Someone commented a while ago that women owe it to each other to take a full maternity leave.
That got me thinking: are other people's coworkers taking maternity leave? If so, how long?
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The only coworker I know of who took maternity leave recently took the full 12 weeks.
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There are very few women at my work so I am the first to take maternity leave. I took 4 months but I wish I took 6! The other women at work are much older so they won't be taking maternity leave!
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My company has been around 3 years. Though they have plenty of women working there (6 of 9 employees!), I'm the first one pregnant while working there. 3 of them already have children. 2 aren't close to ready for kids right now, and then me. One of the men has children.
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I've always worked with mostly men so I can't think of one woman who has taken maternity leave at any of my companies. Pretty crazy since I have had 5 different jobs.
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All the recent mama's at my company have taken the full 12 weeks. It never seems to be considered that they wouldn't. It's more a question of how much vacation time they have accumulated to tack on to maternity leave.
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We have a very new program- I am the first to be pregnant, I took the full 12 weeks.
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My coworkers took 12 weeks..!
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I have the dysfunctional story. One of my old bosses barely took any time - like we're talking a week after she had a c-section (well pretended to, she was still out all the time but she'd open her office and pretend like she was there). When I said I was pregnant it was made clear that that barely taking any time off was expected. They did the same thing to the next girl and she fought hard to get her six weeks and had to have extensive mediation with HR and her boss. But because it was so much drama (not only with leave) she quit soon after she came back from leave since her husband found a better job.
So from my experience those that wanted to take 6 weeks of leave were made to feel lazy and undedicated and it honestly was because it was out of the norm so partly because some women decided not to take that much leave.
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I feel it's important that women take the leave they are offered, if they don't, they do a disservice to all women in their workplace, as maysprout noted above. If your employer offers paid time off, I don't see why anyone wouldn't take it, but I'd love to hear why if someone didn't.
If your employer doesn't or isn't required to offer paid maternity leave and the only option is unpaid, then, yeah, you have to determine the financial hardship/burden in your situation. I feel for women in this situation, because it's really difficult to know what kind of birth you ultimately will have and how your recovery will play out. If you are able to move freely a week after the birth, great, but it certainly wasn't the case in my experience. There was no way, even after 6 weeks, that I could have sat at my desk for 10 hours a day.
Before I left my job, I should clarify that I worked in the US for a global corporation that offered 3 months paid leave. Then I relocated to Europe and was offered 7 months paid leave because I had a long length of service. The government only mandates 3 months paid, but the firm extended it to 6 for those with less than 10 years of service and 7 for those with more than 11 years of service. I took the full 7 months, but a lot of my coworkers extended theirs with additional unpaid leave.
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There has only been one other before me. She took 8 weeks but 2 of then were PTO.
We're not large enough to qualify for FMLA. Even so in NY it will still only be paid for 5 weeks + that fIrst week waiting period unpaid. And that's at 50% and only because my employer paid extra for that policy.
US and NY state maternity policy sucks.I will only be taking 6 weeks plus Monday and Friday the first week I'm back. Unfortunately I only have PTO fOr that first week that's unpaid. Can't afford to take anytime off unpaid.
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I am the first in 7 years to take leave. There are no other women who will be having babies at my work. I plan on taking 12 weeks and my employer, when I told them, were expecting it.
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Four other women have taken maternity leave in the 3.5 years I have been at my firm. Everyone has taken the full leave (8 weeks paid, plus 18 more weeks unpaid for a total of 26 weeks)! I was going to request less time off, but was convinced to request it all and take as much unpaid leave as I could!
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My coworker took only 2 weeks after the birth of the child. She is korean and told me thats her culture to return to work so soon. So I'm kinda irritated at that lol.
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My boss recently took maternity leave and there have been about 5 co-workers in the past 2 years who have all taken the full 12 weeks we are allowed at my job. (It's FMLA but using PTO and is either paid or unpaid depending on how much time you have).
Also, my boss is back, but takes Fridays to work from home. I'm happy that the culture at my job is to take the time.
And I know of one male co-worker who took a month of paternity leave.
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All the Starbucks girls I know took 12 weeks. I can only afford 8 because 2 are unpaid. : (
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Everyone takes 12 weeks or longer here
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I work in a pretty family friendly industry so it's the norm to take a full 12 weeks, especially if you work for a big company (which I do). One of my coworkers is still out on leave after 5 months! That is not the norm though and I don't think at this point our managers actually have to keep her job open to her.
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I only have 1 female co-worker who has taken maternity leave and she took 6 weeks for both of her children. I am planning on taking more time (10-12 weeks) and honestly am a little nervous to take so much time, as I sort of feel like my co-worker set the bar as being 6 weeks of leave.
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I'm the only girl in my department, but ladies in other departments have taken maternity leave. I don't know for how long though, but I don't think it was much since I saw them around the workplace soon thereafter. I plan on taking the 6 weeks offered plus PTO/FMLA. 6 weeks just seems way too short!!
