Friday, July 16, 2010

Maternity leave plans

I told my work that I was pregnant this week. I told my boss, and the director and associate directors of our department, and a few close coworkers. It's a little scary to have announced it to the world. The blog feels like the safest public space, because if something happened during the pregnancy I would almost definitely talk about it here even if I hadn't yet announced the pregnancy, and then Facebook is like a step more removed, and work is the final step. Like if something happened with the baby I don't really want to have to deal with people at work knowing about it. So it's a little weird to have the whole thing be out in the open.

But, you know, at a certain point you have to just assume that everything will be fine and take the plunge and know that if something terrible did happen this late in the game, people will be supportive and that's just how it's going to be.

I could have waited a little longer to tell work, especially since I work remotely, but I wanted to get my maternity leave situation figured out. My company has a decent maternity leave policy, but let me clarify right up front that I mean "decent by US standards, and would be regarded with horror by anyone from a country with a REAL maternity leave requirement."

Basically, it works like this: I get either 12 or 16 weeks of FMLA leave. It's unclear which because DC mandates 16 for anyone who lives or works there, which I don't, but my company is based there, so they generally offer 16 weeks to all their employees just out of the goodness of their heart, but this hasn't been finalized yet (one of the things I'm still trying to work out with the benefits department). But it looks like it will most likely be 16 weeks. Of those, six are paid at 60% through our company-sponsored short-term disability insurance. The other 10 weeks are unpaid.

I can also supplement my maternity leave with vacation and sick time. Since we've been planning for a long time to try to get pregnant this year, I've been saving up my vacation hours. By the end of the year I should have about four and a half weeks of vacation accrued, and another week or so of sick time. However, company policy is that you can roll over only two weeks of vacation time from year to year unless you apply for an exemption. In most cases the exemption will be granted to roll over 50% of your additional time. My understanding is that in general they will allow you to roll over the full excess amount if it is for maternity leave purposes. However, this is decided on a case-by-case basis and is not a guarantee. This is the other main point I'm trying to work out with the benefits office right now.

There are also more minor questions I have--like for example I've been told that short-term disability covers six weeks, but the blurb about it on our Intranet says 90 days, which I'm almost positive is wrong unless something has changed, but that would be a very good thing to know for sure. And, there's an elimination period of one week, during which time I have to use sick leave, but I don't know if the elimination period counts as one of the six weeks or if first I use a week of sick time and then I get six weeks of disability pay.

In fact, I know that the language on the Intranet has changed, because I copied it and emailed it to myself a few months ago, and looking at the email, I see that it had much more specific language about the maternity benefit aspect of the insurance, and now it just has general language about the overall insurance and says that maternity is included, so I don't know what the deal is, but something is definitely up and I need to find out what.

It's all very complicated, basically, which is why I wanted to start working it out early, so I could finalize my plans and get everything approved by my supervisor before the last minute (our benefits office can be very slow, so I wouldn't be surprised if it took a couple months to get all these details hashed out). Supposedly my benefits coordinator person has mailed me a maternity benefits packet that will answer most of my questions. I am very much looking forward to receiving this. But I'm not holding my breath that it will show up any time soon.

However, despite these complications, I am not complaining, because you know what would be a lot less complicated? Straight-up 12 weeks of unpaid leave. And I'm really glad I get more than that. One way or another, once I get all this crap worked out, I should be able to cobble together a full five months off to spend with Piglet, and parts of it will be paid, and I am very happy about that.

Still, it's a little depressing that I'm happy about 5 months of partial pay, when most people in Europe get at least half a year, most even a full year, of partial or full pay. And this usually applies to both mothers and fathers. We're a little behind the curve on this one, for sure.

What about those of you who took maternity leave from your jobs? What was the benefit like? How did it compare to mine?

42 comments:

  1. Mine was basically what you described. Take it all!! You will love the time to be loving on that new teeny tiny piglet! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your benefits sound great! I has the 12 weeks unpaid leave, so I ended up going back after 8 weeks. Like you said, our country is definitely behind when it comes to maternity benefits.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maternity leave can be so messy. I remember all the hoops I had to jump through to get everything straightened out the first time. The second time, though, it went more smoothly.

