A Maternity story from our collegue

Hi, my name’s Gemma, I’m currently Head of Marketing and I’ve been working at Brightside for over seven years now, and I had my little boy in May 2016. The process of going on maternity leave was all very straightforward. My colleagues in HR are all very nice and helpful, and there is an established policy which tells you all you need to know about how any processes work and the forms you need to fill in, so that reduced the worry as I knew what was coming up. When I needed to be go to appointments there were no problems and everyone was very supportive, agreeing time off was very straightforward and flexible.

Just before the birth

In my last days at Brightside before the birth we recruited a replacement for me and he started a month before my due date, which was great it meant that I could hand over work myself and explain everything properly allowing me to go on my maternity leave feeling positive. My boy did decide to come early and so we didn’t quite get the full month but that’s babies for you, they’re in charge not you!

Coming back

Brightside encourages you to take up to 10 keeping in touch days during your maternity leave. It really helps you understand how things have moved on whilst you’re off so when you get back you’re fully up to speed and it feels less daunting 

A new way of working

You accrue holiday on maternity in the same way you do as when you are working, so I was able to use the holiday I hadn’t used at the end of my maternity leave to extend it by a few weeks which was great. I took just over a full year off for my maternity leave …it went so quickly! I applied through the flexible working request process to come back 4 days a week which was accepted and I have been doing this ever since. Work have always allowed me to put my son first, which was greatly appreciated as he had some minor health issues which meant I leave work on occasion without being able to give any notice.