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Rising Star
Up late working on a pitch. 5 beers in. AMA.
Rising Star
Ugh. So much work. 😩
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Sounds like you want to get airtight on your rights before telling your boss.
If you’ve been there a year, you are entitled to FMLA, which is 12 weeks of unpaid protected time off. It works in parallel to any mat leave your company would offer. It’s super confusing, but here’s what I did.
My company offers 8 weeks maternity fully paid. I took 12 weeks total through FMLA. 8 weeks of that was paid bc of mat leave - 4 weeks was not bc I was still on FMLA. FMLA just protects your job but it’s unpaid.
I also filed a short term disability claim through my health insurance to get my 60% of pay for 6 weeks for a vaginal birth (8 weeks if you have a c section). File this immediately after you give birth. NOTE- you need to have short term disability on your health insurance BEFORE you get pregnant or get confirmed by your doctor that you’re pregnant, or they’ll deny you bc it was a preexisting condition. ShortTermDis helped close the gap for those 4 weeks of unpaid leave I have. Between all of that, I managed to get 12 weeks almost fully paid.
You may want to talk to someone familiar with the New York family leave act to see how that impacts things. Best of luck! It’s insane all the hoops we have to jump through for this here in the US.
Thank you!!
I work at an early stage startup in NY with less than 35 employees. I was also scared to be lowballed and it was hard to know what was “good” or “bad.” I was their first pregnant worker case. (This was a couple of months ago) They offered me 10 weeks paid which is great for that size. Also noted that we have unlimited PTO so they said if I want to take vacation on top that’s totally cool. They were very supportive (no HR, just the founders). I looked online and an early stage startup selling women’s products offered 12 weeks paid boasting it was the least they could do since they’re a “feminist” brand. So I knew I wouldn’t get more than 12 weeks paid and that was a gold standard. So I was very happy with 10 weeks paid.
I’m sorry to hear the conversation can be difficult with your boss.
1. You don’t have to tell them until you want to tell them. I was 6 months pregnant when I did because I had my performance review late and didn’t want to blur their impression of me.
2. You can announce it to them and then say you want to follow up with a meeting and discuss mat leave policies. (To give them the time to do their research and make their offer.) Tell them you’ve done your research and have an idea of what companies that size offer in the market. I threw in that I know google and Facebook offered 6 months paid and I’m conscious they’re not google and Facebook and that’s ok. I think it just shows you’re aware of competitive brands and have high standards, but also realistic with their company.
Ps. I also dreaded this convo and cried the whole time I announced it 🙈 I feel you! Good luck!
I love this advice! OP this is good info.
How long have you been there?
Just over a year. And I’m in NYC so should be eligible for paid/unpaid family leave, though still trying to figure out how those work. I’m afraid he’ll say he can’t offer anything more than the state minimum (I think 10 weeks) which feels wrong. We’ve also got unlimited vacation but tough to draw a line at appropriate use when adding that on to maternity leave.