes for me, that I am still a bit scared to believe it is true.

I cant escape the nature of the work - administration; all the boring and arduous details that bog people down, but have to be done - the devil is in the detail. 

But it is for a small company - I will be able to feel the effect of my work and see the results directly.

It is local - I don't have to spend money on a car and petrol to get there and I don't have to spend time travelling.  I can walk there in half an hour or get the bus in 5 minutes.

It is informal - I do not have to struggle into tights and stupid shoes every morning and freeze my toes off in an air conditioned fashion parade.  I can wear jeans and boots if I like because nobody cares what I look like.

The boss is female - I am working for a mother of three, a friend and neighbour and I am already behind her and her business and everything that she wants to achieve. I can see her visions and understand the processes she needs to go through to realise her ambitions.  It is not something that I would do myself, but I know how to support someone else and I'm looking forward to being able to use my skills to help grow her business.


So here I go, an employee again and I never thought I would be this relieved to be returning to work.