No PTO after FMLA

goldbloomer

Anyone required to take all PTO/SICK days during FMLA? I'm due in December and this will leave me with 10 months of no time off. How did you manage?

asun123

I'm a little confused by your statement. Probably just my pregnancy brain. I'm in California where you are given 40 hours a year of sick time. But with my company, this comes out of your accrued vacation time. Since I have like no vacation time right now, I can't use my sick time. Well, I can, it just won't be paid. My due date is December 17th but my last day is planned for December 7th. I will be using my 6 weeks of maternity leave and then switching to 6 more weeks of Paid Family Leave. Here, we receive 45% of our regular pay during this time. I have been putting away money every week into a separate savings account to make up for the other 55% of pay I will not be receiving while I'm not working. 

After I go back to work after maternity, I will have 0 vacation hours. So, if I need to take a day off here and there, it will not be paid. But with my work, I am always allowed to call out when needed. I will just start accruing my vacation hours again starting the week I go back to work.

zoepac

My first two weeks of leave are PTO at full pay if you have the hours, then 6 weeks short term disability at 75% my pay, the remaining 4 weeks are whatever you have left of PTO or unpaid. When I go back to work I will have no PTO and if I need to take a day here or there it will be unpaid until I save up more PTO (I am in MA ) 

mcgeeva

I am in the same ish boat but less paid leave. I have to use two wks accrued pto for maternity leave to kick in. Which for me is hard to accrue so struggling and taking no time off at my company this year. Our pto and vacation are in one pot total of 20 days but every minute not at work is pto leave deducted. We get 8 weeks maternity leave so anything after is zero pay bc my company you have to acrrue and having a baby in December I’ll use every day I have. Two we don’t accrue leave while on maternity so I’ll be coming back to no leave as well and trying to save money to afford to be home longer.

whit789

I had to use all sick/PTO/vacation time when I had DS a few years back, and had nothing left when I returned to work. Was a pain in the ass because of course he was sick and had doctors appointments. I discussed it with my supervisor, who was supportive and understanding, lucky for me. So I would typically flex my time by working late here and there to make up for missed hours.  Hope that your company will work with you to find a good solution.

katy0990

That is unfortunately how it works in the US. When I had my son, I used the 5 weeks of sick days that I had saved up and was unpaid for the remaining 5 weeks. Then, I earned 1.25 days every month once I returned. Most states do not have any paid family leave, so if you do not have STD, you won’t be paid beyond your sick or vacation days.

CecilB93

Yep. I'm in your exact position. I think total, I'll have maybe a month of paid leave...maybe. And that's using all PTO and sick leave. I think for this year I have two-ish weeks saved up, then at the beginning of the year I get another 144 hours. But, after that's gone I have nothing until January 1st, 2020. It's going to be complete hell not getting to take a vacation from work next year, but I did discuss with my boss and she understands that I may have to take a day here and there for doctor appointments or to stay home if baby is sick, those will just be unpaid days. I can't get any sort of short term disability, nor am I able to accrue any extra PTO hours. I'm glad (and lucky) that DH has the ability to accrue PTO hours throughout each pay period, so he'll probably be staying home a lot more than me the first year honestly, but I do plan to stay home at least sometimes if baby is sick.

ETA like @whit789 I'm able to work late, come in early, and take short lunches (normally get an hour) to help make up some time each week. So if I have a doctors appointment, I'll usually stay late or take a short lunch the next couple days so I still get paid the full 40 hours. I've been doing that this whole pregnancy to minimize PTO/sick leave used before maternity leave! Trying to save as much as I can!

tunnel

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