Georgia Babies
MrsL1022
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This working mom thing is kicking my @$$!!
MrsL1022
member
Backstory: So prior to May of this year I had been a SAHM for 5 yrs. I went back to work once the baby turned 1. This year I have pro-rated vacation time. I negotiated my trip that was planned prior to accepting my job in may and when I accepted the job I negotiated the trip I had planned. I have e-mails and no where was I told that I would have to use pro-rated sick or vacation time towards the trip I had planned prior to accepting this job. The trip was in August and I did not enter the time as it was negotiated prior and I was never told I would have to enter it against PTO. Get to 10/1 and my VP told me I had to enter it. I contested having to enter it printed out the e-mails but was told he misspoke. So rather than totally freak out I entered the time. This leaves me with ONE day of PTO from now until January. I am now under a new boss and department as of last Friday. My new boss knows nothing of all of this and I don't report to the VP who forced me to enter the time.
NOW: My house has been hit with a stomach bug. I got a call that Colin was sick and I left early to pick him up. DH and I are BOTH in new employment situations and are not very flexible until January 1. He is going to take the day tomorrow and I have a call into our babysitter to see if she can help in the afternoon so that he can show face for a few hours. I feel SO HORRIBLE that I am trying to find a sitter. HOW do you mommies juggle sick kids and PTO. Do you have backup people/ plans for days they cant go to daycare or school? We have no local family here. I feel like we need an emergency backup sitter but who is going to volunteer to come be with a sick kid and expose themselves?? We are in the process of getting laptops to telework but my job is really not designed for that at this moment and being new to the company and now being under a VP I have known for a week in a new dept this is not something I am in a position to request. DH and I are tag teaming with the kids in every way possible but we are both so new to our jobs I don't know what to do when we are in the "when it rains, it pours' phase of having young kids who contract every imaginable virus or illness there is.
Please tell me what to do in this case? I try to keep saying I am a mom first but right now I am at the mercy of my PTO allotment until the end of the year, and we all know how Murphy's Law works....
Colin Patrick-7/14/08
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Re: This working mom thing is kicking my @$$!!
We are also in a rain/pour week right now as DH's car broke down tonight and p's asthma had dh miss work earlier this week. Anyway, DH's company has something called bright star where you can get a nurse to stay with your sick kid. We have never used it though. im not keen on leaving my kids with a total stranger.
We are in the same situation since we do not have any family that can take on a sick kid for a day to help us out. Heck, we have ONE babysitter and she works in a daycare so she isn't available most week days. I keep a tight budget and to set aside enough salary to cover a few extra sick days for when I have to have them in the spring time.
I always wondered how working parents did this! I did notice on care.com, that care providers can say that they "Willing to care for sick children" and are available for short term notice for emergency back up care. I imagine you will probably pay a bit of a premium for this, but when its one of your only options..
Sending you hugs!
The reason I expected the time was because per the company's vacation policy I was not going to accrue enough time to cover the vacation and it was already planned, so I had them approve it outside of my PTO as a condition of my accepting the job. I discussed with the VP and HR that I needed it to be separate so that the 2-3 days I would accrue between date of hire an the end of the year could be used for emergencies. I had the e-mails approving this an then my boss went back on it and I didn't want to press the issue too aggressively. After he blew me and the e-mails off. Then they made the announcement that we would be shifting the dept to a new VP. It is what it is I guess, I worked it out for today but please god let me make it to 12/31 with no further catastrophes! Won't happen but let's cross fingers and toes.
As for you, I would get REAL familiar with your company leave policies on LWOP, PTO, SL, or even borrowing time from yourself? Another possibility is working a flex schedule where you work 9 hr days instead of 8 and get every other Friday off. If they have that, maybe ask if you can "bank" those credit hours to use in place of sick leave as needed? I've found that being honest about my situation and priorities and continuing to go the extra mile in other areas has really motivated my managers to want to work with me. I do feel your pain- leave was EXTREMELY tight after Gavin was born. I was new then and hadn't proved myself yet.