Working Moms
bearkatjen
member
Options
Working remotely during mat leave
bearkatjen
member
in Working Moms
I can do a good chunk of my job remotely, so I'm hoping to finagle working from home as part of my maternity leave (no FMLA).
For those of you who have done this, how many weeks postpartum did you start working from home, and how many hours a day?
If you have STD, can you work part-time during your maternity leave?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Working remotely during mat leave
Typically if you are on STD you cannot work. You are "disabled" and should not be working, especially if you are only collecting a percentage of your income. You are actually screwing yourself in that scenario.
When you go out on claim you usually get paperwork that says if you are working at all (even 1%) you must let your disability carrier know. There are scenarios of working partially and collecting disability. However many STD plans do not offer this, LTD plans do.
At my company, which happens to be a disability carrier, you get 6 weeks of benefit at a certain percentage. After this time, you either go back to work FT, PT (due to an arrangement with your manager) or take PTO and/or unpaid leave because you are potentially utilizing your FML leave.
With my last pregnancy, I came back 8 weeks postpartum (I work from home 100%) but had an agreement to keep my son until he was 10 weeks and then he would go to day care per our remote worker agreement (we cannot have children home while working unless someone else is there to be the primary caregiver).
First off - TAKE your maternity and DO NOT work while you're on it. You're entitled and well deserved of this time with your baby.
A lot of people seem to think that women are on vacation when they deliver their babies and have to take care of them. This idea is stupid and ridiculous and very ass backwards in my opinion.
I made this mistake and my company didn't even appreciate it. If you're going to check emails and direct them to other people who are filling in while you're out then that's okay. Otherwise, I wouldn't offer to work during ML.
As someone who has worked from home, part-time, during two of my leaves and will again with this next one I find this opinion a little shortsited. You don't know what each woman's experience is.
My employer does not offer short term disability so my maternity leave consists of whatever sick and vacation time I have accumulated along with whatever I can afford to take off unpaid. As I can't really afford to take unpaid leave, and it's hard to accumulate 12 weeks off when I've been pregnant six times in the last six years, I choose to work part-time from home as a way to extend my leave to a full 12 weeks. Otherwise, I would return probably at the 6 week mark.
For me, this has worked out wonderfully. I keep a hand in my work and what is going on in the office while still getting to be at home with my baby and younger kids. And, I get to return to the office with some leave time still in the bank instead of returning with nothing. I'm grateful that my employer allows me to do this and they are also very appreciative of the work I do.
As for it being hard to get work done with a newborn, I agree. I do have my babysitter come to my house and watch the kids for a while each morning so that I can get my work done.
Kelly, Mom to Christopher Shannon 9.27.06, Catherine Quinn 2.24.09, Trey Barton lost on 12.28.09, Therese Barton lost on 6.10.10, Joseph Sullivan 7.23.11, and our latest, Victoria Maren 11.15.12
Secondary infertility success with IVF, then two losses, one at 14 weeks and one at 10 weeks, then success with IUI and then just pure, crazy luck. Expecting our fifth in May as the result of a FET.
This Cluttered Life
I'm working remotely during my leave. Started at 6 weeks. I could have also done during the first 2 weeks when she slept all day but didn't have much to do then. It's for my career so I'm doing it. Also, my boss said I can take additional time this summer when we move to a new house so I'm exchanging time to some extent. I'm paying a babysitter to watch LO. I enjoy it to some extent but also wish I could just have some carefree time. I don't have STD. It's not a financial decision for me; I lose money because I'm paying the babysitter and get my salary anyway. I worked with my first too.
I did some work from home while I was on maternity leave. I was already pregnant when I started this job, so I was not eligible for STD or FMLA, and had no leave time built up. Since I carry the insurance for us, I want to try to at least work enough to pay the premium so I didn't owe all that when I got back in addition to having zero income. The baby was born on a Thursday, I started working that Monday.
That said, I figured about 10 hours would cover it, and it was HARD to get 10 hours in in a week! I have a toddler as well, so I would take him to daycare 2 days a week and those would be my days to work, but if the baby didn't sleep, or was fussy, or wanted to eat all day, or I was stuck in bed with mastitis (twice) then I didn't get a whole lot done! I would also try to fit some time in when my husband was home, or on the rare occasion when both kids slept, but it usually wasn't more than a half an hour.
So, in conclusion, I think it's definitely a possibility to ease a little bit of the income deficit by working from home, but don't expect to get in a full 40 hours (or anywhere close) unless you've got full time help.