    My company is pretty much AMAZING, and offers 12 weeks at FULL PAY. But then, that's it: You HAVE to come back after exactly 12 weeks, or your job is at risk. This year I had to come back to work on Good Friday, for ONE DAY before the weekend, because that was their policy.

    But really, I'm not complaining at all. Getting paid my regular salary for spending time with my babies for three months was amazing. But I would have traded it in an instant for partial pay and five months with the boys. You're so lucky to have that! :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Try working for a small company where FMLA doesn't apply. Welcome to my world. According to my HR director, I get 6 weeks unpaid. When I inquired about how short-term disability and vacation/sick time plays into that, he back-tracked. Long story short? I work for a small company with mostly men. The last (and only) time someone took maternity leave was 10 years ago. Needless to say, I'm working on the details with HR and if I'm not happy, I will be talking to my boss, one of the owners of the firm, to see if there's any other options we can work out. I'll consider myself lucky if I can put together 3 months of maternity leave.

    ReplyDelete
  5. My company has a really good maternity leave plan—we are 100% paid for the entire leave. We have a good short term DB plan as well, so with 2 of my pregnancies (it would have been the case with Lucy as well, but she came early), I was able to take a month of fully paid short term DB prior to my due date of which the 1st week was unpaid or funded with sick time. That DB rolled in to my maternity leave and I did not have to take a second unpaid week. Because my state (NY) offers disability pay, I got a weekly check from the state and direct deposits for the difference from my company. The downside was poor tracking on the side of our benefits department and they way overpaid me the first time around. I didn’t even realize it because of being exhausted with a newborn, and when they realized their mistake, all of the sudden my pay was cut in half. It was really stressful, BUT at least I knew what to look for the next 2 times (and it happened one of the 2 times—at one point they canceled my medical benefits because they took so much money out of my check in error—it was crazy and stressful).

    We can take unpaid time after that for up to 6 months, and still have job security. After 6 months, you have to return, or they will put someone else in your job.

    Our plan covered 6 weeks at the time Bud was born, and 8 weeks for Lucy and Liv. The plan changed to 12 weeks right after Liv was born (of course). And all of our benefits, personnel and disability are handled by the same carrier now, so it runs much smoother, from what I am told.

    Sometimes I wish I lived across the border in Canada though—one year mandatory maternity leave. How awesome is that!

    ReplyDelete
  6. My company is horrid.
    They give you six weeks, unpaid, and that's it.
    One girl just got "let go" because her doctor put her on bed rest for the last two months of her pregnancy.
    Needless to say, I'm looking very hard at getting a new job way before I get pregnant.

    ReplyDelete
  7. What you described is pretty typical of most large companies. And I can almost guarantee you that the first week of disability (for which you have to take sick time) is part of the 6 weeks. 1 week Paid Time Off/5 weeks partial-pay disability/6 weeks unpaid is kind of the standard equation and it's what I just finished (returned to work on Monday!). With M my company paid 70% for the entire FLMA 12 weeks which was awesome. Then I returned to work 2 days before a paid 2-week shut down. So I basically got 14 weeks of with her.

    But almost more important then worrying about leave is worrying about daycare. We have MAD at the same place we had M when she was younger. We called 8 months in advance of his start date and got one of the last 2 spots in the infant class!

    ReplyDelete
  8. wow. how can anyone afford to have children in the US? we never would have been able to afford it. in canada you get one full year, with 55% of your pay paid by the government. each company can then pay the difference. some companies don't pay anything, some top up to 100%. i was very forturante, the company i was working for at the time topped up to 80% for the full year. the 12 months can be shared between the mother and father, so the father can have some time off as well.

    in the province of quebec, fathers get 6 weeks parental leave when the baby is born, which doesn't come out of the 12 months. the birth rate is really low in quebec and they have lots of perks to try and get people having babies.

    again, i really don't know how people in the US manage to have kids. how are you supposed to go back to work after 3-4 months? that's just pure ridiculousness and very poor foresight to the health and welfare of the child and the family.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I got six weeks paid, and yes, the first "sick" week was considered part of the six weeks total. (You got eight weeks if you have a c=section). Then I could take an extra six weeks unpaid for the 12 week FMLA total (only four weeks unpaid if you have a c=section). Also, you could get "signed out" of work by the doctor as early as two weeks before your DD, but if you had the baby during that time, the six week countdown started on the day the baby was born. But that cut into your unpaid FMLA. If you sign out early, and the baby gets born late, you would then have to return SOONER (as in less weeks home with baby) due to using up your 12 weeks.

