The end of maternity leave – Time for a change?

That’s it. No more maternity leave. I have pushed out my last baby, I have fed her, let her sick on me, watched her first smiles, heard her first giggles and started her on her way to eating solids. In just over a week I will be returning to work. I am at the end of my maternity leave. My time spent blogging will be more limited, my time spent with my family will be greatly reduced and my happiness levels… Well, let’s just say they won’t be as high as they currently are.

The people I work with are really lovely. The job is easy enough and the pay covers the bills – just. But have you ever felt like you are just a cog in a big, ugly, corporate machine? Or not even a whole cog. Sometimes just a tooth of a cog. I don’t want to climb the ladder at my ‘job’. When I look to my future, I don’t look to becoming a team leader or a manager. I don’t even see my place of work. It’s just not on my radar. It’s just not something that excites me enough to think about.

When I look ahead, I see myself doing exciting homework projects and cool science experiments with my kids. I see them bringing friends from school home for dinner and having sleepovers. I see us in our own home, decorating it ourselves and having Liam’s handmade furniture everywhere and all the little things that have filled our home with love, that we’ve acquired by supporting small businesses and helping others grow.

I don’t see Liam ironing his trousers and rushing out the door first thing in the morning to get to work. I don’t see me telling Dexter to ask Daddy if he can have a friend around because Mummy won’t be there at dinner time. I see a happy family. I see us spending time together and having fun.

I guess I’m just reaching that point now where I don’t want to work for someone else, enabling a big, fat cat CEO to buy his third holiday home. I don’t like the idea of my hard work going to help someone else live the life of luxury. I want my work to benefit me. To benefit Liam and our kids. I want to be able to do a whole days work and actually have something to show at the end of it. Not just bills paid and dinner on the table, I mean, that’s great and all, but I want more! I want days out, I want nice clothes. I want to go out for a coffee and not worry about our card declining. I want to be able to take the kids on their first ever holiday! I want Liam and I to have a holiday together. I want to learn to drive. Is that too much?

In terms of employment, we are living in a good time. Working in an office, a shop, or a factory are just options. They are not the only things available. The online world is growing at such a vast rate, knowledge is available at the click of a button and there is so much more. When I had my careers chat at school, I remember them suggesting being a hairdresser? Can you imagine going in there now and saying I want to be a Blogger or a Virtual Assistant or a Social Media Accounts Manager?

It’s such an exciting time. I wanna grab a piece of that pie. I want to work the hours I choose and do the things that I enjoy.
I don’t want to have to feel like I have to keep someone sweet so that they approve my holiday request. I don’t want to have to get to work early so that I can be logged on to my pc to start work bang on the hour. I want to dye my hair any colour I choose! I want to be able to go to the toilet and not have to worry about being longer than 30 seconds because my I’m on the company’s time! That’s not life!

The working world is changing. Look at Google. Look at Innocent. Wouldn’t you just love to work for companies like them? Companies where you are not only allowed, but encouraged to be your own person and not conform to what they want. To not be grey and drab and dreary like the dull office you work in.

Times are changing.

So am I…