how to deny maternity leave extension

[Anonymous]

Only in DC. Back on the best coast this employee's request would be honored and then some. You guys truly have some deranged self-importance syndrome. I need to move back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pathetic. I hope you have all daughters and one day have to listen to how they are forced to choose between returning to work too early and leaving a tiny infant in daycare or with a stranger and quitting their jobs and becoming 100 percent dependent on their husband.

You're a horrible human being and obviously have little respect for the gender who brings life into this world. Guarantee you that you'd be all about providing military leave for men who elect to go and blow people up abroad.

+ 1 million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dear Larla--
Thanks for your email. The pictures you sent of Larlita are just precious.
Unfortunately I cannot approve your request for vacation from August 1-14. As you know, we have to balance out the workload when one of us is on vacation. We already scheduled for others to take leave during that time. The best I can do is to approve Aug 1-7 with a return date of August 8th. We look forward to seeing you then. Please let me know what questions you might have and/or ways I can support your return.

Molly

This seems like a good start.

Setting aside the debate about what's fair for paid leave etc, what rubs me the wrong way is this woman is trying to tack on vacation at the last minute. The women I know who added on vacation to their paid maternity leave set this up well in advance before giving birth, so that they would not catch their employer off guard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Larla--
Thanks for your email. The pictures you sent of Larlita are just precious.
Unfortunately I cannot approve your request for vacation from August 1-14. As you know, we have to balance out the workload when one of us is on vacation. We already scheduled for others to take leave during that time. The best I can do is to approve Aug 1-7 with a return date of August 8th. We look forward to seeing you then. Please let me know what questions you might have and/or ways I can support your return.

Molly

This seems like a good start.

Setting aside the debate about what's fair for paid leave etc, what rubs me the wrong way is this woman is trying to tack on vacation at the last minute. The women I know who added on vacation to their paid maternity leave set this up well in advance before giving birth, so that they would not catch their employer off guard.

Yeah using vacation to care for your newborn and avoid sending them to daycare at 12 weeks is so awful... You should only allow employees to use vacation for things like trips to the Bahamas.

The fact your employee even has to use vacation to care for a helpless baby is wrong and pathetic. What is wrong with men?! Why are us women contuining to work for men like this and being governed by rules and laws clearly created only for the benefit of men? For example, retirement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Larla--
Thanks for your email. The pictures you sent of Larlita are just precious.
Unfortunately I cannot approve your request for vacation from August 1-14. As you know, we have to balance out the workload when one of us is on vacation. We already scheduled for others to take leave during that time. The best I can do is to approve Aug 1-7 with a return date of August 8th. We look forward to seeing you then. Please let me know what questions you might have and/or ways I can support your return.

Molly

This seems like a good start.

Setting aside the debate about what's fair for paid leave etc, what rubs me the wrong way is this woman is trying to tack on vacation at the last minute. The women I know who added on vacation to their paid maternity leave set this up well in advance before giving birth, so that they would not catch their employer off guard.

Yeah using vacation to care for your newborn and avoid sending them to daycare at 12 weeks is so awful... You should only allow employees to use vacation for things like trips to the Bahamas.

The fact your employee even has to use vacation to care for a helpless baby is wrong and pathetic. What is wrong with men?! Why are us women contuining to work for men like this and being governed by rules and laws clearly created only for the benefit of men? For example, retirement.

PP here. That's exactly what I did NOT say. I don't care if the employee wants to use her vacation to watch her baby, go on vacation, do whatever she wants - BUT she should have given more notice. I'm hopefully assuming the OP would have a similar problem if a male employee tried to request several weeks off at the last minute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Larla--
Thanks for your email. The pictures you sent of Larlita are just precious.
Unfortunately I cannot approve your request for vacation from August 1-14. As you know, we have to balance out the workload when one of us is on vacation. We already scheduled for others to take leave during that time. The best I can do is to approve Aug 1-7 with a return date of August 8th. We look forward to seeing you then. Please let me know what questions you might have and/or ways I can support your return.

Molly

This seems like a good start.

Setting aside the debate about what's fair for paid leave etc, what rubs me the wrong way is this woman is trying to tack on vacation at the last minute. The women I know who added on vacation to their paid maternity leave set this up well in advance before giving birth, so that they would not catch their employer off guard.

Yeah using vacation to care for your newborn and avoid sending them to daycare at 12 weeks is so awful... You should only allow employees to use vacation for things like trips to the Bahamas.

The fact your employee even has to use vacation to care for a helpless baby is wrong and pathetic. What is wrong with men?! Why are us women contuining to work for men like this and being governed by rules and laws clearly created only for the benefit of men? For example, retirement.

PP, no one her knows why the employee is requesting vacation leave. She could have childcare issues or she could have just landed a great deal on a beach house. All the manager knows is that a request for vacation leave was made. Absent any other information about extenuating circumstances, the OP manager has to treat the request like any other employee's request by looking at coverage for all the tasks and who else has already been approved for leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Larla--
Thanks for your email. The pictures you sent of Larlita are just precious.
Unfortunately I cannot approve your request for vacation from August 1-14. As you know, we have to balance out the workload when one of us is on vacation. We already scheduled for others to take leave during that time. The best I can do is to approve Aug 1-7 with a return date of August 8th. We look forward to seeing you then. Please let me know what questions you might have and/or ways I can support your return.

Molly

This seems like a good start.

Setting aside the debate about what's fair for paid leave etc, what rubs me the wrong way is this woman is trying to tack on vacation at the last minute. The women I know who added on vacation to their paid maternity leave set this up well in advance before giving birth, so that they would not catch their employer off guard.

