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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fine. Plans change. The world keeps turning.

This, 100%.

Yup! Live your own life OP + MYOB. Childbirth is torture. Stop villianizing women.

[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.

It’s not WORK being done for their employer — but then, you already knew that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

No, sadly this common sense clause not that common. As more people take advantage of their employers and coworkers and screw the company, hopefully that will change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

No, sadly this common sense clause not that common. As more people take advantage of their employers and coworkers and screw the company, hopefully that will change.

*is, obviously

[Anonymous]

Loves it. F*ck the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I assume that often the reason is that they no longer are comfortable with leaving their small infant in a daycare situation and have decided to care for the baby their self.

I am often amazed at how intolerant many on DCUM are of this phenomenon (wanting to care for your baby yourself) mostly because it is not what they chose, assuming they had a choice.

This. 6 pages into this thread and not one person has talked about what it is actually like to return to work after having a baby, and why for some women (who are fortunate to have the option), quitting to stay home is better than sucking it up to get through it.

Everyone is different and many moms welcome the return to work, but for some it's horribly painful and you wonder why you are putting yourself through it. I have never forgotten, a decade before I had a baby, discovering a woman from my law firm who had recently returned from maternity leave, just quietly weeping in the ladies room one day. I had no idea at the time what she was really going through, but I still think about her. She was a great lawyer and she a terrific colleague, and she toughed it out and got through. But a big part of me thinks that no woman, anywhere, should have to do that. They should just get to stay home until they are ready. And some women will never be ready and will quit instead, and I'm fine with that too.

Yup. It is literally painful for some women and to be honest, unnatural.

[Anonymous]

The only people I know who have done this have been men. Women do it too, maybe more than men, but it’s simply wrong to treat this as limited to women employees. When you give someone 12-18 weeks paid leave they’re going to stick around a job they don’t like to get their leave, and potentially use their time away to job hunt. Men probably have an easier time doing this since they typically don’t do as much during parental leave, especially for a first kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Lol, I did this and other people do it all the time. No such clause.

[Anonymous]

I did this and regret nothing. My employer should have given me more leave and not treated me like crap.

[Anonymous]

I think it is none of my business.

[Anonymous]

Many people take maternity leave fully expecting to come back, especially with a first kid. Then when they get the baby home, a lot of people change their mind and realize that either they prefer to stay home or they cannot afford child care. I had twins and childcare was insane so I decided to quit my FT job and started consulting, from home. Not everyone is trying to cheat the system.

[Anonymous]

I feel they are good Moms if actually staying home with kids for awhile.

[Anonymous]

I don’t see why this is supposed to bother me in at at-will workplace? If someone can be terminated at the time most advantageous to the company why shouldn’t they leave at the time most advantageous to themselves?

[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.

The company doing so badly they can’t spare 12 weeks of salary would have even more legal fees, and then damages for the EEO case.