Maine Nesties
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Teachers: Maternity Leave
Out of curiosity (and to see if it is just my school that is special), what do/did you have for maternity leave?
Re: Teachers: Maternity Leave
I have two coworkers who are pregnant and due this fall. Both of them told me this is our policy:
So, anything more than 6 weeks and you need a doctor's note and I don't think I'm allowed to use any of my sick time that I have been banking for 5 years for when we do get pregnant. You just don't get paid for anything beyond 6 weeks. I was thinking it was more like 8 weeks. And can you imagine having 6 weeks and then coming back for 2 weeks, after the seniors graduate, thanks to snow days? Ugh.
Not a teacher, so this may all be irrelevent, but you don't have any short-term disability through work? Everywhere I've worked (not a school) that is what covers those 6-8 weeks although only at a percentage of your pay. So like now I pay for short-term disability, and whenver we get pregnant again I'll get 60% of my pay for 8 weeks (for c-section). The 12 weeks they're referring to is probably FMLAwhich is all unpaid leave but protects your job. My job prior to this I was per diem so I had no benefits, no earned time, no short-term disability. I took 12 weeks unpaid FMLA and just got by with savings we had put aside to live off of for my maternity leave. So it could be worse!
Of course, if we lived in othercountries that provide paid maternity leave, it could be a whole lot better!
Yeah, it could be much worse. At least I've been smart enough to bank my sick days for 5 years in order to have enough to cover the time plus give me a cushion left over. The idea of paying for our insurance out of pocket for even 2 weeks makes me want to cry though.
Oh, well. It is what it is. And I'm not even pregnant yet. So, of course, it is all a moot point right now.
My school is similar. We get 6 weeks (8 for c-section) after delivery that we can get paid, assuming you have enough sick time to cover it. You can go out earlier if you have a note from your doctor disabling you and that uses sick time as well.
Beyond those weeks I believe we are able to take as much as the rest of the semester off, plus the next semester, off unpaid and you pay the premiums on insurance. ($$$!)
We have been thinking a lot about the dilemma you mentioned at the end. TTC soon could result in a March or April due date. Meaning I'd either lose a boatload of money or have to go back for up to 6 weeks. On the flipside, it is seems silly to only aim for only a May or June due date, then if that doesn't happen an August or fall due date would be even more difficult.I don't work in a school, but I wish I worked anywhere else right about now.
I can only save 4 weeks (20 days) vacation and 2 weeks (10 days) of sick time total... and I get no paid maternity leave. I CAN take up to 12 weeks unpaid, but I must use all of my earned time first. Which means when I get back to work I will have used all of my vacation and sick time (plus a possible 2 weeks unpaid if my doctor suggests 8 weeks off due to c-section). So if I have to take time off for baby or me being sick, I'll only have 2 personal days (not counted in vaca or sick time) from January-ish to June. So basically I can only be sick during the 6-8 weeks I'm out with a newborn from now until next June. I'm finding that a lot of workplaces aren't super sensitive to maternity leave.
This is pretty much what I was going to say.. we said the earliest we wanted was April, but May or June was good too. My due date was April 7 and like others said, mat. leave starts on the birthday. Ours is the same as Sarah and Annies, vaca doesn't count, you use your own sick to pay for the 6 weeks (8 c-sect), and after that it is unpaid unless doc. note. I also got an extra week due to mastitis that my doc wrote for, and then I went back for 2.5 weeks at the end, which honestly wasn't AS bad as I anticipated... but when we did the calculations it was a LOT of $$ to lose. Also, for that time I would have been expected to pay my own health insurance, but the finance mgr. in my district told me he'd cover it for those weeks so thankfully that wasn't an issue (though I ended up working anyway).
Bottom line, 6 weeks is cruel and unusual punishment to expect someone to return to work... but that's the way our country does it. BTW, SO exciting about E and M :0)
Me, too! I spent lunch talking with them both (I definitely know the E you are talking about but not 100% about the M) and definitely got a lot of information. If you are talking about the same M, she was my first client, so it is so awesome for me to see them come to the other side. But I would not want to be on maternity leave when they are going to be!
This kind of crap is what's kept me working in jobs that are meaningless for so many years. I work for good benefits and weekends/evenings off, the salary is just incidental. (Okay, not incidental, because I need it, but the benefits and time off are what separates an okay employer from a great employer. I think I will try to work for Harvard for the rest of my life, even if it means that I'll never do a job that makes a difference in the world or uses my degrees.)