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Maternity leave during the first year of a job.
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Anonymous
| I'm negotiating a job offer and disclosing an early pregnancy. I will only get 2 weeks of vacation in the first year, maybe some sick time. I am wondering if I have any options other than taking 10 weeks unpaid leave (and no fmlla protections). Since were negotiating, anything I can ask for that an employer is likely to accept? I can ask for 12 weeks paid leave but I'm certain the answer would be no. |
Anonymous
| Anyone? |
Anonymous
|
They do not have to offer you FMLA if you have not worked there a year, so you might not even have the option of 12 weeks leave. Remember that FMLA is unpaid, period. I would say the majority of mothers do not have any paid maternity leave outside of vacation days or a short term disability protection.
Ask for the employee handbook and see what is offered. If they offer any paid leave outside of normal vacation or a disability policy, they almost certainly restrict it to employees who have some tenure there. You can try to negotiate, but you will likely be tipping your hand that you are pregnant. They are not supposed to take that into consideration, but...good luck with that. If you are a highly sought after employee, you can try to negotiate something, but i fthey don't offer anyone paid leave, I doubt you will get it. |
Anonymous
|
They do not have to offer you FMLA if you have not worked there a year, so you might not even have the option of 12 weeks leave. Remember that FMLA is unpaid, period. I would say the majority of mothers do not have any paid maternity leave outside of vacation days or a short term disability protection.
Ask for the employee handbook and see what is offered. If they offer any paid leave outside of normal vacation or a disability policy, they almost certainly restrict it to employees who have some tenure there. You can try to negotiate, but you will likely be tipping your hand that you are pregnant. They are not supposed to take that into consideration, but...good luck with that. If you are a highly sought after employee, you can try to negotiate something, but i fthey don't offer anyone paid leave, I doubt you will get it. |
Anonymous
| sorry for the double post. |
Anonymous
| I found out I was pregnant the same day I was offered my current job. As the previous poster has said, they don't have to offer you family leave if you've been there less than a year, but you may be pleasantly surprised - my employer let me take 12 weeks even though I didn't officially qualify for it. I saved up as much leave as I could and was able to borrow a bit of advance sick leave, which helped a great deal. Good luck to you! |
Anonymous
|
Most employers will work with you and offer you unpaid time, likely the FMLA 12 weeks, even if you don't qualify for it. Turnover is expensive, and most companies don't want to be dickish about it. But it will probably impact your reputation, so be forewarned.
PP is right though, most places offer no unpaid maternity leave, so you are unlikely to get that unless they already offer it or you are an extremely valuable and irreplaceable hire. |
Anonymous
Sorry, I meant most places offer no PAID maternity leave. Unpaid is all you can get through FMLA, so most mothers just hoard vacation days. |
Anonymous
| Op here yes I fully realize that I don't get FMLA (as I said in original post). I also am disclosing the pregnancy going in so no issues there. I guess one thing to ask for is a promise that I can take 12 weeks unpaid, even if I am not entitled to FMLA. |
Anonymous
Is " borrowing advance sick leave" common? |
Anonymous
I'm not sure - this is the first place I've worked that's offered it. I'm a state employee and we don't get short-term disability, so I wonder if perhaps the ability to borrow advance leave is meant to make up for that. If you're still in the negotiation phase of things, do you have a copy of the employer's HR policies? You might be able to find out what sorts of things might be an option for you there. |
Anonymous
No need to get defensive. I was just concerned because it appeared you believed that you could just up and take some unpaid time. It also appeared that you believed that FMLA was paid, which it is not. A LOT of people don't understand either of these 2 facts, so people are trying to be helpful. |
Anonymous
| It depends how badly they want you. If you have very specialized skills and they are lucky to have found you, you may consider asking for FMLA-like protection (12 weeks job-protected leave). I would not ask for paid leave unless it is their practice to give that to every employee. If they could easily find someone else like you, you should ask if they would be willing to give you any leave at all beyond your 2 weeks' vacation. Hopefully they will be nice and reasonable but they are absolutely not obligated, so keep that in mind. If they will give you leave beyond your vacation you should ask if you are entitled to short-term disability to replace your salary during some or all of that time. |