Depressed about short maternity leave plan--Advice?
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Anonymous
| I am a fed, pregnant with #2. In order to take 8 weeks maternity leave, I will need to do LWOP. I am hesitant to take exceed more than 80 hrs of LWOP, as we need my paycheck. Then again, I remember how I just started coming out of a haze around 8 weeks. Last time I was able to save up my sick leave and was able to take 11 or so weeks off (including LWOP). The thought of going back to work at 8 weeks makes me cry, honestly. If you had to do something similar, how did you do it? Btw pumping, being exhausted from being up all night, I cannot even imagine how I will manage at work. |
Anonymous
| Do you have help? I went back after 9 weeks, but then DH took 8 weeks (3weeks paid vacation+ 5 weeks unpaid). I make more than him (by quite a bit), so it made more financial sense for him to stay and me to go back. |
Anonymous
| Can you do intermittent FMLA? So go back for 3 days a week or something like that. Then you'll get some of your pay check but will still have siginifcant time home with your baby. |
Anonymous
| How far along are you? Is there enough time to aggressively save to cover your expenses for an extra few weeks? With my first, we were poor and I couldn't afford to take more than 8. Once I became pregnant with #2 and then #3 I cut spending where ever I could and transferred that money to a high interest savings account. |
Anonymous
| Can you ask for people to donate their leave to do? |
Anonymous
| Sorry, to you. |
Anonymous
+1 Preg with my first and planning on going back to work slowly/part time with a combination of work time, annual leave, and FMLA LWOP. |
Anonymous
Maybe it is pregnancy brain, but I don't know why this hadn't occured to me. I will see I can do this. The other wrinkle is that our daycare spot doesn't open until the baby will be 12 weeks or so. To answer PP re finances--we had been saving agressively, but had some unexpected expenses which ate up a good chunk. I am contributng 12% to my TSP (it used to be 14%) and I increased my allotments (automatic transfer to savings account from paychecks). We continue to contribute a lot to our savings but won't be able to do this once I am LWOP. My husband will be on leave, but he still has to show up to work 1 day a week. So, we have to figure out how to cover the gap when I go back to work and when the daycare spot opens up. I am hoping that spacing LWOP/paid leave/part time will help. Thanks! |
Anonymous
I could, but I don't feel comfortable doing that. This is my personal opinion, but I am superstititous about it when other people have to request it for serious illnesses. |
Anonymous
| I a federal employee as well. Can you telework for a bit? That made everything much easier for me. Also, requesting leave donations is a good idea. Just make sure that your doctor has also requested that you remain on bed rest, etc. God luck! |
Anonymous
Yes, can you try this? People are surprisingly generous. Alternatively, can you ask to return part time for just a few weeks to make the transition easier? |
Anonymous
| Stop contributing to your TPS for a few months until you go back to work full time (or only do the minimum needed for the full match) and instead save that money to get you through more LWOP. Also redo your tax withholdings since you'll have a dependent this year to put more money in your pockets now instead of having a particularly large tax refund next spring. |
Anonymous
| Does your agency have a leave donation program? Mine does and a lot of people donate leave. I've done it before, I've been a fed long enough that my vacation leave gets to use-it-or-lose-it so I donate the excess to people. This isn't uncommon where I work. |
Anonymous
| What is LWOP? |
Anonymous
| Leave without pay |