@caribbeanmama Wow, I must teach for the wrong school! My administration heard I was due in June and informed me that I wouldn't get the STD pay because it could only be for the 6 weeks directly following delivery (I'm a 10 month employee, so I won't be around for that anyway) and then assumed that I would come back full time in August or not at all. No teaching relief or anything of the sort for that semester. Thankfully my department chair is willing to work with me to get someone to cover my classes for the first couple weeks of the fall semester so I can try to get little one to 12-16 weeks before I come back. The administration is NOT happy with me, but as I understand it they don't have much choice given FMLA.
@caribbeanmama...No, not in academia. I'm a Peds ER physician, but since my benefits are through the medical school that my hospital is affiliated with, I get a week of leave by being "faculty" at the med school. It would certainly be nice to take more paid time off, but that's not possible for me.
I can take 10 weeks total, 6 of those fully paid then after that I have to use accrued sick days and vacation days. I'm considering asking to hold off using some of that so I can take time off later in the year and for those inevitable sick days my child will have. So I'm looking at potentially 4 unpaid weeks as worst case scenario.
@gabadoo I'm like you where my husband has a business and I'm shouldering a lot of the load. He would like to quit his full time job and focus on the business, which will leave me solely responsible for insurance and income security
@caribbeanmama Wow, I must teach for the wrong school! My administration heard I was due in June and informed me that I wouldn't get the STD pay because it could only be for the 6 weeks directly following delivery (I'm a 10 month employee, so I won't be around for that anyway) and then assumed that I would come back full time in August or not at all. No teaching relief or anything of the sort for that semester. Thankfully my department chair is willing to work with me to get someone to cover my classes for the first couple weeks of the fall semester so I can try to get little one to 12-16 weeks before I come back. The administration is NOT happy with me, but as I understand it they don't have much choice given FMLA.
Wait - why would they assume you would not come back at all? Are you completely off in the summer? Or do you have both teaching and research responsibilities? The teaching release is like a 25% reduction since we are expected to maintain a research group. Of course nobody monitors you. Depending on the chair you can also negotiate release from department service/admin here. It's such a big help to have a flexible schedule - this should be the standard across the board! I don't understand why administration is not happy with you - surely they have dealt with women requiring maternity leave before.
@caribbeanmama...No, not in academia. I'm a Peds ER physician, but since my benefits are through the medical school that my hospital is affiliated with, I get a week of leave by being "faculty" at the med school. It would certainly be nice to take more paid time off, but that's not possible for me.
Oh okay that makes sense if you're not lecturing. The teaching release only frees me up from lecture - I still have to get research/advising/ proposal writing done. It is convenient though since I can technically work from home for the most part. The med school faculty here get teaching release too.
It's so different for everyone, I feel like there should be universal maternity leave... like Canada or Sweden.
@caribbeanmama Wow, I must teach for the wrong school! My administration heard I was due in June and informed me that I wouldn't get the STD pay because it could only be for the 6 weeks directly following delivery (I'm a 10 month employee, so I won't be around for that anyway) and then assumed that I would come back full time in August or not at all. No teaching relief or anything of the sort for that semester. Thankfully my department chair is willing to work with me to get someone to cover my classes for the first couple weeks of the fall semester so I can try to get little one to 12-16 weeks before I come back. The administration is NOT happy with me, but as I understand it they don't have much choice given FMLA.
Wait - why would they assume you would not come back at all? Are you completely off in the summer? Or do you have both teaching and research responsibilities? The teaching release is like a 25% reduction since we are expected to maintain a research group. Of course nobody monitors you. Depending on the chair you can also negotiate release from department service/admin here. It's such a big help to have a flexible schedule - this should be the standard across the board! I don't understand why administration is not happy with you - surely they have dealt with women requiring maternity leave before.
Sorry, that might have been poorly worded. I don't think they actually thought that I wouldn't come back, just that it was an all or nothing situation because they figure that if I have 8 weeks over the summer (I am completely off contract for those 2 months) then that's more than sufficient for maternity leave (they expect most of us to take no more than the 6 weeks they consider us "physically disabled") and that any longer than that wouldn't make sense unless I were becoming a SAHM. Once I come back it's again, all or nothing, and I'm expected to either be there with a full 15 credit teaching load, advisement, committees etc or not be there at all. It's a weird system though, because unlike most colleges we're expected to be on campus 8:30-4:30, Monday-Friday with no allowance for working from home.
In short, I have a fantastic department chair who will work with me as much as the administration will allow, but the administration is a bunch of crazy micromanagers. I actually had a dean come down and talk to my department chair about me shifting an office hour one day by 30 minutes to make a doctor's appointment. They are not friendly about reducing loads, flexible schedules, or taking time off for anything. I feel less bad for me right now and more awful for the girl in my department that just caught crap about needing to cancel a class meeting to have her port put in for chemo (no allowances for her either!). I could write a book about these people, but I'll stop now because it's really not worth continuing the complain about. I love my students, I love my department members, and I want to keep doing what I do, so I'll put up with the leave crap and move on because I know that others have it way worse.
Any Canadian Mamma's here? I go back and fourth with splitting my leave with my H. I will take 6-10 months and he will take the remaining 6 months. I've been saving for awhile but after learning that we will soon be taking a bit of an income hit it now makes more sense for me to take 17 weeks and letting him take the remaining 32
What I take depends on when my district starts school next year. Since I'm due after school gets out I may not miss any work. If I go early or get put on bed rest I will miss some of this year. But, my yearly FLMA clock resets in July, so regardless I could get 12 weeks after birth.
