How do you feel about those who take a paid maternity leave then quit?

[Anonymous]

I did it twice and I don’t care. They should have tried harder to retain me if that’s what they wanted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Companies are different than people. I have been in charge of very small departments. 2-4 people.

The company supported work life balance, maternity leave, paternity leave but left work output the same.

So your immediate co-workers get stuck with the work when the new mom or dad is out. Which is fine.

However, when I had a 1, 5 and 7 year old and a staff of three and one staff went out maternity leave and other staff took some paternity leave. I smiled and played nice but I got stuck with. The women came back was a headache next 18 months the guy too.

Ironic I had three kids and my senior manager two young kids but the two staff that had their first kid made it seem like the world must come to a stop they have a kid.

Turns out as she was leaving I found out her parents and grand parents live up block and aa first grandchild love watching and she was married. She literally had six people watching one kid!!!

This is my take as well, as another mom of multiple kids who has always pitched in to help my co-workers during maternity leave or other family issues. People will do what works best for their families, so it quitting after maternity leave is what they want, they can do it. However, it is 100% selfish and unfair to the coworkers who picked up the slack not only during maternity leave but during the time it takes to replace the worker.

[Anonymous]

I actually had a staff who was planning on not returning after she had her second child and I worked with the finance department to make sure that she was able to maximize her FMLA and maternity leave first. We fell well within company policy and procedures and she did not give official notice until after her maternity leave had run out. I think she had to come back for like one day or something so we threw a party to congratulate her and that was that.
It worked out well because I knew the entire time she was planning on leaving so I had already shifted workloads and was ready to open the position as soon as I could. I appreciate it that she trusted me enough to be honest with me.

[Anonymous]

PP and I’m back in the workforce after a decade as a SAHM.

Absolutely no loyalty and works both ways. I’ve seen professionals burn through their leave and then resign when their balance gets to zero. Earners and burners!

Or our company releasing someone without advance notice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Who cares, I'd still sue to make it difficult on the cheater for stealing company money for a 3 month vacation they never intended to return from. They'd have tons of legal fees and a headache.

First, maternity leave is not "vacation leave." It's literal WORK taking care of a newborn. And IME the few women I know who have left their positions at the end of maternity leave didn't intend to originally--daycare fell through during the course of their leave, their family decided that working OOH was too challenging, their perceptions of being a working parent changed when they were actually a parent, etc. Much of that is unforeseeable.

FMLA doesn't require paid leave tho. That's a company benefit with the intention of them coming back to work. If they take the money as a cash windfall for their time off and leave, companies should absolutely sue due to abuse of the intended benefits. Wouldn't care at all if it is a loss eventually. Tie them up and court and make their lives difficult. They required the company to hold a spot for them and other coworkers to pickup the slack for a quarter of a year when the person on leave had no intention of coming back. Disgusting.

My company offers no paid leave so I used short-term disability and built up PTO to cover the rest. If I wanted to quit after that they could suck it

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Who cares, I'd still sue to make it difficult on the cheater for stealing company money for a 3 month vacation they never intended to return from. They'd have tons of legal fees and a headache.

First, maternity leave is not "vacation leave." It's literal WORK taking care of a newborn. And IME the few women I know who have left their positions at the end of maternity leave didn't intend to originally--daycare fell through during the course of their leave, their family decided that working OOH was too challenging, their perceptions of being a working parent changed when they were actually a parent, etc. Much of that is unforeseeable.

Some companies offer maternity leave outside of paid lave and it is gross. I had years of sick leave and annual leave banked as my boss refused to let me use it to the point of maxing out use of lose. My day care did fall through and my mom was too self help and insisted I hire a nanny but that was more than my take home. I was finally using it. It’s not work caring for a newborn. It’s a lifestyle choice. After that job caring for a newborn was a vacation as it was the only vacation I had in years.

[Anonymous]

I have not read all the responses, so someone has likely already said this, but:

If your company has a waiting period before you are eligible for paid leave (say 12 months), then you have EARNED the leave. It’s not a gift, it’s an employment benefit. And if you put your time in, you earned eligibility for that benefit. Full stop.

[Anonymous]

If it's a benefit offered by the company, then it's the right of the employee to take it. If you're not allowed to take advantage of an agreed-upon benefit, whether it's maternity leave or every single sick or vacation day you're offered, the company is stealing from you, end of story.

[Anonymous]

It is extremely common in my industry (consulting) for people to time departures from firms to ensure they get any annual and special bonuses. People talk about this explicitly, like "Yes, I am looking but don't tell anyone yet -- I'm waiting for my bonus and then I'm going to burn leave first." Super common.

Maternity leave is no different. If you've worked at a company for years and then get pregnant, do you really expect someone to leave the company BEFORE they take a major benefit? That's idiotic. Like bonuses, maternity leave is a benefit earned from work already performed. It's also used as an incentive to get people to come to the company, and companies use it for PR too (trying to get on lists of "top workplaces for moms" or "most family-friendly companies" etc. -- it helps recruit and also just gives the company a positive impression among clients and customers).

Take your leave, you earned it. If you decide to quit at the end of it, that's a totally separate issue, IMO.

[Anonymous]

Some leave programs do require you to return and work a certain period of time, or otherwise you pay it back. Fed PPLA is like that - return for at least 12 weeks.

Of an employer doesn't have that, they employees are free to do what they want.

[Anonymous]

I think people should be able to claim their leave (which they earned) and at the same time communicate to the company that they have no plans to return. They get paid and the company gets to fill the role. Win-win.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Companies should sue for the pay if they're paying for maternity leave.

They’d lose

Who cares, I'd still sue to make it difficult on the cheater for stealing company money for a 3 month vacation they never intended to return from. They'd have tons of legal fees and a headache.

What? Lots of people take their earned vacation at the end of their employment - either retirement or moving to a new job. It's totally fine to use whatever benefits your company has, and companies are more than capable of protecting themselves from so-called "cheaters"

[Anonymous]

OP, have you ever actually seen this happen? Any company not run by a complete idiot has something in the contract about how if you don’t return full time for a year you pay the benefits back. I went back 30% time for the first year and had to pay back 100% of the leave pay I got. Chill the f out and maybe be concerned about how impossible it is to parent and work full time in this society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Companies should sue for the pay if they're paying for maternity leave.

They’d lose

Who cares, I'd still sue to make it difficult on the cheater for stealing company money for a 3 month vacation they never intended to return from. They'd have tons of legal fees and a headache.

What? Lots of people take their earned vacation at the end of their employment - either retirement or moving to a new job. It's totally fine to use whatever benefits your company has, and companies are more than capable of protecting themselves from so-called "cheaters"

Yeah, but a company isn't keeping a seat warm for someone using their leave before retirement. They know they gotta replace you and can actively search. Someone going on paid maternity leave who uses that time to search for new jobs or has no intent of returning abuses the benefit by cheating and requiring the company to have a seat open for 3 months that they don't even know they need to fill. It also screws over coworkers.

Sue the crap out of them. There's a big difference between use of leave prior to retirement, which is planned, vs misleading your company and coworkers to get yourself free cash while you stay at home to look for jobs.

[Anonymous]

Yet another good reason to hire workers in their 50s. Babies at 50 ain’t happening.