OK so this whole time I thought I had the best job, insurance, etc. ever.
Well I just got off the phone with HR and looks like we dont get any paid maternity leave. Whatever I have saved up is what I get to use when the baby gets here. I told them they had better re do the policy manual to better state that b/c I read something way different.
So now I am a little worried about money, time off, etc come May.
What is everyone else doing?
TIA
Amber
Re: Maternity Leave CRAP CRAP CRAP
Well, we don't get paid and we can only take off what our Dr writes in a Dr's note! It sucks and I absilutely refuse to take off less than 8 weeks. Work is just going to have to deal and my Dr will just have to tell them it will take me 8 weeks to recover.
We have STD through Aflac so after the 2 week waiting period I get paid for 6 weeks.
fyi:I work for a small company that is NOT covered by FMLA.
DD#1 born June '09
DD#2 born April '11
TTC #3 as of July '14
I thought it was rather funny how my boss cut off overtime (comp time) when he found out I was pregnant.
He told me that he doesnt think my assistant can handle me being gone for that long by herself. I should have known then that something was up!!!!!
Thanks Ladies
Does your company offer short term disability? Most companies nowadays have moved from paid maternity leave to short term disability. Either your company provides this as a benefit or you had to enroll in it when you were hired as part of your voluntary life insurance package. My company offers and pays for it for every employee, so I'm lucky in that respect. It's worth looking into.
Mine is the same way. I work for a church/private school, so funding isn't the best. But the way I look at it, I'm using FMLA, so I'm entitled to up to 12 weeks if I want it, whereas I may have been limited to just 6 weeks if I was using actual maternity leave (I think-- maybe I'm wrong about that).
I'm taking 10 weeks off, then working half days for 2 weeks. My boss encouraged me to take the max and I sure am:) I won't get paid for any of it, but DH and I looked at our finances and made the decision that we'd make it work since I'd never get this time back.
What threw us off a little was the unexpected 6 weeks of bedrest leading up to having DD. But we're managing:)
I will have 41 days saved up for leave by then. I will probably take 30 or 35, In order to have a few left over of baby gets sick. I signed up for short term disability in October but it takes 6months to kick in, so I will have it for my next pregnancy.
// // // document.write(''); I think unpaid leave is more than "norm" than it is realized. Since I am a teacher, I can not apply for the state FMLA, so I am basically unpaid by the state, or the district.
I was able to work things out in my favor though.... I am allowed by my district to get paid for up to 30 sick days. I am taking off 18 weeks total, and I opted to get paid for 20 days... which is 4 weeks. Thankfully, I opt out of my insurance, so I get a a couple thousand from that, and I have personal STD, where I got 67 days worth of money.. weird amount, so I essentially am getting paid for all 18 weeks. I am lucky though that I have that insurance money, and got written out by my doc to get extra money from the STD.
Unfortunately I believe that is the norm. Paid maternity leave is rare. Sucks, doesn't it?
This was the case when I had my DD. I used every bit of saved up vacation and sick time I had accumulated, and we saved, saved, saved. I sold my motorcycle and banked the cash. With DS, I was lucky enough to have employer-paid STD for 66% of 7 weeks of pay. We also made sure that we were completely out of debt (except for mortgage) so that we have very few bills.
I don't get any paid time from my job, but I get 6 weeks of disability for a vaginal birth at 2/3 my pay from the state and 8 weeks if it's a c section. We also get 4 weeks before our EDD's as well at 2/3 the pay. I guess it varies from state to state?? I work for a small non profit too so I don't get any of the benefits of a big place.
I am also taking a few weeks of vacation to make my total time out 12 weeks or so.
There were no alloted sick days at my company, but we did have one week paid vacation and STD (short term disability). I was allowed 6 wks for a vaginal birth on partial pay under the STD (and I think I ended up getting 8 wks because I had a c-section), and then another 6 wks under FMLA, unpaid (or actually another 4 wks, since my STD was longer than normal), for a total of 12 wks off.