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

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let her have the time off.

it sounds like the problem is that she mentioned using her vacation time,
would you feel the same way if it was unpaid leave? In that case, would she still need the same type of approval as vacation? Can you hire someone temporarily until she returns?

Also, have you ever had a Baby?

Responses like this are so clueless. Where is the line? She already got FAR more than most women get even at big companies, let alone at a small company. What if she wanted 6 months off?

Have you ever had a baby is sucj an insulting question. This is about business, not creating a social safety net for new mothers.

Then what big company? As a professional, most companies offer 12 weeks now. I've been in banking, finance and law. I now work at a nonprofit and we even give 12 weeks. It's a crapshoot. Women in the US work less than in other developed countries. We need women to grow the economy. One of the reasons women work less is b/c in the US has such poor maternity leave policies. It was literally on the WSJ podcast today.

Now, when my employees come back, I don't want to hear about child care issues. I really don't. I give the time needed upfront, but my expectation is that when you are back, you are back.

You live and work in a bubble.

I work at a big law firm in DC. I got zero paid leave.

FFS. She got 12 weeks of paid leave, and still has PTO for sick days, doctors appointments, or a vacation later in the year.

We're not talking about an exploited employee being asked to return after two weeks. Save your outrage for those situations.

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let her have the time off.

it sounds like the problem is that she mentioned using her vacation time,
would you feel the same way if it was unpaid leave? In that case, would she still need the same type of approval as vacation? Can you hire someone temporarily until she returns?

Also, have you ever had a Baby?

Responses like this are so clueless. Where is the line? She already got FAR more than most women get even at big companies, let alone at a small company. What if she wanted 6 months off?

Have you ever had a baby is sucj an insulting question. This is about business, not creating a social safety net for new mothers.

Then what big company? As a professional, most companies offer 12 weeks now. I've been in banking, finance and law. I now work at a nonprofit and we even give 12 weeks. It's a crapshoot. Women in the US work less than in other developed countries. We need women to grow the economy. One of the reasons women work less is b/c in the US has such poor maternity leave policies. It was literally on the WSJ podcast today.

Now, when my employees come back, I don't want to hear about child care issues. I really don't. I give the time needed upfront, but my expectation is that when you are back, you are back.

Most companies do not offer 12 weeks of fully paid maternity leave, like the OP’s company is doing. That is still a rarity in the American business world. I did a quick google search to verify this, because I thought it was strange when you mentioned that most do.

Yeah, my super generous pro-employee employer gives 6 weeks fully paid or 8 weeks if you have to have a C. And this is an organization where we pay nothing for health care premiums or co-pays at $10 at the doctor and $5 for generic prescriptions.

Wow, I'm glad to be Canadian!

These threads about how to say something, or how should I word the document are insane.

So you went to college for 4+ years and you can't figure out how to deal with a minor issue like this?

And BTW, I understand that you have to document things sometimes, but the email game is a huge turn off because it is impersonal and often times done with nefarious intent. Not to mention, things often get lost in translation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let her have the time off.

it sounds like the problem is that she mentioned using her vacation time,
would you feel the same way if it was unpaid leave? In that case, would she still need the same type of approval as vacation? Can you hire someone temporarily until she returns?

Also, have you ever had a Baby?

Responses like this are so clueless. Where is the line? She already got FAR more than most women get even at big companies, let alone at a small company. What if she wanted 6 months off?

Have you ever had a baby is sucj an insulting question. This is about business, not creating a social safety net for new mothers.

Then what big company? As a professional, most companies offer 12 weeks now. I've been in banking, finance and law. I now work at a nonprofit and we even give 12 weeks. It's a crapshoot. Women in the US work less than in other developed countries. We need women to grow the economy. One of the reasons women work less is b/c in the US has such poor maternity leave policies. It was literally on the WSJ podcast today.

Now, when my employees come back, I don't want to hear about child care issues. I really don't. I give the time needed upfront, but my expectation is that when you are back, you are back.

Most companies do not offer 12 weeks of fully paid maternity leave, like the OP’s company is doing. That is still a rarity in the American business world. I did a quick google search to verify this, because I thought it was strange when you mentioned that most do.

Anonymous wrote:Hire men and never deal with issues like these again

Sad...but sort of true. Damn you equality!

Anonymous wrote:You're a shitty employer. Let the woman take her leave.

