Vacation time and Maternity Leave

[sparkythelawyer]

Did anyone here use vacation days to extend their leave?  If yes, by how much?

Brought to you by the fact that somehow, our VP of HR did not know how many weeks we get, told me we get 8 weeks when in reality we only get six.

[sparkythelawyer]

Nov 19, 2014 11:01:38 GMT -5 @astrid said:

I get 12 according to FMLA. It's 6 sick and 6 vacation if I deliver vaginally. 8 sick and 4 vacation if cesarean. I have the leave to cover either option, so that's how mine will work.

Yeah, I can take 12, but only 6 is paid.  And since I'm the sole income here at Chez Sparky, six weeks unpaid is not going to happen. 

I am still mopey.

[sparkythelawyer]

Nov 19, 2014 11:05:10 GMT -5 @astrid said:

Nov 19, 2014 11:04:49 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

Yeah, I can take 12, but only 6 is paid.  And since I'm the sole income here at Chez Sparky, six weeks unpaid is not going to happen. 

I am still mopey.

Even if you have saved leave?

We don't get saved leave.  I have three weeks vacation, but its use it or lose it.

[krystee]

Our policy is weird. We get 12 weeks paid, but personal and vacation time have to be used up first...meaning that I have six weeks of those so I will get six extra weeks paid, whereas someone who only has four will get eight extra weeks paid. And then you have no days left to use for the entire rest of the year.

As a result, I am going to take as much vacation as possible before the due date!

[hainesherway]

I get a max of 12 weeks per FMLA.  Only 6 of those will be paid though, the other 6 will be unpaid.  I may be able to use a 2 weeks of vacation time in order to make only 4 of those unpaid, but that will only leave me a week of vacation time for the rest of the year, so it makes me a little nervous.

[sparkythelawyer]

Nov 19, 2014 11:10:06 GMT -5 @astrid said:

Nov 19, 2014 11:09:30 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

We don't get saved leave.  I have three weeks vacation, but its use it or lose it.

That is lame-o!

Tell me about it.  It is so frustrating.  We have many GREAT benefits at this place, but the maternity leave is leaving me really nonplussed this morning.

[felicity]

Nov 19, 2014 11:04:49 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

Nov 19, 2014 11:01:38 GMT -5 @astrid said:

I get 12 according to FMLA. It's 6 sick and 6 vacation if I deliver vaginally. 8 sick and 4 vacation if cesarean. I have the leave to cover either option, so that's how mine will work.

Yeah, I can take 12, but only 6 is paid.  And since I'm the sole income here at Chez Sparky, six weeks unpaid is not going to happen. 

I am still mopey.

I think (unfortunately) this is pretty common if your company uses Short Term Disability rather than an actual maternity leave benefit. I'm using vacation and sick leave to get paid the rest of my 12 weeks. 

[sparkythelawyer]

Nov 19, 2014 11:22:23 GMT -5 @astrid said:

Nov 19, 2014 11:18:42 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

Tell me about it.  It is so frustrating.  We have many GREAT benefits at this place, but the maternity leave is leaving me really nonplussed this morning.

Can you extend it with some work from home-ness?

I'm going to talk to my boss about it.  She's pretty good about things, so I think she'll be ok with some sort of arrangement.

[rachelgreen]

I am using it on the front end and back end of my leave.

Because I am due at the end of the year and I somehow didn't use much of my time for 2014 I am going on leave 2 full weeks before my due date. I'm playing Russian roulette because if bunny comes early STD kicks in and I "lose" my vacay days (use or lose at my company) but I simply ran out of time to get in vacation. Even with those two full weeks I'm taking all of next week off too, lol. Oops.

Then on the back end, I get the 6/8 wks paid depending on birth method, will take a week unpaid of FML time, then a week of my 2015 vacation time. That will leave me with 10 vacation days, 7 sick days, 3 PTO days for the rest of the year.

ETA: and then the rest of my unpaid FML days I am using one day a week for Mondays until that time runs out in the spring. My boss has approved me to WFH on Fridays once I return as well so that will help with daycare.

[christy082]

I don't qualify for FMLA because I'm part time (20 hours per week), which sucks because my company's FMLA policy is actually better than the federal policy (my company allows 16 weeks). So I'll get 6 weeks STD for vaginal or 8 for cesarean. I'm hoping to add on 2 weeks PTO after the STD.

[sparkythelawyer]

Rachel, that is not a bad plan. I'm going to have to do some number crunching

[estrellita]

I thought about taking 2 to make it 10 weeks total. Our first week of ML is PTO until STD kicks in. Found out yesterday they are changing it to 12 weeks though so I won't need to! I wasn't going to anyways. If I only got 6 weeks, I probably would have taken 2 extra.

[rachelgreen]

Nov 19, 2014 11:49:23 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

Rachel, that is not a bad plan. I'm going to have to do some number crunching

When I called to set up my leave with our STD company (Cigna) they called my Mondays off "intermittent leave" just in case you need to explain it to someone. 

[starburst604]

I work for a small business and the whole thing is sort of undefined, except that you can take up to 12 weeks and it's all unpaid. Boo. I will be getting some short term disability through AFLAC (6 weeks for vaginal, 8 for c-section). That will start paying me after 2 weeks out of work, so I'm going to use 2 weeks of PTO starting from delivery date till the STD kicks in, then probably take 2 weeks unpaid for a total of 10 weeks.

[Deleted]

Nov 19, 2014 11:04:49 GMT -5 sparkythelawyer said:

Nov 19, 2014 11:01:38 GMT -5 @astrid said:

I get 12 according to FMLA. It's 6 sick and 6 vacation if I deliver vaginally. 8 sick and 4 vacation if cesarean. I have the leave to cover either option, so that's how mine will work.

Yeah, I can take 12, but only 6 is paid.  And since I'm the sole income here at Chez Sparky, six weeks unpaid is not going to happen. 

I am still mopey.

Same boat for me--6 or 8 paid depending on delivery. I think I have 2 weeks vacation I'll be able to use too. I need to talk to HR.

[lillaguma]

I don't get any paid maternity leave unfortunately, because I'll be 2 months short of having worked here for 2 years when I have the baby. I'm super bummed about it still. I can use any vacation or sick leave I have for the first 30 days, after that I can go unpaid for however long for FMLA - I think it's up to 24 weeks, actually. Unfortunately I am also our sole income right now (husband graduates his grad program in May) so who knows what we'll end up doing.

[mlvmd]

We don't get any paid leave. Our jobs are protected for up to 12 weeks under FMLA. I have a lot of annual leave and will also take 8 weeks of sick leave for the period I'm considered incapacitated from my c-section.

[sillygoosegirl]

We don't get any paid parental leave. My first 2.5 weeks of leave will be paid (that's how long until my PTO runs out) and then whatever I take after that will be unpaid. I will also get STD for weeks 2-6 at about 40% pay, so that's the equivalent of another 2 weeks paid, spread over that time.

[fayeelle]

No FMLA, no maternity leave policy, no STD.
I'm guaranteed my job after 12 wks on good faith based on length of employment and work ethic. But its all unpaid unless I use my PTO and I only get 3wks a year that they would also need to advance me.

[roo54]

I can take 12 weeks off because of FMLA, but I have to use all of paid time off up (we dont get sick/vacation, its all the same) then I'll have 2 weeks short term disability, and then the rest will be unpaid. I'll probably only have about 13-15 days of paid time off by then, but I'm budgeting so I can take the full 12 weeks off.