Also a fed and the flexibility really does vary from agency to agency and even supervisor to supervisor.

At my old agency, if I had wanted to work 6:30a-3p, it would not have been a problem. AWS and 1-2 days of weekly telework would have also been fine. I had my own office so pumping would have been a breeze there.

At my new agency, pushing back my schedule even by half an hour makes people a bit uneasy. Teleworking on snow days is okay, but regularly is frowned upon. However, there's a fantastic lactation room, no one gives me a hard time about needing to pump 3xday, and there's a childcare subsidy program. The EAP can also help you identify childcare - both regular and back up. So overall, I think my workplace is very family friendly. Just not in the typical ways you might expect for a federal agency.

Having a proper maternity leave policy would be nice, but the fact that we get 13 paid sick days a year that never expire is pretty unusual and I think feds often take that for granted, not realizing that the uncapped sick leave accrual that never expires is kind of a big deal.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fed employee here. Very Family Friendly. In the office 1 day per week - telework 4. Flex hours (now I work 8-4:30- will adjust when my son hits school so I can be off work at 3:30 when he gets home). Have to use sick/annual leave for maternity leave- but no big deal- did 12 weeks. Now 0 a little over a year later- have 6 weeks already saved up again (we didn't take a vacation this past summer- just took a few days off here and there). My boss is the kind that believes family comes first - and with regard to telework and everything else- his stance is - I am an adult and I know what needs to be done. If I wasn't getting my work done or if there were issues- it might be different.

If you don't mind sharing, which agency?

USDA and it is a Grade 14. I am not sure I would have the same flexibility at a 15- but they work very hard to provide a good work/life balance.

Freddie Mac - used to be very family friendly in 90's and early 2000's, but with latest management, the focus is on "culture" and changing the "culture".

in my group, what that means is that you are a target if you are not in the office everyday. fixed hours are gone, it is working until work done.

people are periodically "disappearing" and you find out they were fired. they never have huge layoffs, just continuous firings group by group.

Anonymous wrote:Very family friendly nonprofit.
Flex hours, WAH, telework, compressed workweeks are all very common although can vary based on what kind of work you do, your boss, etc. most people are given some mobile tech so catching up in the evening, squeezing in a little on snow days or kid sick days, is generally easy.
6 wks STD at full pay for vag birth, 8 wks ceasarean. No paternity leave though, and youcant use sick leave to extend past those 6 wks. FMLA applies and it seems many people are allowed to use it to support a part time schedule upon first returning to work.
Multiple pumping rooms with all the amenities
Really great medical benefits.

Where can I send my resume?

Anonymous wrote:What does family friendly really mean? Please be specific.

My definition of family friendly is an employer with policies that are "family friendly" but that are available to everyone with or without kids. Telework, a flexible schedule (i.e. flexibility in your start/end time or an alternative work schedule where you have one day off every week or every other week), and the ability to use sick days when you when you need to.

Engineer at a small energy contractor. Long hours, late night emails and texts, crappy pay, no health insurance, no retirement and no paid leave of any kind. I'll call it not family friendly, though better than no job at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fed employee here. Very Family Friendly. In the office 1 day per week - telework 4. Flex hours (now I work 8-4:30- will adjust when my son hits school so I can be off work at 3:30 when he gets home). Have to use sick/annual leave for maternity leave- but no big deal- did 12 weeks. Now 0 a little over a year later- have 6 weeks already saved up again (we didn't take a vacation this past summer- just took a few days off here and there). My boss is the kind that believes family comes first - and with regard to telework and everything else- his stance is - I am an adult and I know what needs to be done. If I wasn't getting my work done or if there were issues- it might be different.

Fed attorney. I am allowed to work a 90% schedule for I work M-Th, 6-3:30 (36hrs) and have Fridays off. I only spend one day a week in the office. As long as my work is done, my boss does not (unofficially) care about when or how it gets done (so if I take an 1-2 hrs in the middle of the day for a school play, I will often just work from 9-11 that night). I have had 2 babies while in this position and had approx 75% of my 16w leave paid for with sick and vacation. Because I have Fridays off and a nanny for my younger child, I dont take a lot of other leave. Also bc I work from home, if my 6 y.o. is sick, I can still work while she sleeps or watches tv (this is not true of my 2 y.o.).

PP here,

I agree with the prior poster. If I were to become more important at work, I would lose the flexibility and the telework due to the nature of the work, although I still think my boss would be pretty family-friendly.