No...she’s just a shitty employee.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Realistically, she's not going to be at her best right now. You're better off letting her take a longer time off while she is exhausted and sleep deprived and likely going to have to deal with pumping than having her use her vacation later when she's actually sleeping through the night.

Seriously, it's better off for everyone to just let her use the time she has accrued this way if that's what she wants to do.

This. Let her take it. You made it 12 weeks. What's another 2 or so.

Spoken like someone that has never owned/operated a small business. 2-3 weeks is a long time....

Where do you live? DH's employer discovered FMLA did not apply to them because they were under 50 employees. Not sure where maternity leave falls. Having said that, if you valued this employee, or any that may later become pregnant, you will be fair in handling this situation.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let her have the time off.

it sounds like the problem is that she mentioned using her vacation time,
would you feel the same way if it was unpaid leave? In that case, would she still need the same type of approval as vacation? Can you hire someone temporarily until she returns?

Also, have you ever had a Baby?

Responses like this are so clueless. Where is the line? She already got FAR more than most women get even at big companies, let alone at a small company. What if she wanted 6 months off?

Have you ever had a baby is sucj an insulting question. This is about business, not creating a social safety net for new mothers.

Then what big company? As a professional, most companies offer 12 weeks now. I've been in banking, finance and law. I now work at a nonprofit and we even give 12 weeks. It's a crapshoot. Women in the US work less than in other developed countries. We need women to grow the economy. One of the reasons women work less is b/c in the US has such poor maternity leave policies. It was literally on the WSJ podcast today.

Now, when my employees come back, I don't want to hear about child care issues. I really don't. I give the time needed upfront, but my expectation is that when you are back, you are back.

So, your endorsement of parental leave policies ends once the kid is 12 weeks old? That's big of you. If you want women "growing the economy", then there needs to be reasonable personal leave for employees that allow either parents to be able to care for their child when things arise. Nothing like being puked on from dusk 'til dawn when your kid picks up a virus at daycare and then have your boss tell you that you're not entitled to a personal day because they gave you maternity leave two years ago. Oh, and one of my coworker's nannies quit on her two weeks after she came back to work. Guess we should have just fired her for splitting the time with her husband while they vetted and hired a new one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let her have the time off.

it sounds like the problem is that she mentioned using her vacation time,
would you feel the same way if it was unpaid leave? In that case, would she still need the same type of approval as vacation? Can you hire someone temporarily until she returns?

Also, have you ever had a Baby?

Responses like this are so clueless. Where is the line? She already got FAR more than most women get even at big companies, let alone at a small company. What if she wanted 6 months off?

Have you ever had a baby is sucj an insulting question. This is about business, not creating a social safety net for new mothers.

Then what big company? As a professional, most companies offer 12 weeks now. I've been in banking, finance and law. I now work at a nonprofit and we even give 12 weeks. It's a crapshoot. Women in the US work less than in other developed countries. We need women to grow the economy. One of the reasons women work less is b/c in the US has such poor maternity leave policies. It was literally on the WSJ podcast today.

Now, when my employees come back, I don't want to hear about child care issues. I really don't. I give the time needed upfront, but my expectation is that when you are back, you are back.

You live and work in a bubble.

After. Neither I nor any of my friends save one in big law got any oaid time off that wasn't part of vacation saved or short term disability. We are all professionals making $100-$120k in a variety of fields from dod contracting to Feds to marketing etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let her have the time off.

it sounds like the problem is that she mentioned using her vacation time,
would you feel the same way if it was unpaid leave? In that case, would she still need the same type of approval as vacation? Can you hire someone temporarily until she returns?

Also, have you ever had a Baby?

Responses like this are so clueless. Where is the line? She already got FAR more than most women get even at big companies, let alone at a small company. What if she wanted 6 months off?

Have you ever had a baby is sucj an insulting question. This is about business, not creating a social safety net for new mothers.

Then what big company? As a professional, most companies offer 12 weeks now. I've been in banking, finance and law. I now work at a nonprofit and we even give 12 weeks. It's a crapshoot. Women in the US work less than in other developed countries. We need women to grow the economy. One of the reasons women work less is b/c in the US has such poor maternity leave policies. It was literally on the WSJ podcast today.

Now, when my employees come back, I don't want to hear about child care issues. I really don't. I give the time needed upfront, but my expectation is that when you are back, you are back.

You live and work in a bubble.