Maternity leave in the United States is terrible! We are one of the only countries without a paid maternity leave. We may be leaders of the world, but some of our decisions are questionable… But that’s a topic for a different blog!
I called Human Resources yesterday at my work to figure out maternity leave. I read the policy, but it made no sense to me. The lady was very bitchy about the whole thing. She kept saying that FMLA only required that 12 weeks are offered without losing our job, but it doesn’t require being paid. Yeah for my company for doing the bare minimum for parents! After she explained, she asked for my due date. I thought that was a little pushy- I was just calling for information. I told her we were still trying. She said that’s so great because so many women wait to the last minute to find out about maternity leave and then they are upset. I’m assuming she has a lot of hormonal pregnant women mad at her because they had to use up some Paid-Time-Off for morning sickness and doctor appointments. I understood her bitchiness, but it didn’t forgive the behavior. It really should be written clearer in the policy manual.
All my maternity leave comes from my Paid-Time-Off and Sick Leave. I just took 10 days off over the holidays! But- no regrets there since that’s when we conceived! If nothing goes wrong in the next 9 months- then I’ll have about 9 weeks. But, it’s crazy to think I won’t need a sick day in the next 9 months… or even after with a newborn. So, I’m estimating that I’ll have 6 weeks paid. I’m going to go back to work only 2 days a week. As we get closer to needing to really decide this, I’ll either take 6 weeks unpaid or work two days a week. The catch with the unpaid leave is that you have to pay for your benefits since you won’t be getting a paycheck. The hard part is that it will be December, but work is slow in December. It might work well to just get back to work since it’s only two days a week. It’ll depend on finding a babysitter. So many decisions between now and then if this bean sticks around!
