This is mostly a rant. Small-ish business, I'm one of 9 employees and am (not to toot my own horn) crucial to the business running smoothly. I'm essentially below the owner in terms of responsibility and daily duties. Because we are such a small business and my maternity leave is starting right at the beginning of our busy season, I told my bosses about it fairly early (in Nov) so it wouldn't be a surprise. I started preparing how-to guides for the stuff that only happens once a year so my replacement can be on top of everything.
At the end of December my boss sat me down and told me, in a fairly tone deaf manner, how important I am to the company and how finding a temporary replacement for me was SO important. How t should be #1 on my priority list. That I get to help with the interview process. (All of these things I was already aware of and already doing.. but it was nice to hear I guess). I told her that I'm already preparing lists and instructions for whomever we hire, and she was happy with that answer.
I gave her a timeline I wanted to follow – put advert out in EARLY February. Hire for March 01. They spend a month training with me, shadowing, slowly taking on more responsibility. Finally, I leave in the second week of April (busy season is April-Sep). She said it sounded great.
Jan 15: I have an advertisement written up and pass it to the owners. They say they'll get to it. I remind them several times through the rest of January, but hear nothing back. Fine.Feb 16: I hear that the ad is GREAT there are just a few things to change, so I change them, hand it back, and they say they'll get to it again. I remind and remind, offer to write up a new ad that's completley different, they say “no the one you did before looks fine.” and tell me to post the ad with the changes made. Cool!Feb 23: “Take the ad down, it's not a good ad, we can't put that out, the wage is too high, it's too much money, we can't offer that much money, that's obscene.” Okay.. I take the ad down and ask why I wasn't told to change the wage when I handed them the advert over a month ago, they say they didn't notice.
The wage listed was $4 above minimum wage, which slightly less than everyone else working here is getting, and significantly less than what I make. I thought it was fair as this person will be taking on a new (moderately) difficult job for an awkward amount of time, and they are doing something CRITICAL to the company so they deserve to be fairly compensated. I also told them we are in a labour shortage and it can take weeks to hire someone, versus a few years ago when we would get 50+ applications in a day.
Feb 28: I ask about hiring someone again. “We will get to it” was the response I got. And I'm done!
So here we are. I am 30 weeks pregnant. There are no adverts up. 5 weeks until I leave, I will keep writing my lists and protocols out to help whoever the sucker is that gets hired after I inevitably am gone.
I am SO looking forward to my maternity leave next month getting to spend a year off enjoying my baby. Every day when I leave my desk, my work brain shuts off and I stop worrying and stressing about this place. And that will 100% extend to my maternity leave; if they don't want my help hiring and training someone, so be it.