    (The kicker about my first pregnancy: one does not get PAID sick leave until one had TWO YEARS in the company. So, my first week of maternity leave was UNPAID as I'd only worked there just over a year.)

    Carry over time was immensly confusing. My first leave, I saved up most of my vacation time, only to discover that I could only carry over full weeks and that THEN I had to MATCH that full week with another full week the following calendar year AND use it by March. Since I only got two weeks vacation, and I didn't want to use it like that, I decided not to do that. So! I ended up using my vacation time before the baby came. With that and getting signed out two weeks before my DD, I ended up being home from work a FULL MONTH before my tenaciously=punctual daughter arrived EXACTLY on her DD!

    First baby I only stayed out the six weeks. We couldn't afford for me to take any FMLA. I took the full 12 weeks for the next two babies. I also got signed out only a week before my DD. I got "lucky." Baby #2 came six days before his DD, Baby #3 came seven (I went into labor about five hours after my last day of work!). ALL my 12 weeks home for those two was WITH baby.

    There was a part of my union contract where I could then take an additional month unpaid for "personal" time, but I didn't know that could be used in addition to FMLA until after I had my babies. :(

    ReplyDelete
  10. I got six weeks paid, and yes, the first "sick" week was considered part of the six weeks total. (You got eight weeks if you have a c=section). Then I could take an extra six weeks unpaid for the 12 week FMLA total (only four weeks unpaid if you have a c=section). Also, you could get "signed out" of work by the doctor as early as two weeks before your DD, but if you had the baby during that time, the six week countdown started on the day the baby was born. But that cut into your unpaid FMLA. If you sign out early, and the baby gets born late, you would then have to return SOONER (as in less weeks home with baby) due to using up your 12 weeks.

    (The kicker about my first pregnancy: one does not get PAID sick leave until one had TWO YEARS in the company. So, my first week of maternity leave was UNPAID as I'd only worked there just over a year.)

    Carry over time was immensly confusing. My first leave, I saved up most of my vacation time, only to discover that I could only carry over full weeks and that THEN I had to MATCH that full week with another full week the following calendar year AND use it by March. Since I only got two weeks vacation, and I didn't want to use it like that, I decided not to do that. So! I ended up using my vacation time before the baby came. With that and getting signed out two weeks before my DD, I ended up being home from work a FULL MONTH before my tenaciously=punctual daughter arrived EXACTLY on her DD!

    First baby I only stayed out the six weeks. We couldn't afford for me to take any FMLA. I took the full 12 weeks for the next two babies. I also got signed out only a week before my DD. I got "lucky." Baby #2 came six days before his DD, Baby #3 came seven (I went into labor about five hours after my last day of work!). ALL my 12 weeks home for those two was WITH baby.

    There was a part of my union contract where I could then take an additional month unpaid for "personal" time, but I didn't know that could be used in addition to FMLA until after I had my babies. :(

    ReplyDelete
  11. I got six weeks paid, and yes, the first "sick" week was considered part of the six weeks total. (You got eight weeks if you have a c=section). Then I could take an extra six weeks unpaid for the 12 week FMLA total (only four weeks unpaid if you have a c=section). Also, you could get "signed out" of work by the doctor as early as two weeks before your DD, but if you had the baby during that time, the six week countdown started on the day the baby was born. But that cut into your unpaid FMLA. If you sign out early, and the baby gets born late, you would then have to return SOONER (as in less weeks home with baby) due to using up your 12 weeks.

    (The kicker about my first pregnancy: one does not get PAID sick leave until one had TWO YEARS in the company. So, my first week of maternity leave was UNPAID as I'd only worked there just over a year.)

    Carry over time was immensly confusing. My first leave, I saved up most of my vacation time, only to discover that I could only carry over full weeks and that THEN I had to MATCH that full week with another full week the following calendar year AND use it by March. Since I only got two weeks vacation, and I didn't want to use it like that, I decided not to do that. So! I ended up using my vacation time before the baby came. With that and getting signed out two weeks before my DD, I ended up being home from work a FULL MONTH before my tenaciously=punctual daughter arrived EXACTLY on her DD!

