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Telling Work and Determining Leave Policy

ChicagoBreadChicagoBread
in 1st Trimester
I am 11 weeks pregnant and have not told very many people yet.  I don't particularly want to tell my boss until I'm about 20 weeks or so, but I don't know my firm's leave policy and I'd like to know (just for peace of mind / planning purposes).  Its a small firm, so if I speak to the firm administrator about the policy, I'm not sure how secret it will stay.  Do I just wait until 20 weeks to find out the policy?  I'm really shooting for 16 weeks of total leave, knowing that some would be unpaid, so I'd like to have some time to negotiate.  
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Re: Telling Work and Determining Leave Policy

  • twohuntstwohunts member
    Is the firm admin the same person that holds everyone's HR information? I think I would talk to someone in HR since they are supposed to keep stuff a secret. Could you ask anyone else who has been pregnant while they've worked there what the policy is? Maybe you could say that you are just curious and maybe thinking about starting a family soon. Good luck!

     
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  • ChicagoBreadChicagoBread
    Yes.  Firm admin is HR.  Its a pretty small firm and I'm pretty new here (I'll be at exactly one year around my due date).  

    I'm going to see if I can dig up any paperwork they gave me when I started to see if there's a written policy somewhere.  
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  • EmR22EmR22 member
    Your HR should be keeping your conversations private. I would probably approach them soon if you are looking for 16 weeks since FMLA only allows to save your job for 12 weeks you may need to negotiate things. I like the approach of "we are thinking of starting a family and I am looking into the companies policy" you don't need to be totally honest.
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  • ChicagoBreadChicagoBread
    The good thing is that I am an employment discrimination attorney, so I'm pretty sure I'm not going to get fired!  But, yes, FMLA only provides for 8 week of unpaid leave (since we have less than 50 employees, we are not covered by FMLA anyway).  I also have short term disability insurance, and I'm not exactly sure how that works in tandem with any paid leave policy.  So many things to think about!
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  • EmR22EmR22 member
    There are so many things to think about. Either way congrats and good luck! At least you are starting to plan right?
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