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Return to work after maternity leave
Come on, recognize it. Even if you feel the need to find the adult world, your office, your colleagues, the coffee machine, the adrenaline, the more the deadline approaches, the more stress rises. Returning to work after maternity or parental leave is a bit like a mega-back to school. A postponed start, moreover, like the news that arrives at college, since the others have been in the bath for a while.
Separating from your baby
First of all, we know that this period of the first months spent alone with your little one represents a unique moment in a life, a getaway out of the world, bathed in benevolence, punctuated by feedings, diapers, sleep, a period we are nostalgic for before we even get out of it. Returning to the world of work requires an effort of rehabilitation to resume a new rhythm. It also induces to mourn this padded parenthesis. And it is perhaps even more difficult today, in a context of crisis, where the professional world, tense, potentially violent, does not always give you much desire, where the value of work is no longer necessarily synonymous with fulfillment. “Whoever says ‘take back’ says ‘have left something’, recalls Sylvie Sanchez-Forsans, occupational psychologist. From the moment you let go, it is quite normal to feel apprehensive. Stress will however make it possible to defend oneself, to react. What also undermines us, when it comes time to return to the front lines, is obviously the separation from our baby, the testing of this new bond. Even when they are happy to resume their professional activity, the vast majority of mothers feel guilty about leaving their child with a nanny or in a nursery.
The key to a successful recovery: anticipation
The best way to reduce anxiety and facilitate the return is to anticipate it, in particular by taking care of its departure. You will be all the more serene to come back as you will have put your files in order before leaving. If the temptation can be great to want to take the maternity break to the end without any interference with the professional sphere, and to refuse to project too much, that would be a miscalculation. Instead, try a condition progressive. “The more we have a feeling of control, the more we will reduce the source of stress,” explains Sylvie Sanchez-Forsans. When faced with a scary situation, scientifically, there are three ways to react: focus on the problem to solve it, be caught by an emotion that can paralyze, or do something else to flee. The first reaction is obviously the most indicated. It is therefore better not to avoid the recovery that is looming on the horizon and to proceed in stages. We can send a few emails, consider a lunch with colleagues, which allows you to have informal information, even to know the latest gossip. Reading the trade press in our field of activity can also be useful.
Get in condition, having fun
Back to school doesn’t just mean the end of the holidays… It also means back-to-school purchases, school bags and new clothes. For the return of maternity leave, it’s a bit the same. To get in good condition, you shouldn’t hesitate to sort your wardrobe, get rid of clothes that you know you won’t wear anymore, because they are out of fashion, because they no longer fit. to our new status. If you can, buy yourself one or two back-to-school outfits, go to the hairdresser… In short, reinvest your body and your role as an active woman, put on your work suit. “Because it is also important to give for oneself and for others the desire to work with us,” notes Sylvie Sanchez-Forsans. Some mothers, at the time of the recovery, tend to lack ambition, professional desires, to see only the forbidding part of their work. It is important not to get locked into this form of neurasthenia. There will never be a perfect job, all professions present their share of thankless tasks. All of them also have their good sides.
These companies that facilitate the return of mothers
Some companies have understood that seeing ultra-stressed mothers return from their maternity leave could turn out to be totally counterproductive. For two years, Ernst & Young has set up a double interview, before the mother’s departure and upon her return for a smooth transition. The company even offers employees, during the first week, to work part-time, paid 100%. A pediatrician, Dr Jacqueline Salomon-Pomper, comes to the Ernst & Young premises to receive, in individual and confidential interviews or in support groups, employees who so wish. ” It is important for young mothers to feel welcome by their employer, she notes. A woman who has confidence in the future can only add value to the company. They must also be able to express what they feel, that they do not censor themselves. Motherhood is such an upheaval that we cannot anticipate everything. You shouldn’t shut yourself up, don’t hesitate to seek help. “