Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whenever I read stuff like this I am SO SO grateful I had my kids while I was living in the UK. I took 7 months maternity leave followed by my husband taking 2 months paternity leave for #1 and then I took 10 months for #2. I wasn't paid for all of it but my job was guaranteed for a year. There are so many great things about living here in the US but maternity policy is not one of them! Good luck, OP, I hope your bosses are sympathetic.

Can you explain what your employer did with your work while you were out? Are UK companies more likely to have staffing models where their employees having breathing room to absorb the additional work versus here we try to pile as much on our employees that we can? Are there more folks willing to work in these jobs temporarily and just keep rotating companies?

I've always been curious as to how this truly works. What I've previously read indicates that companies just hire temps. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the workforce in every other country includes mass amounts of temps.

Maybe the flexibility comes from statutory requirements in many countries regarding work hours and benefits. Our culture really seems to be based on greed. I've worked for multiple companies and have never worked somewhere where every day employees days were filled with work.

TIA!

Yes temps are more common. But really there wouldn't be that many temps in an office. Women only have 1-2 babies in their lifetime.

I personally only want 3 months. I know my coworkers could fill my spot easily since there are many of us doing the same task. My coworkers are much older and have lots of health issues that take them out of the office often and I cover for them.

Do you work for the government?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Whenever I read stuff like this I am SO SO grateful I had my kids while I was living in the UK. I took 7 months maternity leave followed by my husband taking 2 months paternity leave for #1 and then I took 10 months for #2. I wasn't paid for all of it but my job was guaranteed for a year. There are so many great things about living here in the US but maternity policy is not one of them! Good luck, OP, I hope your bosses are sympathetic.

Can you explain what your employer did with your work while you were out? Are UK companies more likely to have staffing models where their employees having breathing room to absorb the additional work versus here we try to pile as much on our employees that we can? Are there more folks willing to work in these jobs temporarily and just keep rotating companies?

I've always been curious as to how this truly works. What I've previously read indicates that companies just hire temps. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the workforce in every other country includes mass amounts of temps.

Maybe the flexibility comes from statutory requirements in many countries regarding work hours and benefits. Our culture really seems to be based on greed. I've worked for multiple companies and have never worked somewhere where every day employees days were filled with work.

TIA!

Yes temps are more common. But really there wouldn't be that many temps in an office. Women only have 1-2 babies in their lifetime.

I personally only want 3 months. I know my coworkers could fill my spot easily since there are many of us doing the same task. My coworkers are much older and have lots of health issues that take them out of the office often and I cover for them.

Anonymous wrote:Whenever I read stuff like this I am SO SO grateful I had my kids while I was living in the UK. I took 7 months maternity leave followed by my husband taking 2 months paternity leave for #1 and then I took 10 months for #2. I wasn't paid for all of it but my job was guaranteed for a year. There are so many great things about living here in the US but maternity policy is not one of them! Good luck, OP, I hope your bosses are sympathetic.

Can you explain what your employer did with your work while you were out? Are UK companies more likely to have staffing models where their employees having breathing room to absorb the additional work versus here we try to pile as much on our employees that we can? Are there more folks willing to work in these jobs temporarily and just keep rotating companies?

I've always been curious as to how this truly works. What I've previously read indicates that companies just hire temps. I'm just trying to wrap my head around the workforce in every other country includes mass amounts of temps.

Maybe the flexibility comes from statutory requirements in many countries regarding work hours and benefits. Our culture really seems to be based on greed. I've worked for multiple companies and have never worked somewhere where every day employees days were filled with work.

TIA!

HR doesn't get involved of you're not invoking FMLA. It's up to your supervisor to approve your LWOP and most want to give you the time off. I would ask for the full 12.

Whenever I read stuff like this I am SO SO grateful I had my kids while I was living in the UK. I took 7 months maternity leave followed by my husband taking 2 months paternity leave for #1 and then I took 10 months for #2. I wasn't paid for all of it but my job was guaranteed for a year. There are so many great things about living here in the US but maternity policy is not one of them! Good luck, OP, I hope your bosses are sympathetic.

I took 6 weeks of sick time and went back to work.

Are there really idiots in this thread implying that other women should be grateful for six weeks or any leave at all? Talk about short sighted and foolish. Instead of envying other women their crumbs, have some vision and protest this inhumane, anti-family society.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This freaking country. Why are we SO behind the times?

And these are executive branch employees under Obama. If I have to hear him talk up maternity leave on e more time I want to scream. It's so hypocritical.

Given that feds in the executive branch seem to get at least 6 weeks paid leave, even if they haven't been there a year or accrued any leave, and people working for private employers have the experience described directly above, I'd say that Obama is right to focus on national issues, and not on issues specific to the fed.

-- Mom who got 8 days of paid leave from an employer who gave no annual leave, and didn't allow sick leave to be carried over from year to year.

