https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Fri, 24 Apr 2026 20:15:05 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-358175 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:59:41 +0000 tlcbaby 358175@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@ladyfingers - thank you! I am so glad I asked you ladies...so helpful!! :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-358150 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 11:51:35 +0000 ladyfingers 358150@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We have 12 employees (we had 30 when I announced, long story but it wasn't a downsize or anything). The only person who had ever been pregnant before was my boss, she just had her 2nd in December. So I told her actually at 6 weeks because I had a lot of doctors' appointments and was concerned about spotting, and wanted somebody to know what was going on in case something happened. She was thrilled, and she said we could talk about leave later on. </p> <p>So what ended up happening was around 12-13 weeks she had come in my office just to chat about timelines, getting together in December to update her on everything just in case I went early. So I said, about leave, I don't know if we have a policy, but I was hoping to take 12 weeks and I'm hoping that's appropriate. She said, take the time you need and reminded me it would be unpaid (which I knew), but that it was fine. </p> <p>They offer short-term disability, which I had signed up for before I was pregnant. You can't be pregnant when you sign up, most policies won't pay out the pregnancy benefit until 9 months after you sign up. Which protects them against stuff like somebody currently pregnant signing up. </p> <p>With some exceptions (like California I think), your employer has to offer the disability plan. You can't just go get an individual disability plan, at least in our state. We cut it close because we actually didn't offer anything like that until April 2012. </p> <p>Unfortunately, most states don't offer their own parental leave benefit. Five or six of them have plans that expand FMLA by reducing the number of employees a company needs to have to be required to follow the law, but none of those have a requirement of less than 10. </p> <p>I would just second @Prettylizy's advice about not being apologetic. Be confident about your pregnancy and your ability to do your job both before and after birth. Follow your boss' cue on discussing leave -- they might bring it up now, they might want to discuss it later on. I would have your plan outlined (how much time you'd like, how you plan for your work to be covered) before telling your boss in case they do want to discuss it. </p> <p>Good luck, I'm sure everything will work out fine! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-357590 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:46:13 +0000 prettylizy 357590@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>The only advice I have is not to apologize to your boss. This isnt something to be sorry for. Be happy, proud and excited, and hopefully your boss will be the same. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-357586 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:43:52 +0000 tlcbaby 357586@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@revel - I definitely will keep you all posted! I think I have 3 weeks vacation next year so I guess I can save those and at least know I will have a bit of paid time off. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-357563 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:33:57 +0000 oliviaoblivia 357563@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My office has three employees all women. I'm the first to have a baby. My boss has been really excited about my pregnancy and is totally willing to work with me on my return whether that be part time, full time, or a split where I work from home. I don't have any advice on FMLA or short term disability because I'm in Canada.<br /> I will be taking off from week 38 on and might come back to work at six months if I feel up to it or I might take a full year off. I've been lucky that my firm can handle my absence and is willing to be flexible with me. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-357561 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:33:12 +0000 Revel 357561@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@TLCbaby, I am in the EXACT same situation, and wrestling with this decision as well. I work for a company with 9 employees, not covered by FMLA. My employer doesn't offer short term disability - and here in PA that is the only way to get it. </p> <p>My tentative plan is to announce as late as possible (well after 12 weeks if it doesn't become too obvious), state my intention that I plan to take 12 weeks and that I plan to return to work. I get 4 weeks vacation, and I'm going to see if I can negotiate a few more weeks paid, but I'm saving for the possibility of 8 weeks unpaid. For me the priorities are:<br /> (1) get 12 weeks off<br /> (2) make sure my job will be here when I get back and<br /> (3) get some extra paid time off.</p> <p>Please let us know what you decide! I'm planning on announcing in December if possible (8w4d right now), so I'd love to know how things go for you. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-357549 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:14:26 +0000 DillonLion 357549@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@tlcbaby: I intentionally did not discuss changing of my hours or anything like that. For me, it really depends on the baby and whatnot, and there's no way to tell what kind of baby we have until she gets here. Most of the advice I recieved was that it is best to keep everything "as is" and then if you need to scale back later, have the discussion then when you are sure you are going to need it. It is a lot harder to go to part-time and have to convince them to take you back full-time, rather than the other way around. </p> <p>At the beginning of my pregnancy, I was really unsure whether or not I would return to work at all, but I didn't really ever bring that up with my employer. If I did decide to stay home full-time, I could tell him then. But there was no reason to "plant the seed" and then change my mind, ya know? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-357543 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:12:22 +0000 DillonLion 357543@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I work in an office with 4 employees, and I am the first one in the history of the company to be pregnant. I announced my pregnancy to my boss around 12 weeks. We did not discuss any further details about my maternity leave until later on. I figured he probably wanted some time to think about what he wanted to offer and I wanted to give myself some more time to think about how much time I wanted off/whether I was returning to work/etc. </p> <p>When my yearly review came around (I was about 5 months along by then), I took that time to bring up the actual plans for when I'd be finishing work, how long my maternity leave was, etc. </p> <p>Even though we didn't have to adhere to FMLA, my boss said that he would go with whatever the law was in terms of time off. And while FMLA doesn't guarantee any paid time, he also included two weeks of paid time off, which I thought was great. And my health insurance still stays in place. I told him my last day would be at 39 weeks, unless I go into labor any earlier than that. He was okay with that plan. And I told him I would be returning to work after my leave is up. I'm not sure if it will be exactly 12 weeks or a little bit longer. But, I expect he will be flexible if I need an extra week or two (although I think I will be anxious to get back to work and start making money again)</p> <p>Overall, the talk went great! My last day before maternity leave is actually in about 3 weeks! :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-357539 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:10:03 +0000 tlcbaby 357539@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@jojogirl - I will look into the state laws, didn't think of that! And we don't even have an hr department :) Oy!</p> <p>@mediagirl - thanks for sharing, that is definitely encouraging! My boss seems like a nice guy so I am hoping we can just sit down and discuss it and come to an agreement.</p> <p>My worry is that I am not 100% sure how I am going to feel about coming back to work full time after we have the baby. I may want to do part time somewhere, we really haven't talked about it much yet, but it is a conversation I want to have and see what is even financially possible for us. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-357494 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 07:38:59 +0000 mediagirl 357494@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I was in your shoes! I'll start about short term disability. In most cases, you need to sign up for that before you are pregnant. That was how ours worked and that was what I did (uhh....two months before I got preggo...working the system). :)</p> <p>Our company never had anyone go out on maternity leave before. They pretty much wrote something for me once I announced my pregnancy. My boss and they owner of the company were very cool about it. They gave me 12 weeks (13, really) even though they didn't have to. They were mostly just happy for me and didn't worry too much about the fact that I would be out for so long (knowing I would be back). I made sure I STRESSED that I would be back because we need my job. </p> <p>I would just go into it with an open mind. Once you announce, then talk to your boss about how you want to plan your leave. I think being open to suggestions would be best so it doesn't look like you're telling them, "I'm taking this time off, need this, this and this." </p> <p>Good luck!!! Let us know how it goes. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-357492 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 07:38:24 +0000 JoJoGirl 357492@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I would check your state laws for maternity leave, in Massachusetts women working for companies of more than 6 people are eligible for 8 weeks of leave. With short-term disability, if your company doesn't provide it or you didn't sign up when you first were hired, you can't get it if you're already pregnant (it's the first question they ask on the "Evidence of Insurability" form - I already looked into this, ha ha). I'm not sure what legal rights you have to leave, but someone in HR should be able to help you (before you tell your boss, maybe?). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/telling-your-boss-maternity-leave-in-small-office#post-357485 Wed, 24 Oct 2012 07:35:07 +0000 tlcbaby 357485@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I have a question - wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation and how you handled it..</p> <p>I work in an office with less than 10 employees so we do not have any specific written rules for maternity leave and I also believe because of our size we do not have to adhere to FMLA. I am going to be announcing my pregnancy at work within the next week or so and wasn't sure how to approach my boss.</p> <p>I don't know if I need to put together a plan for how I would like to handle my maternity leave or if I should sit down and talk with him about it. He may have dealt with it before and have a certain way he usually handles it, but I am not sure.</p> <p>Does anyone else work in a small office without hard and fast maternity leave rules? How did you handle it?</p> <p>I've also heard you can get short term disability insurance, but I know nothing about that and if I can even get it now that I am already pregnant. I am feeling a bit lost and confused about the whole thing! </p>