    First baby I only stayed out the six weeks. We couldn't afford for me to take any FMLA. I took the full 12 weeks for the next two babies. I also got signed out only a week before my DD. I got "lucky." Baby #2 came six days before his DD, Baby #3 came seven (I went into labor about five hours after my last day of work!). ALL my 12 weeks home for those two was WITH baby.

    There was a part of my union contract where I could then take an additional month unpaid for "personal" time, but I didn't know that could be used in addition to FMLA until after I had my babies. :(

    ReplyDelete
  12. I got six weeks paid, and yes, the first "sick" week was considered part of the six weeks total. (You got eight weeks if you have a c=section). Then I could take an extra six weeks unpaid for the 12 week FMLA total (only four weeks unpaid if you have a c=section). Also, you could get "signed out" of work by the doctor as early as two weeks before your DD, but if you had the baby during that time, the six week countdown started on the day the baby was born. But that cut into your unpaid FMLA. If you sign out early, and the baby gets born late, you would then have to return SOONER (as in less weeks home with baby) due to using up your 12 weeks.

    (The kicker about my first pregnancy: one does not get PAID sick leave until one had TWO YEARS in the company. So, my first week of maternity leave was UNPAID as I'd only worked there just over a year.)

    Carry over time was immensly confusing. My first leave, I saved up most of my vacation time, only to discover that I could only carry over full weeks and that THEN I had to MATCH that full week with another full week the following calendar year AND use it by March. Since I only got two weeks vacation, and I didn't want to use it like that, I decided not to do that. So! I ended up using my vacation time before the baby came. With that and getting signed out two weeks before my DD, I ended up being home from work a FULL MONTH before my tenaciously=punctual daughter arrived EXACTLY on her DD!

    First baby I only stayed out the six weeks. We couldn't afford for me to take any FMLA. I took the full 12 weeks for the next two babies. I also got signed out only a week before my DD. I got "lucky." Baby #2 came six days before his DD, Baby #3 came seven (I went into labor about five hours after my last day of work!). ALL my 12 weeks home for those two was WITH baby.

    There was a part of my union contract where I could then take an additional month unpaid for "personal" time, but I didn't know that could be used in addition to FMLA until after I had my babies. :(

    ReplyDelete
  13. Oh gosh, mine SUCKS! Here you get six weeks for vaginal birth, 8 weeks for a c-section. I had a c-section unfortunately. I had to use all my vacation and sick days first (I get 10 days vacation, 7 sick days.) and then I go $100 (BEFORE TAXES) a week for the remaing time I was off. See... BAD!

    ReplyDelete
  14. At my old job, you normally got 12 weeks paid, but you got 14 weeks paid if you had a c-section. Then you could use vacation time for more paid time.

    You were technically allowed to take up to a year off (though anything over 12/14 weeks was unpaid), though it was generally know that if you took more than 6 months off, you could expect to be fired "for performance reasons" within a year or two of coming back from leave.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Oh, I'm not sure, but I think at my new job (for a Fortune 500 company), you get 6-8 weeks paid off and can take another 4-6 weeks unpaid, though you can use your vacation time.

    ReplyDelete
  16. reading through these is TERRIFYING. i think my plan will be to marry someone extremely wealthy who can let me be a stay at home mom for the first year ;-P

    ReplyDelete
  17. Before I had my first, I was a teacher. I had the option of 6 weeks of unpaid leave. I decided not to go back instead.

    ReplyDelete
  18. This is one of my hot button issues. It makes me so angry that the US has such a shitty policy.

    Julie said, "how are you supposed to go back to work after 3-4 months? that's just pure ridiculousness and very poor foresight to the health and welfare of the child and the family." WORD!

    I worked for a company that didn't offer any more than the 12 weeks unpaid leave guaranteed by FLMA so I saved all my vacation and planned on using savings to make up the difference. When I actually got pregnant and had my son my situation had changed and I was no longer working for the company (due to a lay-off) so I've been able to collect unemployment and actually stay home with my son longer. I know many people who have had to return to work after 6 or 8 weeks because they didn't have a choice.

    ReplyDelete
  19. The only good thing, in my experience anyway, of working for huge international companies, was that we had great benefits, including maternity leave. Too bad I am a solo freelancer now. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  20. I work for a small company, and am the only female employee, so there was no policy. I went in and told them what I wanted to do - Get paid at half time using sick time - and they agreed to that.

