maternity leave at small company

BSE

just wondering other people's experience. i work at a small company so FMLA doesn't apply and i don't have short term disability. curious what other people worked out while on leave.

Chandley

when i was pg i was at my old job and our office was 15 people total. they allowed me 6 weeks full pay, or 12 weeks 1/2 pay. since i worked from home for them (they were based in los angeles) i opted for the 6 weeks paid.

balihaigirl

mine might be different than others because my boss is not the nicest person (plus also he hates kids and I was the first one to have a baby at my company).  anyway, we worked out that i would get an 8 week UNPAID maternity leave.  however, at 4-5 weeks post partum our HR person called saying if i didn't come back at 6w, i wouldn't have a job.  my boss is super controlling & manipulative & i had a feeling he was bluffing.  i told them no, i wouldn't go back until 8 weeks.  i went back at 8 weeks (and still had a job). 

but yeah, don't let my response scare you -- hopefully you have a nicer employer than i do.

BubbleToes

My employer (7 ppl) allowed me 8 weeks of unpaid leave.  I'm part time - not sure if that would be any different if I was full time.

JayandJack

My last company gave 2 week unpaid (I could have used my vacation but I'd already used it up) and 4 weeks at 60% of pay. I negotiated up to 8 weeks with the last 2 weeks being unpaid. We had less than 50 people to. The girl who delivered 3 months before me also had negotiated 8 total weeks off too which helped my cause.

I ended up being laid off at 5 weeks but I could have gone back at 6 weeks and been OK. I was actually ready to go back and I didn't think I would be. Being laid off wasn't a suprise though since we were going through a bunch of stuff so I'd prepared for it.

ditzydi_2000

I work ft at a company with five employees, three of us girls.  I was the first to get PG and based on past employees I was able to take 6 weeks off.  I got paid full for two weeks of it because I used my vacation time for the year.  Then for the remaining four weeks I was out, my boss paid me 70% of my salary.  It's really up to us to fight for what we want.  I know another girl took two weeks off, was accessible by cell phone and could work from home if need be because she was more vital to the operation of our office and she negotiated 80%.  It'll be interesting to see what the last of us girls will ask for.  She's due in September.  Hee hee.  

 

jml5q

um, whatever it is it needs to be 12 weeks so we can have the summer off together!

 

BSE

jml5q:

um, whatever it is it needs to be 12 weeks so we can have the summer off together!

 

oh it's 12 weeks, that part is settled

L L CG

Wow.  Seems like small company employees get better maternity leave than they give at the State!  We get 12 weeks, unpaid.

jml5q

BSE:

jml5q:

um, whatever it is it needs to be 12 weeks so we can have the summer off together!

 

oh it's 12 weeks, that part is settled

ah, ok. well in my large company we get 6 weeks of STD pay starting after day 7, so really 5 weeks at 60% pay. the rest is unpaid.