How To Disconnect From Work During Your Maternity Leave

How To Disconnect From Work During Your Maternity Leave Your office, the projects, employer goals and expectations none of it stops simply because your baby arrives. The working world will go right on spinning while youre in labor and on maternity leave, and thats okay. Normal, even. What you probably dont want is for your own world with baby in it to keep right on spinning in sync with that work world.My baby was born 5 days ago, a mom from the Mindful Return course recently wrote to me. And Im mucksmuschenstill answering work emails. I dont know how much longer Im going to be able to do this. I wasnt supposed to be online during my leave. However she got into this pickle, this new mom now had to extract herself from it if she wanted to save her own sanity and protect her family time. My first instruction to her was to communicate clearly to re-establish expectations Yes, I know Ive been answering e-mails, but Im signing off now.Disconnecting 100 percent may or may not be your goal . Whatever your hopes are, though, its worth being intentional and explicit about them. What are some ways you can set yourself up to successfully disconnect from work while you are on maternity leave? Here are my top five tips1. Plan the heck out of your leave.Several months before you go out on leave, departure giving thought to what projects will be in the works around your due date and who can take them over. Document processes you complete on a regular basis, and work with your teams to determine to whom youll be making handoffs.Introduce your maternity leave replacements to your key contacts, so they can reach out directly. The less folks need you to get answers to their questions, the easier it will be for you to disconnect.2. Communicate expectations clearly.Talk to your supervisor and your HR department about their expectations around your leave and how those align with your own. For my first maternity leave, I wasnt supervising anyone and found it quite easy to disconnect completely. The second time around, though, was a different story, as I was managing another employee. The plan we came up with was that I would be completely disconnected for one month, and then after that I would speak with her once a week to address urgent issues and answer key questions. For any emergencies, everyone knew to text me instead of emailing. Once youve thought through your plan, consider creating a formal document for your employer to set out these expectations clearly. 3. Tackle time-sensitive tasks (like employee reviews) before you leave. Things like review cycles dont stop while youre on leave, and the people you manage still need to get feedback from you. If you know your reviews of your direct reports will be due while youre on leave, write and submit them beforehand. Not only will your employer appreciate your advance planning, but then the task wont be hanging over your head while you are gone.4. Stick to the boundaries youve set.How you behave teaches others an important lesson about how you will behave. If you respond to just this one email, your colleagues will likely expect a response to the next one. And the next. To quote Bren Brown, choose discomfort over resentment when youre deciding whether or not to check in or respond.5. Remember that you are still valued even if you are not irreplaceable. We all want to feel important and irreplaceable, which is why we can sometimes be our own worst enemies when it comes to disconnecting during maternity leave. Its good to remember, however, that everyone is ultimately replaceable in the working world as well as the fact there is no one with your exact combination of unique and wonderful skillsets. Growing your team and letting colleagues use your maternity leave to shine in new ways (perhaps even taking things off your plate that you were ready to get rid of) is an important leadership skill. You WILL be missed, mama, and your work will continue to be appreciated when you return. So take this important time for your family now. With advance planning, good, open lines of communication, and a commitment to your own boundaries, disconnecting from work during maternity leave at the level you want is indeed possible. Its worth taking these concrete steps, so you can take care of yourself and the new wonderful little human youve created.--Lori K. Mihalich-Levin, JD, is the founder of Mindful Return, author of Back to Work After Baby How to Plan and Navigate a Mindful Return from Maternity Leave, and creator of the Mindful Return E-Course. A partner in the health care practice of a global law firm, she also is mama to two beautiful red-headed boys. Lori holds a law degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and completed her undergraduate studies at Princeton Universitys Woodrow Wilson School of Public and grenzberschreitend Affairs.Fairygodboss is committed to improving the workplace and lives of women.Join us by reviewing your employer