RP from WM and 2nd Tri - Maternity Leave Question

akl0506

I'll try to be brief, please bear with me!  I work for a small company, we usually have about 50 employees.  Privately owned.  I have worked there full time for 4.5 years.  I took maternity leave just about 2 years ago with DS.  They had an odd 5 day waiting period before our short term disability kicked in.  I took those 5 days PTO and was paid for 8 wks (40 days paid) at 100% under std, from the 5 days onward.  I had a scheduled c/s with DS.  The 5 days didn't eat into the 8 wks of std.   Our company is "self insured" which really just means that they pay when an employee would normally need std, for up to 90 days at 100%, then ltd kicks in at 60%.  It is my understanding that we go through an actual company for that.  This time, I proposed the same maternity leave, obviously.  However, last week, I was told (by my boss and the president of the company) that the policy had changed since I last took leave and that the new policy was 8 business day waiting period (PTO or unpaid), then 6 wks paid (30 days paid) at 100%.  Well...a bit annoying, but fine.  Whatever, they changed it and didn't release anything via an employee manual, etc.  That sucks, but ok.   Then, today, our HR/office manager pulls me aside b/c she is afraid that my boss and the pres. didn't communicate this all correctly.  Well, she was right.  The actual "policy" is the 8 day waiting period, then the std kicks in for a total of 6 wks from the day the baby was born.  There is also the 4th of July in there, which is just counted as a paid holiday.  So, 9 business days prior to the std kicking in.  This brings me down to 21 days paid, from 40 2 years ago. I popped into my boss's office today to express my disappointment/frustration, but have a feeling this is going to be a big pain.   Any advice on how to politically correctly spin this to the pres so I get more like 6 to 8 wks of actual paid leave (not including my earned PTO), like I did last time?  I don't want to seem ungrateful, I know that some people don't get any pay at all.  But, at the same time, I feel like I experienced one thing, was told another and now am being told something completely different.  It is really frustrating from a planning perspective, to say the least.

anna7602

No advice but to say that small companies seem like they can pretty much do whatever they want. There were three women at my old company who had babies at differing times. I was the 2nd one. The maternity leave policy I had was the most generous and I feel a little bit bad about it. The first woman was an experiment, as there was no maternity leave policy in place yet. They revisited things and gave me an awesome leave (8 weeks paid, 4 weeks unpaid and my 2 weeks' vacation for a total of almost 4 months and then the ability to come back part-time), then revisited again for the 3rd person because they realized how much money my leave cost them (financially and in covering for me for so long, even for the unpaid part of my leave) and that they simply couldn't do that again. They also eliminated the part-time option, which I am sure seemed "unfair" to the co-worker who came after me, but the truth is that my boss and I realized my position couldn't be done in part-time hours and it was extremely stressful for both of us to try to cram 40 hours worth of work into 20. This was actually one of the big reaons that prompted me to leave that job.

Anyway, I think it all depends on your tone and attitude. There's nothing wrong with inquiring why the policy changed and what you can do to find a good compromise between the previous policy and the current one, but it's all about acting positive and upbeat and not whiny and complainy.

Good luck!

pixieprincss

I think how you wrote it at the bottom is the way to go.

You appreciate that they provide this benefit, but would like to share your confusion because you...

-experienced one thing

-was told another

-and now am being told something completely different.  

 

It is frustrating from a planning perspective so you suggest they should...

-update the employee handbook to communicate this change clearly to all employees

-anything else?

On a personal note, you wonder if the president could...

-explain the change to you

-anything else?