    I don't have a problem with the fact that our country has no mandated paid maternity leave. I'm not sure how we could justify it - The costs would be massive! I figure it's just something that needs to be taken into account when statring a family.

    My understanding of short term disability was that it covered the first 90 days before long term would kick in. BUT I've never heard of short term disability being able to cover maternity leave.

    ReplyDelete
  21. what are you planning on doing for childcare when you go back to work?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Oh man, this is SO confusing to me! I'm in Canada, so generally I know I'll have 12 months of mat leave. I'm an Ontario teacher, so I know I'll have a very comprehensive mat leave package to read through when the time comes. I am currently working for a woman who is on maternity leave, so I can already see how it generally works in my field. It doesn't seem too confusing (I'm sure the paperwork is still confusing, but I know you get 12 months off and it isn't unpaid time at all just reduced pay, so there you go).

    Oh, and I'll also have the option of taking a second year off (as a 'leave of absence') with job security if I want to.

    I do know that I have to consider in my family planning my due date -- if my future children are born in July or August, the summer break for schools, I know we miss out on receiving our full-pay for the first few weeks of our mat leave (whereas if you have the baby during the school year, you have so-many weeks of full-pay to kick start your leave). So that's something I'll need to consider for when I'm actively trying to get pregnant.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Wow 5 months is awesome! I am very jealous. I have been hoarding sick time and vacation time ever since CP and I made the decision to try to get pregnant. The longer it takes to get pregnant, the more time I will be able to take off.

    If I got pregnant this month I would have 2 weeks of sick time. I could take unpaid sick time but we probably can't afford that with our new house. I have the option of taking up to 30 days of advanced sick time for maternity leave with I would probably do. So really I'm looking at about two months total. My company is weird in that you can't take vacation time AND sick time for maternity leave. So I have to save one to be able to take off if the baby gets sick after I head back to work. Ugh.

    ReplyDelete
  24. 5 months is super lucky. And since you work at home, I assume you guys will work something out so Piglet is still with you, even when you have to work. This will help immensely if you are planning on nursing. That is really the hardest thing for me about going back to work (other than leaving the baby) is making sure he has enough pumped milk to eat. Stress.

    Anyway, we get 12 weeks, but our leave policies seem a bit more generous and it is possible to accrue enough sick/vacation time to have the full 12 weeks paid. Granted, I had to be here for a few years before it got to that point...

    On top of that, we have a short term disability policy that pays in addition to the leave pay. But, I am not sure of the percentage. I should probably look that up.

    We also have a sick leave donation policy, so we can give leave to another employee who needs it. I have received leave as a shower gift from my boss. How nice is that? Does your organization have such a thing?

    ReplyDelete
  25. My co-worker is due in September, and I have learned that Workplace does not offer maternity leave! You have to use your vacation and sick time under FLMA, but there is no dedicated maternity leave.

    I am enraged by this. I think it is total bullshit.

    I think men can take FLMA time off for a birth, however. So, that is at least kind of good.

    I agree. There should be substantial, partial-paid time off for BOTH parents.

    The working world is so hostile to families. As a childless woman, I feel like it is part of my duty to stand up for greater flexibility for workers with families. I think childless people would make great advocates in this regard.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I had my baby in February, and just last week we FINALLY got all the maternity leave/disability payments figured out.
    My company is small, so doesn't fall under the FMLA guidelines. They offer 10 weeks unpaid leave. There is a short-term disability policy, which my boss told me not to bother applying for if I had a "normal" (re: vaginal) delivery. Because I ended up with a c-section I did apply. They paid partial benefits for 6 weeks, with a 2 week waiting period where no benefits were paid (so 4 weeks partial paid, really). It ended up being not very much money (enough for us to buy a dishwasher, basically). My employer offers a supplement to the disability policy that is triggered if you get disability approved. I don't remember exactly how it worked, but I ended up getting a nice chunk of money from that; it was definitely more than the disability policy itself paid.
    Thankfully, Ryan and I were able to save up enough money before I went on leave so that we didn't rely on any of this extra money. I had a budget, and I knew how much we needed in order to pay our bills and buy groceries, and we just made sure we saved up enough to make it 3 months with Ryan's income and our savings. Of course that ate up all of our savings so now we are back at ground zero. Oh well.
    The things I would be sure to ask about include:
    -Who pays for your benefits while you are on leave? Will they allow you to pay your portion of benefits on a pro-rated amount during the rest of the year, or will you need to send a payment in each month while you are on leave?
    -What is your health insurance deductible, and out of pocket max (for each individual and for the family)? Do you have access to an HRA or FSA or something to help offset these costs? You will probably get the bills while you are on leave, so planning in advance for that is helpful.
    -What is the process/paperwork necessary to add the baby to your health insurance policy? I believe we had to turn in the paperwork to add James within 30 days of his birth, and they needed his SSN and stuff. Our hospital did the SSN filing for us, and we got his card in plenty of time. Time passes really quickly when you are on leave, though, so I would try to get paperwork done as soon as possible. You seem much more organized about things than I am, though, so that will help, I'm sure!
    Good luck!