Feds don't get 6 weeks paid. They get 6 weeks advanced SICK leave paid. Which put you in the sick leave hole for 3 years (we get 4 hours of sick leave every 2 weeks). And considering that it's mostly 25-35 year olds having children, we don't all have much leave saved. Many had our first kids within a year or two of starting work.

Which is still far more than the federal law provides to other people. Other people who have babies before FMLA leave kicks in get, if they're lucky, whatever sick leave they've accrued. Six weeks paid (and paid sick leave is paid leave), plus the opportunity to take additional unpaid leave, or use leave donation if there's an urgent situation, is significantly more than is provided to many many weeks.

As I said, I was FMLA eligible, and had worked for my organization for 5 years with exactly one day of leave during those years, and I got 8 paid days of sick leave.

^^PP here- 6 weeks became 8 because I had a c-section.

I used paid 6 weeks short term disability (which became 8, with extra 2 weeks paid at 60% salary), plus all of my PTO, and negotiated working from home the first two weeks to "ramp back up." I got about 10 weeks total.

I took the time off anyway. She had Failure to thrive. I had to breast feed on demand. With no income to speak of, I qualified for WIC which helped feed me as the nursing mom. We used the food pantry. A pro-life group at my church gave me basic baby clothes to last six months and paid off all my back utilities (a bad winter so Washington gas was high).

My employer (a major MoCo one) let my specific position go, but reassigned me when DD started daycare full-time. I made sure to sign up for our version of AFLAC immediately.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This freaking country. Why are we SO behind the times?

And these are executive branch employees under Obama. If I have to hear him talk up maternity leave on e more time I want to scream. It's so hypocritical.

Given that feds in the executive branch seem to get at least 6 weeks paid leave, even if they haven't been there a year or accrued any leave, and people working for private employers have the experience described directly above, I'd say that Obama is right to focus on national issues, and not on issues specific to the fed.

-- Mom who got 8 days of paid leave from an employer who gave no annual leave, and didn't allow sick leave to be carried over from year to year.

Feds don't get 6 weeks paid. They get 6 weeks advanced SICK leave paid. Which put you in the sick leave hole for 3 years (we get 4 hours of sick leave every 2 weeks). And considering that it's mostly 25-35 year olds having children, we don't all have much leave saved. Many had our first kids within a year or two of starting work.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This freaking country. Why are we SO behind the times?

And these are executive branch employees under Obama. If I have to hear him talk up maternity leave on e more time I want to scream. It's so hypocritical.

Given that feds in the executive branch seem to get at least 6 weeks paid leave, even if they haven't been there a year or accrued any leave, and people working for private employers have the experience described directly above, I'd say that Obama is right to focus on national issues, and not on issues specific to the fed.

-- Mom who got 8 days of paid leave from an employer who gave no annual leave, and didn't allow sick leave to be carried over from year to year.

This isn't entirely right. We aren't getting parental leave. All Obama's executive order does is give us the option of being advanced up to 6 weeks of sick leave for the birth of a child. It would take over 2 years to pay back that if you took all 6 weeks (we earn 13 days of sick leave a year). I just recently had a baby and decided not to advance any leave because it just kicks the can down the road -- I either take the time unpaid now or I take it unpaid later when my child gets sick and needs to stay home from daycare, or when I get sick enough that I can't go into work. It's nice that Obama increased the options available, but it in no way constitutes a meaningful parental leave policy.

OP, to your question: the lack of actual FMLA may not mean anything about your ability to take time off and/or the ramifications on your job. I have had 2 kids while working as a fed, and I was not required to invoke FMLA either time. I took 5 months for the first (because we could not get a daycare spot before then) and 3 months for the second -- my leave was a combination of sick, annual, and LWOP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This freaking country. Why are we SO behind the times?

And these are executive branch employees under Obama. If I have to hear him talk up maternity leave on e more time I want to scream. It's so hypocritical.

Given that feds in the executive branch seem to get at least 6 weeks paid leave, even if they haven't been there a year or accrued any leave, and people working for private employers have the experience described directly above, I'd say that Obama is right to focus on national issues, and not on issues specific to the fed.

-- Mom who got 8 days of paid leave from an employer who gave no annual leave, and didn't allow sick leave to be carried over from year to year.

Anonymous wrote:I am not a fed, but a contractor. I didn't have FMLA (I hadn't worked there a year yet and we are a small business). Knowing that, I had child care set up for two weeks after his birth so I could return to work once all my sick/vacation leave was used up. Unfortunately, I was put on hospital bed rest at 30 weeks so used up my vacation and sick time before I even had the baby. When my baby arrived at 32 weeks, I went to work while he was in the NICU for 10 days. After that, I ended up putting a small crib in my office and walking around with my preemie strapped to me in a Moby wrap until his child care kicked in.

My daughter was born at 29w. My employer basically looked the other way while I "teleworked" from the NICU.