NBR: Maternity Leave rant

Aiylin

Ok, so work was/is great up to now. since I work with 1 other female, I work with 100+ men. This company is big but since they've never had females work here they are clueless on the maternity leave thing. What's ticking me off right now you ask? They expect me to work during my maternity leave if I want to have any portion of my maternity leave covered. Am I the only one who finds this unreasonable?

I am exhausted and honestly I'm at the point where I am ready to just come in give a blank stare for my work day and go home. (maybe actually start catching up with you guys!).

36 more days!

irked, just irked.

karirlaw

I totally understand why this upsets you.  However, my company does not even offer Short Term Dis so i get absolutely no pay during my leave otehr then vaca days.  They are offering to let me work from home during my leave if i want to bring in extra money. So after two full weeks off, I am going to remotely work full time and still bring in my full time pay.  I am actually pretty thankful for the offer.

Dukos

You need to talk to HR.

If you have 100+ people at your company, I'm pretty sure they need to abide by FMLA which I believe mandates you get a minimum of 6 weeks unpaid leave, and your job, or a similar job with the same pay, waiting for you when you come back.  Also, I would imagine a company of that size would have disability benefits, in which case you "should" (in my experience anyway) get 6 weeks off paid with a vaginal birth and I believe 8 weeks off paid with a c/s.

Talk to your HR dept and find out your company's policy.  Then arrange a meeting with your boss, or if need be, and HR rep and your boss so that everyone can get up to speed and on the same page.

GL! 

pippi97361

Sounds like your company needs to read up on the Family Medical Leave Act.  You can provide them with information by sending them the website (https://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/benefits-leave/fmla.htm).  Also, your work does not have to pay you to be on leave BUT I do believe that they have to let you use your vacation and sick time which allow you to have that time paid.  Beyond this, FMLA states that you are only entitled to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave. 

I don't think they can require that you work in order to "have any portion of your maternity leave covered" - if you've accumulate vacation and sick days, again I think they have to let you use that time and get paid for that. 

Additionally, my work also does not offer short term disability but I have been paying for it myself through AFLAC.  In the end, it turns out that they will only pay for 4 weeks of maternity leave @ 60% of my monthly salary as they "don't really consider maternity leave a disability."  However, if I was to be disabled for anything else besides maternity reasons, then they would pay the 60% up to 90 days.  At least the 4 weeks @ 60% will be something!

Carrie3102

I'm going to echo other posters here and say, if you have STD through your company, then your leave should be paid (somewhat maybe not 100%) for a specified number of weeks.  Generally 6 vaginal delivery or 8 c-section.  You cannot work during that period that you are being paid by STD. 

FMLA is for businesses with over 50 employees.  It does not grant pay but does give you 12 weeks of unpaid leave.  It also guarantees your job or a similar job with the same pay for when you come back. 

Contact your HR department. Something isn't right here. You may not have STD, so your leave may be unpaid, but you should definitely be covered for unpaid leave under FMLA.

YellowLily2013

I would check if how the policy is written.

Do they just want you to be available to answer questions regarding projects you've worked on. Or actually do work?

I want to be available to my colleagues to answer any questions regarding my projects so things are done right and not duplicated.

If you don't care about pay, I would just take FMLA leave and not work at all. They can't make you work if they aren't paying you.

Aiylin

To provide clarirfication: I am getting STD when I am off for 8 Weeks because I have a RCS. I have one week of vacation left (darn baby moon!) which I plan on using and in order for them to offer the benefit of having my other 3 weeks left since I am taking 12 weeks, they expect me to do  work. Thats not a benefit, that's called working from home. I know a chimp when I see one~!

 In essence, they want me to be availble to answer questions about work. That's why we all got our handy dandy droids and I-phones. so that we would be attached by a string. In addition, they have then nerve to count that ball and chain as  perk on my benefits package. Should I laugh now or later?

I was all for helping them out during my time off, but this completely has turned me into a sourpuss about the situation. Don't try to disguise a work from home opportunity as a maternity leave benefit. Maternity leave is just that- leave.

irked, if I wasn't big and round and uncomofrable, I would possibly go for a run, or possibly just punch somebody.

Perhaps I can still engage in the punching.