    ps. I agree that the US is so far behind. Yes, it would be expensive. But I would be willing to pay extra taxes in order to be able to stay home with at least some kind of income for 6 months to a year. And I would be willing to pay extra taxes so others could do that as well.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Here is something to get hammered out, if, as I guess from your blog content, you are a budgeter and a planner: find out exactly how that stored-up PTO time affects the 6 weeks at 60% pay that your company provides. In my case, besides ASKING AND ASKING that specific question before my leave started, I was STILL shocked to learn that at my company, they interpreted it this way: 6 weeks paid is 6 weeks paid. You can get 60% from us, or 100% for however much PTO you have left (which btw you MUST use at the beginning of your leave), and then 60% for the balance of that 6 weeks. But you only get paid for 6 weeks. I THOUGHT I'd be getting about a month of full pay because that's how much PTO I had left, and THEN 6 weeks at 60% pay. Imagine my surprise to get a $0 paystub in the mail when I was expecting, uh, a bit more than that.

    Sorry for the book in your comments, but that one BIT ME IN THE ASS and I am still quite bitter about what happened.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Try to get clarification on what the coverage period for the short-term disability really means ahead of time! My company offered 12 weeks of FMLA leave, six of that supposedly covered by the short-term disability coverage. It said something like you have a "grace period" for a few days after the baby is born until the short-term coverage kicks in. I thought this meant (and several people, including our VP of Benefits, explained it to me this way) that I used sick pay for those few days and then would have six weeks of short-term coverage from the point when it kicked in at the end of the grace period. That is not how it works as I found out. (Basically, if you see the words "grace period" on anything, that means "you pay in some way or another".) The six-week short-term disability coverage time started the day my baby was born, but my sick pay covered the week or so at the beginning before it "kicked in". So I really only got 4.5 weeks of short-term disability pay, although it was considered six weeks, as my own sick pay covered the rest. Confused yet? I was too and had to make several phone calls to even find a person who could actually explain it to me correctly.

    So I had 1.5 weeks paid by my sick pay, 4.5 weeks paid by short-term, then I had about 3.5 weeks paid vacation time, so that left 2.5 weeks unpaid. Luckily, my company let me work from home part-time for another month, so I got to spend a little extra time with my daughter on partial pay before I had to go back to the office. My husband is Canadian, and I'm SO jealous of the yearlong maternity leave women get there!! Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  29. I work for the government which has no paid maternity leave, no short-term disability, just the twelve weeks of unpaid FMLA.

    If I get pregnant, I can use three weeks of sick leave (if I have it saved up) or any vacation days if I want to be paid during that 12 weeks. Which means that in addition to saving for diapers and whatnot, I need to cobble together about 8 weeks of living expenses for two if I want a whole 3 months off.

    I love the US.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I've never been pregnant or anything but Canada has a year of paid maternity....bliss.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Another Canadian here. I guess I just took it for granted that everyone gets a year off, paid. I can't imagine having 12 weeks of unpaid leave!

    ReplyDelete
  32. I was appalled when my best friend Brandy had her daughter, Isabella - she got five weeks paid, end of story, and had to go back to work. I understand that in Canada they get six full months.

    I don't have a baby, but I can't imagine how heart-wrenching it must be to have to go straight back to work when your infant is barely a month old. It's crap.

