Help me understand maternity leave

[Anonymous]

My company (very large employer in Virginia) provides eight weeks paid maternity leave to be taken after short term disability is used up, which is 6 weeks. So that brings me to 14 weeks paid. If I don’t care about losing pay, are there any legal protections that allow me to stay out longer than that unpaid, i.e. can I then use FMLA after that? Ideally I’d like to take 6 months, and don’t care if a significant chunk of that is unpaid as long as my job is protected.

[Anonymous]

I think your only option is to negotiate with your employer. fMLA is only 12 weeks (16 in dc), and that’s how long your job is protected by law.

[Anonymous]

PP is right. FMLA runs concurrently with other leave.

[Anonymous]

No sorry. Only 12 weeks are protected. I would try negotiating with your employer, they're often very receptive. You might have to pay their portion of your insurance premium.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No sorry. Only 12 weeks are protected. I would try negotiating with your employer, they're often very receptive. You might have to pay their portion of your insurance premium.

Who would I go to - HR or my boss? Do large corporations often allow flexibility with that? I would imagine that’s generally something that smaller companies without set policies do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No sorry. Only 12 weeks are protected. I would try negotiating with your employer, they're often very receptive. You might have to pay their portion of your insurance premium.

Who would I go to - HR or my boss? Do large corporations often allow flexibility with that? I would imagine that’s generally something that smaller companies without set policies do.

HR to get a clear sense of what the policy is and then negotiate with your boss.

[Anonymous]

At my company, you'd need to look into a leave of absence. It's unpaid. I was on my DH's insurance, so that wasn't an issue for me.

My boss was definitely more worried about me up and quitting than about me taking time off. He could shift my work around temporarily, but didn't want to replace me. So he was really supportive about working with me.

So it's a combination or HR and your boss. You officially need to go to HR. But if your boss isn't supportive, that could tank it.

[Anonymous]

At my work I'd go to my boss. HR doesn't really help employees; HR works with managers to come up with solutions instead.

[Anonymous]

I'm in DC so not exactly sure about VA law, but there's "Medical FMLA" and "Family FMLA" and both are 12 weeks at the federal level (for me in DC we get 16 weeks each). My doctor wrote my medical leave for "minimum 6-8 weeks" and I applied and was approved for the 6 weeks. (If it changes, I just need to resubmit a doctor's note saying I need more weeks.) After that 6 weeks, I'll start my "Family FMLA" which for me in DC will be 16 weeks, for a total of 22 weeks.

If you can take medical and THEN family leave (meaning they don't overlap), you would use a doctors note for 6-8 weeks of medical, then get another 12 weeks. So not quite your 6 months, but it guarantees your job when you return. At my job I can take "extended leave" for longer but there's no guarantee I get my job back after. Only you know your employer and whether they are likely to wait for you to return or dismiss you after FMLA runs out.

My best guess is that you do 6 weeks of medical FMLA on short term disability.
Then do 8 weeks of paid employer leave on family FMLA.
Then you could take 4 more weeks using either your own accumulated leave or unpaid, maxing out your 12 weeks of family FMLA.
After that it's not job protected.
You could also ask or hope your doctor will approve you for more than 6 weeks of medical FMLA, but they'll need a reason to document and you wouldn't know that until after you give birth.

[Anonymous]

PP that is just for DC. Also no way a doctor will approve more than 6 or 8 weeks for STD - 6 weeks vaginal, 8 weeks c section.

[Anonymous]

There are huge differences between what the law permits and what your employer's internal policy is. I urge you to negotiate this directly with your supervisor in the context of whatever your company's policy is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP that is just for DC. Also no way a doctor will approve more than 6 or 8 weeks for STD - 6 weeks vaginal, 8 weeks c section.

Why? When DS was born, my doctor asked me how many weeks I wanted and used that number

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP that is just for DC. Also no way a doctor will approve more than 6 or 8 weeks for STD - 6 weeks vaginal, 8 weeks c section.

Why? When DS was born, my doctor asked me how many weeks I wanted and used that number

Yep, same here. Depends on your OB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No sorry. Only 12 weeks are protected. I would try negotiating with your employer, they're often very receptive. You might have to pay their portion of your insurance premium.

Who would I go to - HR or my boss? Do large corporations often allow flexibility with that? I would imagine that’s generally something that smaller companies without set policies do.

I was able to negotiate LWOP as a federal employee, probably the largest organization/company out there. Start with your supervisor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At my company, you'd need to look into a leave of absence. It's unpaid. I was on my DH's insurance, so that wasn't an issue for me.

My boss was definitely more worried about me up and quitting than about me taking time off. He could shift my work around temporarily, but didn't want to replace me. So he was really supportive about working with me.

So it's a combination or HR and your boss. You officially need to go to HR. But if your boss isn't supportive, that could tank it.

Same — my boss was definitely more worried about me quitting permanently than taking unpaid leave, and was happy to work with me about how long I wanted. I’m at a small company, but he was willing to give me more time than our official policy without fuss.