Yeah using vacation to care for your newborn and avoid sending them to daycare at 12 weeks is so awful... You should only allow employees to use vacation for things like trips to the Bahamas.

The fact your employee even has to use vacation to care for a helpless baby is wrong and pathetic. What is wrong with men?! Why are us women contuining to work for men like this and being governed by rules and laws clearly created only for the benefit of men? For example, retirement.

PP, no one her knows why the employee is requesting vacation leave. She could have childcare issues or she could have just landed a great deal on a beach house. All the manager knows is that a request for vacation leave was made. Absent any other information about extenuating circumstances, the OP manager has to treat the request like any other employee's request by looking at coverage for all the tasks and who else has already been approved for leave.

+1 it's called EQUALITY. Ever heard of it? Of course not because half the women on DCUM believe that having a baby grants you automatic immunity from standard workplace etiquette and consideration of anyone other than themselves.

[Anonymous]

OP, I think your workplace has been very generous. I too have worked in small businesses. If you can do without someone for that long, you start wondering if you really need them. They should understand that it is a significant hardship to have them gone. It's not like giving another week or two ends it - all of us with kids know that you end up taking far more time off than you expect for illness, medical appointments, and snow days. I am with the others who suggest that this request is like the writing on the wall saying she is not going to stay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet she never comes back. I would start looking to replace her. ~Another small business owner

+1 Do you pay out unused vacation?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

I would deny it. I'm a fed and returned from maternity leave (unpaid 12 weeks) in October and wasn't allowed to use any leave in November or December so that my coworkers could take Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. They'd had to cover for me for 3 months and weren't allowed to take leave then. I didn't have any leave anyways to take holidays, but it was depressing working on Christmas Eve and the Friday after Thanksgiving knowing my 3 month old was in daycare. It is what it is. I think OP is very reasonable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dear Larla--
Thanks for your email. The pictures you sent of Larlita are just precious.
Unfortunately I cannot approve your request for vacation from August 1-14. As you know, we have to balance out the workload when one of us is on vacation. We already scheduled for others to take leave during that time. The best I can do is to approve Aug 1-7 with a return date of August 8th. We look forward to seeing you then. Please let me know what questions you might have and/or ways I can support your return.

Molly

This seems like a good start.

Setting aside the debate about what's fair for paid leave etc, what rubs me the wrong way is this woman is trying to tack on vacation at the last minute. The women I know who added on vacation to their paid maternity leave set this up well in advance before giving birth, so that they would not catch their employer off guard.

Yeah using vacation to care for your newborn and avoid sending them to daycare at 12 weeks is so awful... You should only allow employees to use vacation for things like trips to the Bahamas.

The fact your employee even has to use vacation to care for a helpless baby is wrong and pathetic. What is wrong with men?! Why are us women contuining to work for men like this and being governed by rules and laws clearly created only for the benefit of men? For example, retirement.

PP, no one her knows why the employee is requesting vacation leave. She could have childcare issues or she could have just landed a great deal on a beach house. All the manager knows is that a request for vacation leave was made. Absent any other information about extenuating circumstances, the OP manager has to treat the request like any other employee's request by looking at coverage for all the tasks and who else has already been approved for leave.

+1 it's called EQUALITY. Ever heard of it? Of course not because half the women on DCUM believe that having a baby grants you automatic immunity from standard workplace etiquette and consideration of anyone other than themselves.

If equality existed then men would have children 50 percent of the time and be responsible for 50 percent of the breastfeeding and childcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pathetic. I hope you have all daughters and one day have to listen to how they are forced to choose between returning to work too early and leaving a tiny infant in daycare or with a stranger and quitting their jobs and becoming 100 percent dependent on their husband.

You're a horrible human being and obviously have little respect for the gender who brings life into this world. Guarantee you that you'd be all about providing military leave for men who elect to go and blow people up abroad.

So when is it not too early? 12 weeks paid leave seems pretty good to me. Having a child is a choice, so as an adult you should plan accordingly for that day that you need to come back to work, if that is even what she plans to do. Who really knows. Businesses wouldn't stay in business if every woman came back when they felt ready. The only people that should be supporting her now is her partner, family and friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bet she never comes back. I would start looking to replace her. ~Another small business owner

+1 Do you pay out unused vacation?

Yes.

But presumably, if she doesn't come back, she owes back the 12 weeks paid leave, right? So, the employer can keep the money from the unused vacation, to cover a portion of that (or all of it if she has 12 weeks leave).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm at a very small employer with 5 employees and no HR department. One of my direct reports is scheduled to return from maternity leave soon and she just announced that she's taking several additional weeks using her accrued vacation. She had a fully paid 12 week leave which was difficult for us given our small size and the additional weeks are a burden to the office and other employees who have been covering for her. On one hand I understand that she is entitled to use vacation days but on the other it seems like the wrong time to do so. Can you help me with the words to explain this to her?

It sounds like she was under the impression that if she wanted more time off after maternity leave ended she could just use her vacation days by didn't need to plan for in advance to do this. Before getting in touch with her, it might be a good idea to check with the owner or other employees if this has been a practice in the past or if perhaps the owner may have told her it was ok. Then reach out to her

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pathetic. I hope you have all daughters and one day have to listen to how they are forced to choose between returning to work too early and leaving a tiny infant in daycare or with a stranger and quitting their jobs and becoming 100 percent dependent on their husband.

You're a horrible human being and obviously have little respect for the gender who brings life into this world. Guarantee you that you'd be all about providing military leave for men who elect to go and blow people up abroad.

+ 1 million.

I could not agree more