    ReplyDelete
  33. New Zealand here - we basically get 14 weeks full pay maternity leave with the option to extend that to 52 weeks (the rest of the year unpaid) - the company i work for also gives a bonus of one months pay if you return from leave and complete 6 months of service. We also get an extra 10 days of special leave (unpaid) that we can use for appointments etc. Oh and the guys get 2 weeks unpaid leave also. If you dont work, the government gives you a parental tax credit of $1200 after the baby is born. We also have strict regulations for extra breaks when we return to work - to express milk or breastfeed.

    ReplyDelete
  34. i work for a small/family owned company with no written policy. i had 6 weeks of best rest before i delivered (unpaid) and once i delivered i was told i could come back to work whenver i wanted, but sooner would be better (all unpaid, of course). VERY LUCKILY had have a great support system here (parents, mil) who were eager to watch the baby, which was good, because after 5 weeks with a newborn i was ready to get out of the house BIG TIME. i started back one day a week (while my mil stayed with the baby) and slowly worked back up to almost full time (now the 'baby' is 3.5 and i still don't work FULL time, but my job is VERY flexible, including work from home hours). basically i don't know what i would have done if i didn't have the family support and option of going back slowly/part time. now we use a mix of school/daycare provider/family to provide care while we are at work.

    ReplyDelete
  35. I haven't taken it yet but at my UK company women get the legal minimum, which is 6 weeks at 90% pay, then 33 weeks at a set amount of state pay and then the rest of the year unpaid. You have a legal right to take a full year off and go back to the same or an equivalent job. Men get 2 weeks fully paid leave at a time near to the birth and can take a further 3 months unpaid leave when the baby is between 6 months and a year old.

    Most companies provide slightly better deals than that if they can afford to. Mine can't but they are really good about flexible arrangements for going back to work afterward.

    In general I'd say the UK is really good for mothers but pretty rubbish for fathers. Canada's deal sounds amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  36. I work for a government agency, so basically our benefits are the absolute minimum. We are guaranteed our job back after 12 weeks, but otherwise we can only use our sick & vacation time.

    I took a full 11 weeks with my first. With my second, I went back part-time after 4 weeks and full time at 9 weeks. With my third, I went back part-time after 3 weeks (THREE!) and full-time at 8 weeks. Basically, it sucked. In fact, I still feel resentful about the second two maternity leaves.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Mine was one month unpaid. It sucked beyond belief. I was not ready to go back after one month. I still wasn't healed, and it was heart-wrenching beyond belief to leave my daughter. I can definitely say that the most important thing is to take the time you need with your new baby. You'll remember that time forever.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Congrats on being pregnant!

    I would hold off on telling folks because you never know what can happen during the first trimester. I was pregnant and told everyone and had a miscarriage - it was very awkward and painful to explain to all that no more baby.

    Please don't think that I am being negative or I am wishing anything bad to happen, but it happens more than you would think.

    So happy for you and Thorsten.

    Jenny B. Doombas

    ReplyDelete
  39. I had six weeks paid leave (my short term disability--the first ten days or so of that six weeks I had to max out my sick leave). Then I went back to work. But! And this is a huge, enormous, wonderful but!--I got to take Helen with me. I did a lot of one-handed typing, but it was totally possible until nine or ten months, after which it was possible but also Hard--Helen was mobile, and squirmy, and IN NO WAY wanted to watch me type and answer the phone.

    You don't say what your plans are after your leave is up....? Since you work at home, are you thinking about keeping Piglet at home, at least for a few more months? This plan of action depends, of course, on Piglet's temperament. Helen was quiet and easily amused.

    You don

    ReplyDelete
  40. Seriously, the maternity policy with my school was so complicated and crazy that I was glad to be leaving so I didn't have to figure it out.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Take all the time you can, paid or unpaid. It will be worth it. TRUST ME.

    We figured if I wouldn't be paid for a full 12 weeks, I would take it. Luckily, my doctor wrote me a note which required them to pay me by stating that my full 12 weeks were needed for a medical reason (that's all you really need sometimes -- say you are being treated for something minor -- like a tear or minor post-labor complications).

    US policy for this is so silly and unjust.

    But you live here, so make the most of it.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Понимаете меня? [url=http://profvesti.ru/o-maloetazhnom-stroitelstve/]ремонт новых квартир[/url]

    ReplyDelete