taking a Fed job offer when you are pregnant

[Anonymous]

I also wouldn’t count on the BI being done when they say it will be. You might just wind up negotiating a start date after your baby is born.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My friend was in this situation and they let her take LWOP.

Did she disclose pregnancy before accepting the offer?

No. She disclosed when they called to offer her the job so she could be in the earlier training group (which they agreed to). This was before the 22 week leave was passed.

It depends on the agency, but where I work this wouldn't be an issue.

[Anonymous]

I think you can be advanced up to 240 hours of sick leave. Medical recovery from childbirth (what you can take sick leave for) generally is assumed to be 6 weeks for a standard birth or 8 weeks for a c-section.

some FINREG agencies have separate parental leave policies; at the SEC you are eligible for 6 weeks of parental leave as soon as you start, even if you are not eligible for FMLA.

Also, you may be able to join an agency leave bank on hire, which I would absolutely suggest doing. My agency's leave bank takes a donation of one pay period of leave annually for membership.

honestly, it's hard enough to find decent people and secure that headcount that a few-month blip for parental leave is nothing.

also, OP, ask about creditable service for annual leave accrual: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/leave-administration/fact-sheets/creditable-service-for-annual-leave-accrual-for-non-federal-work-experience-and-experience-in-the-uniformed-service/

[Anonymous]

I work at a legislative agency (GAO). My kids were born before there was paid maternity leave. (The first was after I’d been there 5 years.) If you happen to have an offer from us and join us there was a an excel sheet that used to make the rounds and I’m sure still exists that helped people calculate / plan their maternity leave. I’m not in management but I have found the agency to be quite flexible / reasonable with requests. In this case I assume you’d have to take unpaid leave but I don’t know. Be warned that although there’s an option for advancing sick leave I wouldn’t do that. I used almost all my sick leave when having my kids and then when they were in daycare and got sick. It would have been brutal to have worked my way back from a deficit. In addition two taking unpaid leave twice for kids, in between that my DH got relocated and I asked for a few weeks unpaid while we moved, found housing, daycare, etc and it was granted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my agency (exec branch - they might be different) - I've learned that you don't get the 12 weeks until you hit your 1 year mark - but then you DO get the parental leave. So you would start, work for 3-4 months, take some SL, advanced SL, whatever, and then when you hit your 1 year anniversary, get 12 weeks paid leave.

Now, if you take LWOP it will delay your 1 year anniversary. AND if you hit your 1 year anniversary 8 weeks before your kid turns 1 you would only get 8 weeks paid leave, because the leave expires when your child turns 1 so you have to be able to use it all before then.

This is the exact situation my DH was in. Unfortunately, his background check was delayed. He successfully negotiated for a higher leave accrual category but not the highest. That sucks because I’m a Fed with 15 years of service so I get 6 weeks of vacation but he’ll be stuck at 4 weeks for the next 14 years.

DH advanced 6 weeks of sick leave (that’s the maximum) to care for me as I recovered from my c-section. He also received about 40 hours of leave through the VLTP (voluntary leave transfer program). At our agencies, there’s no requirement that a person contribute in order to benefit. It’s pretty common for new employees to be on the VLTP since they have no accrued leave.

Regarding advanced annual leave, you can only borrow what would be available for the rest of the year. So if you start in the 4 hours/pay period category and your baby is born June 30, you’ll only be able to borrow 52 hours of annual leave. That’s another reason you should negotiate a higher leave category if you can.

In addition to having leave without pay count against you when it’s time to finally get your paid parental leave, there are other ways that LWOP hurts you. Obviously you need time to recover from the birth and especially after experiencing your losses I’m sure you’re really looking forward to bonding with your baby. Just want you to be aware of the policy: https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/leave-administration/fact-sheets/effect-of-extended-leave-without-pay-lwop-or-other-nonpay-status-on-federal-benefits-and-programs/

Is there any chance your DH is a Fed? He can transfer his annual leave to you through the VLTP even if he’s in a different agency. Or if you belong to a church or another close knit organization, ant Feds there can also transfer leave to you if they’d like.

Good luck with all of this, and congratulations!