Anonymous wrote:Fed employee here. Very Family Friendly. In the office 1 day per week - telework 4. Flex hours (now I work 8-4:30- will adjust when my son hits school so I can be off work at 3:30 when he gets home). Have to use sick/annual leave for maternity leave- but no big deal- did 12 weeks. Now 0 a little over a year later- have 6 weeks already saved up again (we didn't take a vacation this past summer- just took a few days off here and there). My boss is the kind that believes family comes first - and with regard to telework and everything else- his stance is - I am an adult and I know what needs to be done. If I wasn't getting my work done or if there were issues- it might be different.

Fed attorney. I am allowed to work a 90% schedule for I work M-Th, 6-3:30 (36hrs) and have Fridays off. I only spend one day a week in the office. As long as my work is done, my boss does not (unofficially) care about when or how it gets done (so if I take an 1-2 hrs in the middle of the day for a school play, I will often just work from 9-11 that night). I have had 2 babies while in this position and had approx 75% of my 16w leave paid for with sick and vacation. Because I have Fridays off and a nanny for my younger child, I dont take a lot of other leave. Also bc I work from home, if my 6 y.o. is sick, I can still work while she sleeps or watches tv (this is not true of my 2 y.o.).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does family friendly really mean? Please be specific.

I'm 11:10. To me, it means being able to WFH when needed (i.e., DC is home sick, dr's appointment, need to be at school for a class event, etc). Flexibility in hours - work 7 hours on client site, finish the last at home after DC goes to bed, good maternity leave policy. My company also has on-site daycare in some locations, which a lot of people like. It's not subsidized though - pretty expensive but high quality.

This sort of flexibility would not work in many jobs and especially at senior management level.

True. And as I said in my original post, I have no interest in going higher up than my current level. I think my company is family friendly for the majority of low-mid level workers. At the top, not so sure.

Capital one. Great place to work. My boss last week missed an important meeting with senior executives (which he is himself, I'd venture he makes $500k plus), because his daughter was sick and his wife was out of town and no one even batted an eye. It's culture that keeps people here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does family friendly really mean? Please be specific.

I'm 11:10. To me, it means being able to WFH when needed (i.e., DC is home sick, dr's appointment, need to be at school for a class event, etc). Flexibility in hours - work 7 hours on client site, finish the last at home after DC goes to bed, good maternity leave policy. My company also has on-site daycare in some locations, which a lot of people like. It's not subsidized though - pretty expensive but high quality.

This sort of flexibility would not work in many jobs and especially at senior management level.

The jobs PPs describe sound pretty good. But isn't it disgraceful how little maternity leave we get here? I mean, people write about 6 weeks, maybe 12 weeks...

Anonymous wrote:Fed employee here. Very Family Friendly. In the office 1 day per week - telework 4. Flex hours (now I work 8-4:30- will adjust when my son hits school so I can be off work at 3:30 when he gets home). Have to use sick/annual leave for maternity leave- but no big deal- did 12 weeks. Now 0 a little over a year later- have 6 weeks already saved up again (we didn't take a vacation this past summer- just took a few days off here and there). My boss is the kind that believes family comes first - and with regard to telework and everything else- his stance is - I am an adult and I know what needs to be done. If I wasn't getting my work done or if there were issues- it might be different.

If you don't mind sharing, which agency?

Fed employee here. Very Family Friendly. In the office 1 day per week - telework 4. Flex hours (now I work 8-4:30- will adjust when my son hits school so I can be off work at 3:30 when he gets home). Have to use sick/annual leave for maternity leave- but no big deal- did 12 weeks. Now 0 a little over a year later- have 6 weeks already saved up again (we didn't take a vacation this past summer- just took a few days off here and there). My boss is the kind that believes family comes first - and with regard to telework and everything else- his stance is - I am an adult and I know what needs to be done. If I wasn't getting my work done or if there were issues- it might be different.

Anonymous wrote:What does family friendly really mean? Please be specific.

I'm 11:10. To me, it means being able to WFH when needed (i.e., DC is home sick, dr's appointment, need to be at school for a class event, etc). Flexibility in hours - work 7 hours on client site, finish the last at home after DC goes to bed, good maternity leave policy. My company also has on-site daycare in some locations, which a lot of people like. It's not subsidized though - pretty expensive but high quality.