Need Help Negotiating Maternity Leave at Non-Profit

[Anonymous]

jonnell7 wrote:Thanks for the advice and comments. After I spoke with my director this morning, she gave me 3 weeks paid, 4 weeks unpaid and 4 weeks of working on "flexible, part time" schedule.

That actually sounds great! I know you were hoping for more, but great that they made some adjustments.

[Anonymous]

Unless you have existing disability insurance, you're SOL. Pregnancy would be considered a pre-existing condition and you would not qualify.

BTW, I've worked for 6 non-profits in the DC area. Of those, only one had paid maternity leave (8 weeks paid). I was fortunate to have one child while employed there. My next job had nothing, and no short-term disability, so I only had my accrued leave to carry me through (which wasn't much).

And of those 6 jobs, only one fell under FMLA. One of the downsides of small companies--very little legal protection.

[Anonymous]

I got unpaid leave, but DH works for a non-profit and got PAID paternity leave.

[Anonymous]

I'm in VA, but you should check into MD's disability insurance laws. I had only been at my company 5 months when I went out on leave, so I wasn't eligible for FMLA or our paid leave, but I was able to take 6 weeks of short-term disability at 2/3 pay. It wasn't ideal - 6 weeks is a little less than I would have liked - but under the circumstances, it was fine.

[Anonymous]

Sadly, my experience with non-profits is that they love the client but not the employee (and consequently have high turnover and often diminished service delivery). That's just based on my observation of crappy maternity leave and other policies at DC non-profits - that were ironically set up to support families!