I'm planning on going back first week in December. I believe my district tried to say fmla was going to start right after sick days were used (even in summer ), but the union disputed or corrected them. So I pray that doesn't change. I'll get 6 weeks disability that I've been paying into with a personal and 6 weeks (66% salary) njfmli . Might have to tap into my savings a bit. We will see.
@tjvan Isn't FMLA just covering 12 weeks off, regardless of whether it is paid or not? I am confused as to how the FMLA weeks are in addition to your maternity and vacation weeks?
Yes FMLA covers 12 weeks regardless if paid or not. Some companies have policies allowing for more time off.
@caribbeanmama Wow, I must teach for the wrong school! My administration heard I was due in June and informed me that I wouldn't get the STD pay because it could only be for the 6 weeks directly following delivery (I'm a 10 month employee, so I won't be around for that anyway) and then assumed that I would come back full time in August or not at all. No teaching relief or anything of the sort for that semester. Thankfully my department chair is willing to work with me to get someone to cover my classes for the first couple weeks of the fall semester so I can try to get little one to 12-16 weeks before I come back. The administration is NOT happy with me, but as I understand it they don't have much choice given FMLA.
Wait - why would they assume you would not come back at all? Are you completely off in the summer? Or do you have both teaching and research responsibilities? The teaching release is like a 25% reduction since we are expected to maintain a research group. Of course nobody monitors you. Depending on the chair you can also negotiate release from department service/admin here. It's such a big help to have a flexible schedule - this should be the standard across the board! I don't understand why administration is not happy with you - surely they have dealt with women requiring maternity leave before.
Sorry, that might have been poorly worded. I don't think they actually thought that I wouldn't come back, just that it was an all or nothing situation because they figure that if I have 8 weeks over the summer (I am completely off contract for those 2 months) then that's more than sufficient for maternity leave (they expect most of us to take no more than the 6 weeks they consider us "physically disabled") and that any longer than that wouldn't make sense unless I were becoming a SAHM. Once I come back it's again, all or nothing, and I'm expected to either be there with a full 15 credit teaching load, advisement, committees etc or not be there at all. It's a weird system though, because unlike most colleges we're expected to be on campus 8:30-4:30, Monday-Friday with no allowance for working from home.
In short, I have a fantastic department chair who will work with me as much as the administration will allow, but the administration is a bunch of crazy micromanagers. I actually had a dean come down and talk to my department chair about me shifting an office hour one day by 30 minutes to make a doctor's appointment. They are not friendly about reducing loads, flexible schedules, or taking time off for anything. I feel less bad for me right now and more awful for the girl in my department that just caught crap about needing to cancel a class meeting to have her port put in for chemo (no allowances for her either!). I could write a book about these people, but I'll stop now because it's really not worth continuing the complain about. I love my students, I love my department members, and I want to keep doing what I do, so I'll put up with the leave crap and move on because I know that others have it way worse.
I'm so curious about where this is. Is this typical of private colleges or community college? This doesn't sound fair at all. I can't imagine why admin would be involved in this level of governance! That's great that you love what you do - would make dealing with that other crap a bit more manageable I bet. As for your friend, that just sounds mean and makes me sad . I would die if I had to teach 15 credits. I teach one course per semester - and that wears me out. You have some stamina! And as for requiring faculty be on campus for a set period of time- that's just dumb!
With DS I had 13 weeks off. The last week was due to emergency gall bladder surgery. I hadn't been at my job at least two years at that time, so I only received 67% of my pay for 5 weeks.
This time I will get 100% of my pay for 10 weeks and then will have 2 on FMLA. I need to see if it overlaps because if not I want to stretch to 14 weeks off total.
Since we're adopting, we will not be eligible for STD. DH and I work for the same company, and we are allowed to "share" FMLA, so we'll do that. We both get 2 weeks "discretionary leave" which is what most men take for paternity leave at our company (anyone is eligible for it though), so we'll take those 2 weeks together, and then we'll start using vacation time concurrently with FMLA to get paid. Between the two of us, we'll have 9 weeks paid to stay home with the baby, and I might take a few more weeks unpaid, but they won't be in one big chunk...we'll be switching off every week or two.
Re: Figuring out maternity leave yet?
@gabadoo I'm like you where my husband has a business and I'm shouldering a lot of the load. He would like to quit his full time job and focus on the business, which will leave me solely responsible for insurance and income security
It's so different for everyone, I feel like there should be universal maternity leave... like Canada or Sweden.
In short, I have a fantastic department chair who will work with me as much as the administration will allow, but the administration is a bunch of crazy micromanagers. I actually had a dean come down and talk to my department chair about me shifting an office hour one day by 30 minutes to make a doctor's appointment. They are not friendly about reducing loads, flexible schedules, or taking time off for anything. I feel less bad for me right now and more awful for the girl in my department that just caught crap about needing to cancel a class meeting to have her port put in for chemo (no allowances for her either!). I could write a book about these people, but I'll stop now because it's really not worth continuing the complain about. I love my students, I love my department members, and I want to keep doing what I do, so I'll put up with the leave crap and move on because I know that others have it way worse.
Due June 25 2017
This time I will get 100% of my pay for 10 weeks and then will have 2 on FMLA. I need to see if it overlaps because if not I want to stretch to 14 weeks off total.