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Everyone I know at my current company took all 12 weeks. I'm not sure exactly what pay they get, but I know it is reduced.
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I'm the first to take a maternity leave at my office (small 6 person office), and I'm taking 12 weeks.
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Quite a few women have given birth while I've been at this company, and the norm for maternity leave around here is 16+ weeks. Most have taken more than that since we're allowed up to 28 weeks, but past the 16 weeks, leave is unpaid unless you have a good amount of STD and vacation hours saved up to cover it.
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I think most people I work with have just taken 8 weeks. I'm planning on 12 weeks, maybe not coming back at all, and I don't think they will say anything negative about it...
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There's been a baby boom in my office but most have taken 6 weeks. I felt as though I was expected to take 6 also but told HR I wanted to have 6-12 on my FMLA paperwork so that I could adjust as needed, depending on how I felt after LO arrived.
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Most of my colleagues in the UK and the US take the maximum fully-paid leave, but then return to work part-time for a few months as a transition, working 3 days a week. It seems to be a nice bridge between home and work for them.
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@looch: I may or may not take the full 12 weeks because I'm a partner and I feel I need to be able to meet client needs and that asking my partners to carry that burden may not be fair.
I don't think it is a disservice to other women. They should be able to take 12 weeks if they want to just as I should be able to take off less time without bing told I'm doing a disservice to others.
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I am a teacher and standard for a teacher in Texas is 6 weeks. I took 8 weeks because I had enough days saved up. Honestly, I can't imagine only having taken 6 weeks!
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Six of my coworkers had babies last year. Almost all (myself included) took 6 months, though only 6 weeks was paid. I'm grateful to them for paving the way. My job isn't guaranteed to be held for me, but I don't think it's going to be an issue. I do think they're doing away with the 6 month thing after me though, because a few people have either not come back or quit shortly after returning. I got in just under the wire!
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This makes me really sad reading all of this! I don't get a single day of paid leave, so any weeks or months I'm off will be on my own dime. That being said, I will have a really short leave.
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I don't qualify for FMLA through my job, and company policy is 8 weeks guaranteed, with the option for an additional 4 weeks, all unpaid minus any vacation/sick time you have. My job isn't guaranteed to be there either. That said, the other two girls to go on leave have taken 12 weeks and come back part time.
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Just because I didn't take a leave didn't mean I set a precedent. Most people take between 6-12 weeks and I was out of the mainstream. I don't feel that I owe it to anyone to make them look better. I could care less what people do and I don't judge whether people take more or less than I did. ( I took 16 weeks the first time).
It's not a war, it's a personal choice and I can't say what's going to work best for someone else.
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@matador84: 6 weeks? Do you work in a public school?
When I worked for 9 years in a suburb of Dallas, mat leave (as per FMLA) was 12 weeks. It's just that the paid/unpaid part depended on how much leave you had saved up from previous years. Sadly, at my old district in Texas, they count 12 weeks from birth, even if they aren't school days (if they are holidays or summer, for example).
Now that I live in NJ, I still get the 12 weeks FMLA, BUT they don't count days that aren't work days. So, since I will be delivering in July, my FMLA days won't start till the first day of school, and then I get 12 weeks of work days after that. Which means I won't have to go back until November 1st or so! Here in NJ, tenured teachers can take an entire year off and be guaranteed their exact position when they return, *or* they can take 2 years and just be guaranteed a position in the school district when they return.
Several of the tenured teachers took a full year. I'm not tenured, so will only get my FMLA leave, but since I just moved from Texas, it still feels like a good deal to me. =)
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Some took 12 weeks but most take 6 to 8 weeks depending on delivery. Some guys think it is crazy I am taking 12 weeks. Whatever! I wish I could take longer.
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@Mrs. Jacks: this!
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Unfortunately at my main job I'm the only girl, not sure what their policy is on maternity leave. At my other job there's mostly girls but I'm still new so I haven't been there when anyone's been pregnant. I plan on talking 6 weeks unpaid leave.
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@MrsTiz: Same! I haven't benefits at either of my jobs so I'm sol if and when I get pregnant!
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I think most of my coworkers take the full 12 weeks or more.
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I know nobody probably wants to be reminded of Canada's policies right now, but just have to chime in and say you are ALl superstars in my eyes!!!! SUPERSTARS!!! I can hardly imagine anyone taking less than the 50 weeks that everyone gets here. Seriously ladies, give yourself a break if you feel bad that you r taking a "long" break:) superstars!!! I bow to you all.
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My school (for profit career college) has only been open for 3 years, and I was the first to get pregnant. Setting up a leave plan with my boss was next to impossible- he kept avoiding me, he was in total denial! In the end I just told him my plan and he didn't argue. I told him I would return part-time after 4 months- I figured I would aim high and negotiate from there, but he accepted it.
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42 comments