Workplace Wellbeing: Taking baby steps back to the office 

"I had my first child at 33 and thought the main issue with returning to work would be childcare," she says. "I didn't realise the emotional side of leaving this small person I'd become so attached to. Nor did I expect to feel like I had to prove myself all over again while also finding my new identity as a working mum."

She was 39 when she had her second child and thought she was better prepared for the challenges of going back to work. “I assumed it would be easier having been down that path before but the emotional side of leaving my youngest weighed more heavily on me,” she says.

“And, of course, the business had moved on to new goals, and I was trying to reintegrate as quickly as possible. Going back to work can be akin to taking on a new role or even changing company.” 

Career coach Geraldine Gallagher, founder of Inspire Coaching, says many women struggle to find their feet when they return to work after maternity leave. "They were working professionals who had the luxury of deciding how and when to spend their time and are now working parents who have competing demands on that time," she says. "They no longer feel like their former selves and have to learn who they are now."

The 2023 McKinsey Women in the Workplace report highlighted another common hurdle facing women following maternity leave. Some 43% lose confidence.

"Perhaps this is the result of having to navigate their new identity or no longer having the familiarity with the business or with their role that they once did," says Gallagher.

Fear of being left out of important developments

Yseult Freeney is an associate professor of organisational psychology at Dublin City University. She and her colleague Lisa van der Werff have researched how maternity leave affects women's careers. Freeney identifies the fast pace of change in many workplaces as another factor that impacts women on maternity leave.

"They worry that they are missing out on learning new skills or being left out of important developments," she says. "This can cause anxiety about becoming less competitive and losing momentum in their career progression, especially in high stakes or rapidly evolving fields."

The social structure of their workplace can also change in their absence. Because people retire, are promoted, or move on to other companies, the organisation women return to is rarely the same as the one they left. Research published by Gallup in 2020 showed that women find such changes difficult, with 52% admitting it was hard to adjust to new managerial structures and rebuild relationships post-maternity leave.

Their employer's attitude can also affect how successfully women re-establish themselves at work. In 2021, Freeney and her colleagues published research based on interviews with 300 women who had recently returned from maternity leave. It found that employers typically fell into one of two categories.

"Some employers viewed maternity leave as a major disruption in a woman's career while others viewed it as a brief interlude," says Freeney. "In the case of the former, the assumption was that women were likely to be less ambitious, less productive and less available for work because they were mothers. But in the latter, they were likely to continue to be valued for their contribution and thrive in their careers."

Statistics suggest that women are being held back in the workplace by employers who assume that women aren’t as professionally driven after they have babies. For example, a 2023 survey of 2,000 professionals across workplaces in Ireland by the Robert Walters recruitment agency reported that 56% of working mothers felt they had been overlooked for promotion despite believing they had earned one. Even more tellingly, 27% said they weren't even aware of the route to promotion in their workplace.

Gallagher argues that it’s unfair for women’s professional ambitions to be disregarded in this way. “Many mothers still want to have a fulfilling career,” she says, citing a 2021 report by the Harvard Business Review which found that 70% of working mothers hoped to continue advancing in their careers, regardless of the challenges involved.

Practical suggestions on returning to work

The best approach, according to Gallagher, is for organisations to proactively help women through the transition back to work. There is research to back her up, with a 2020 McKinsey report on diversity finding that women who feel supported during their return to work are 40% more likely to remain with their employers and continue advancing in their careers.

A supportive approach doesn’t only help women - it benefits organisations, too. “Retaining women and focussing on their career progression will ultimately translate into greater diversity at senior levels in the long term, which McKinsey links to better overall company performance and innovation," says Gallagher.

Freeney has practical suggestions on how organisations can help women return to work after having a baby. They include keep-in-touch days where they visit the office at scheduled intervals during their maternity leave, mentoring sessions in the lead-up to their return to identify new priorities, and a phased return that involves gradually increasing working hours so that these women find it easier to deal with the logistics of balancing childcare with work.

Most importantly, she recommends that managers talk to mothers. "Open communication is fundamental to preventing disengagement," she says. "It leaves no space for assumptions to be made."

Gallagher emphasises that women need to advocate for themselves, too. "Taking time on their own, with a trusted friend or with a career coach to figure out their career path is a good starting point," she says. "Then, after returning to work, reach out to key contacts and arrange to have a coffee to find out what's been going on in the business, what the challenges are and perhaps the opportunities. This will allow them to reconnect with their peers and help them to get up to speed quicker."

Taking steps to rebuild lost confidence is beneficial, too. This might involve enrolling in courses or workshops or re-engaging with your network. "Even conversations with friends, family and former colleagues can provide encouragement and help people see themselves as capable professionals again," says Freeney.

Doyle tried some of these tactics when she returned to work following the birth of her children. She worked with a coach to process how she had changed and to form a plan to set herself up for a successful return.

This involved outlining her support circle. “I needed to know what childcare or help I could call upon if I or my child got sick or if I had to travel for work,” she says.

It also involved reconnecting with her network and undertaking short courses in facilitation and strategy. “Those helped me to get into the right mindset and relearn some of the business acumen I felt I was missing," she says.

She maintained an ongoing conversation with her employer throughout her maternity leave, particularly with her first child. Because the business had been restructured during her time away, it was decided that it was best for her not to take on a leadership role immediately following her return.

"It can take a few months to find yourself and your new identity and feel as if you're having impact again," she says. "I gave myself time for the right opportunity to come up when I was ready to move into leadership again."

Her biggest tip to other working mums is to expect challenges because learning to combine the demands of work with the demands of a growing family is not easy. But she adds: "If they keep the communication lines open at work and at home, things have a way of working themselves out".