I'm still loving maternity leave. I feel so relaxed. I love being able to spend so much time with the kids, and cook dinner every night and putter around the house, and in theory take walks and be out and about during the day (in reality, it's been freezing and I haven't wanted to take the baby out except to walk K back and forth from school).
But after a particularly rough night last week, JW decided to work from home the next day. I overheard him on a call, telling whoever it was about the data that he had assembled, and how fifty metric tons of blah blah blah flowed through something or other, and how he felt that additional data on x, y, and z should inform their analysis but shouldn't be an integral part. He sounded so authoritative. And I started to miss work a little. After all, the whole reason I became a lawyer was that I love being an expert on something and giving people advice. My favorite part of the job is explaining to clients all about legal blah blah blah and x, y, and z, and how we can help them with that. I love being able to guide clients through the legal matters so they can focus on running their businesses. These days, I'm all about nursing and burping and cleaning and cooking. Except for the occasional work email, nobody seeks my advice about anything.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not planning to lose our bet. But maybe I won't be that upset when it's time to go back to work.
So glad you're enjoying the maternity leave! Out of curiosity, do you have any plans for going on a reduced schedule when you do go back? Or will you be straight back to full-time?
ReplyDeleteI'm planning to go back full time. Our firm has an 80% option and I thought about doing that and trying to work 9-5, 5 days a week. Our department head didn't say no, but expressed some doubt that it would work. I thought it over and he has a good point -- I know one or two litigators who do that and make it work, but in corporate it's much harder to schedule your day like that, especially the more junior you are. So I'll try full time and see how it goes, and will keep 80% as an option. Several women associates in my department, and one partner, do 80% working 4 days a week. But the associates often end up coming in on their "day off" anyway. I'm not crazy about the 4-day option because I don't like the idea of constantly having to explain my schedule to everyone. We also have a 60% temporary transitional option, but again, I don't want to have to explain my arrangement all the time and have to keep managing everyone's expectations while at the same time trying to ramp my workload back up. I also think it may be less disruptive for the family to go back without a transitional period.
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