Coming in a few days during maternity leave?

[red]

I teach at a College. There are two days during my proposed maternity leave that my employer has asked me to come in for a few hours to lecture. I should be about 2 months postpartum by this time. It's the same content I am teaching in the Fall, so likely not much prep work. The days would be two different weeks. They said they would "figure it out" if I could not do it. I am not sure how common it is for an employer to make this request. Legally I know I can say no and I am covered by FMLA, but maybe it is not a big deal. I will be a FTM, so not sure if I'll be itching to get out of the house by then or an anxious mess. MIL would be able to watch the baby.  

[vmars]

I would not, but if you do make sure you are compensated and you get those days tacked back on to your fmla.

[achi]

I don't go here right now, but I saw this in the general whatever page that is there when you login on the app and I didn't want to not say anything. When DS was 2 months old he was a shit sleeper and I very much did not have myself together enough to do anything that required any brainpower whatsoever. He was still unsettled until well after midnight and when I had to take him for his 2 month well visit at 9 am and I was so tired it was probably a really bad idea for me to be driving.

If its in the afternoon and you WANT to do it then I'd consider it, but beyond that it would be a big ol' fuck no from me.

That's just my experience, but I think it's going to be very dependent on what your baby is like. Additionally, my office asked me to reply to a few e-mails here and there from my replacement when she had questions and it turned into an almost daily thing. Partially my fault because I was really anxious about giving up my role for the year and it helped me to feel like my employer remembered how awesome I was while I was off, but looking back I also feel like that was taken advantage of.

[katespade]

Be sure that you read the fine print in your leave rules, especially if you will still be receiving any sort of disability pay at that time. A lot of disability policies have very clear guidelines against intermittent work during your leave time, and it can cause you to become ineligible for the remainder of your leave.

[red]

Aug 16, 2019 15:12:24 GMT -5 katespade said:

Be sure that you read the fine print in your leave rules, especially if you will still be receiving any sort of disability pay at that time. A lot of disability policies have very clear guidelines against intermittent work during your leave time, and it can cause you to become ineligible for the remainder of your leave.

Good point. I not eligible for disability though, when I became full time in April I was already pregnant so it would have been preexisting. I worked as an adjunct prior to that. I will have about a month of PTO that I will have used by that point.

[red]

Aug 16, 2019 15:00:41 GMT -5 achi said:

I don't go here right now, but I saw this in the general whatever page that is there when you login on the app and I didn't want to not say anything. When DS was 2 months old he was a shit sleeper and I very much did not have myself together enough to do anything that required any brainpower whatsoever. He was still unsettled until well after midnight and when I had to take him for his 2 month well visit at 9 am and I was so tired it was probably a really bad idea for me to be driving.

If its in the afternoon and you WANT to do it then I'd consider it, but beyond that it would be a big ol' fuck no from me.

That's just my experience, but I think it's going to be very dependent on what your baby is like. Additionally, my office asked me to reply to a few e-mails here and there from my replacement when she had questions and it turned into an almost daily thing. Partially my fault because I was really anxious about giving up my role for the year and it helped me to feel like my employer remembered how awesome I was while I was off, but looking back I also feel like that was taken advantage of.

Yeah, it’ll be 9am lectures. That’s kind of my fear. I’ll be back to work in March so I can keep this job and I guess I’ll just have to live sleep deprived until the summer when I’m off again. I do like my job overall, but I don’t think there’s any telling how I’ll feel once the little guy gets here.

[Susie]

I went back to work full time at 8 weeks with #2, including the whole routine of getting a 3 yo + 8 week old ready and out of the house and to daycare on my way into work. So can it be done? For sure. But would I want to if I didn't have to? Eh...

If MIL will come to you to watch the baby, that makes it easier. And maybe you will be looking forward to adult/professional interaction -- I stopped by my office several times during mat leave this summer to consult on things.

It's so hard to know though... do you have to give them an answer now? My little guy started a routine of getting up 1x MOTN fairly early on, and that is relatively doable (although tomorrow is 11 week and I am ready to STTN any time now). I was more sleep deprived with my first and would have been less interested in being a team player at work when I was scheduled to be on leave.

[statgirl]

I don’t go here, but I had two babies while full-time professor-ing. I would have been up for it—but I was desperate for human interaction while on leave. I had 13 weeks off for each due to birthdate/semester start dates but was on campus a few times throughout for various functions.

[smock]

I was also a professor when I had both kids. Like statgirl, I was craving adult time that used my brain by that point. During my first maternity leave I sat on a master's thesis committee around that time and it was fine (though I was definitely sleep deprived). The only struggle was finding someone to watch my kid; Mr. Smock ended up taking a half day so I could go to campus for a morning.

If you've already got the lectures written, I'd probably say yes. My biggest concern would be finding an outfit that was teaching appropriate and actually fit.

[gastro]

I’ve had three and at two months pp I would have loved to get out and do this assuming my MIL could handle the baby, that I had enough milk and baby could bottle feed, no additional prep work to give the lectures.

[Jalapeñomel]

I think it’s pretty terrible for an employer to ask a woman to come in while out on maternity leave.


That said, if you want to do it, I think you’ll feel fine to do so.

[puppylove64]

I agree it is terrible they asked you, but if you want to I think you would be up to it at about 2 months.

With my first I worked from home a few hours while on maternity leave. I am an accountant and continued to do some client’s payroll from the house. It was just 2-3 hours a week and I did it when I could. I was young and broke and it helped to have a few extra dollars

[aprilsails]

I think you have every right to say no, but that it also wouldn’t be too difficult to manage considering you have childcare available and the lessons are already prepared.

Over the course of my one year maternity leave I was consulted and worked about 2 weeks from home on projects. I kept track of my hours and was provided financial compensation for the time when I returned to work. We know that this is likely to happen again (hopefully not as much, I had a really needy client last time that didn’t seem to understand that they should not be calling me on my cell all the time). I also stopped into the office a couple of times (DD in hand) to review and sign documents for an ongoing project we had that I needed to stay involved with because of professional designations.

So, I would say yes to the proposal if it is clearly indicated that you will be compensated in additional leave or pay.

[icedcoffee]

With my second is totally do it. With my first my brain just wasn’t working well at that point. I don’t think it would have gone well.

[CrazyLucky]

Not only no, but hell no. My boss asked if he could send some work that I could do during maternity leave. I knew I'd be fine and could do the work while the baby was sleeping. Wrong! I was not. He didn't sleep, he had colic, everything was just harder than I expected. You may very well be able to handle it, but you also might not be able to, and committing to it now is a bad idea.

[UMaineTeach]

I went in twice on different weeks for 3 hours. There was a training that I had to attend for 6 hours to renew certification, or let the certification lapse and have to take the 12 hour ‘kill me now’ initial class over again.

Other than that I did nothing, but respond to an email from my long term sub tell her to quit asking the whole school if they have X material and 1.look in the drawers behind you 2. ask someone in the room.

[knx9211]

I didn't see this before, and immediately clicked "No" when I came in. Then I remembered that I actually did this. A couple of months into my three month leave, there was a court hearing scheduled on one of my cases. I came in for a few hours while my Mom watched him and immediately left. It wasn't the end of the world. No one asked me to do it.

BUT DS was a good sleeper and I had help. I definitely wouldn't commit to this prior to feeling out the first few weeks at least.