Hi bees! Looking to pick your brains on my work situation. I work for a small company (9 employees) not covered by FMLA. We are relatively family friendly, but have no set maternity leave policy. I am 8 weeks along right now and am trying to decide when to announce and negotiate my leave.

A complicating factor is that we have our year end reviews coming up in mid December, where raises and bonuses are given. I am debating if I should announce before the review, during the review, or after. Before I became pregnant, I was considering trying to negotiate a slightly higher raise than normal this year based upon some additional responsiblity I have taken on, but now I'm not so sure. I also was considering that I should announce before the review to offset any perceived deficiency in my work through the first trimester (i.e. not working late etc) though I have no indication that my employer is unhappy with my performance.

So basically I could announce pretty much at any time after Thanksgiving - that is when I will have passed 12 weeks and probably had an NT scan.

I have 4 weeks paid vacation, and I want to take 12 weeks off. I expect some of that to be unpaid, but if my employer would pay at least 2, ideally 4 more weeks, that would be a huge help.

Does anyone have any insight or similar experience negotiating leave at a similar employer?