Do you kill yourself before taking maternity leave?

amother

Sat, Feb 18 2023, 9:28 pm

I wanted to know if it's standard for experienced, decently-paid office people to have to kill themselves and have to put in insane overtime in order to be able to take off 12 weeks.

amother

Amber

Sat, Feb 18 2023, 9:34 pm

For sure not. I transferred all my work to a coworker a few weeks before my due date and was able to train them on completing it for those few weeks. The last week they had no questions and I was just doing random work to keep myself busy.

stillnewlywed

Sat, Feb 18 2023, 9:35 pm

No. I worked on transferring my work a few weeks before and was actually told to just do nothing the last week and see if the other girls were handling my work load.

amother

Darkblue

Sat, Feb 18 2023, 9:36 pm

amother OP wrote:

I wanted to know if it's standard for experienced, decently-paid office people to have to kill themselves and have to put in insane overtime in order to be able to take off 12 weeks.

Nope.
But I think you know the answer and just want to be validated.

Sending hugs during this incredibly stressful time!

amother

Heather

Sat, Feb 18 2023, 9:37 pm

The only person I know who does this is in a managerial position and practically runs the company.
I feel terrible for her, and think it's really unfair, but with her kind of responsibility it's really hard on the company when she leaves. Obviously she's getting a very nice salary.

amother

Burntblack

Sat, Feb 18 2023, 10:32 pm

I'm a teacher. Overdue now. I wish I could check out already. My sub is all ready and prepared to go. I can't imagine taking off before due date for sure. Now I feel like I technically could because I'm due already, but still can't imagine actually doing it. It's gonna be hard for my students, and they won't learn as much.
I think that if it would be any other job, I would take off already.

Eventhough I can get 12 weeks paid family leave they only let me take off 6 weeks. They let me take the rest in the summer, but I can only take 6 weeks after baby. I guess in a way it makes sense because in the scope of a school year 12 weeks is a lot. But I wish I can take maternity leave till I feel ready to go back.

amother

DarkPurple

Sat, Feb 18 2023, 10:52 pm

No definitely not. I actually mostly phoned it in the last week or 2 (not saying that's normal either just the nature of my job)

amother

DarkPurple

Sat, Feb 18 2023, 10:53 pm

amother Burntblack wrote:

Not sure what this means
They can't not let you take the full 12 weeks
Legally they can get in big trouble

miami85

Sat, Feb 18 2023, 11:27 pm

I wouldn't say I "killed" myself, but my employer is short-staffed as it is and there's a shortage of people qualified in my field, and I was going on maternity leave right before the busiest time of year in my field, I did my best to do as much as I could before I left.

amother

Strawberry

Sat, Feb 18 2023, 11:29 pm

No, it's not good to do that.

I'm a manager at a large corporation, and I told them my baby may come early, and started copying everyone else on emails, saying things like "I want you to know what I'm working on in case I have this baby tonight", and they got the hint really fast. By the time I was 6 months along they only gave me work that could be done by the end of the day.

Remember, no job is that important. Your health comes first. (saying this as someone who gets very stressed about work and money.)

amother

NeonPink

Sun, Feb 19 2023, 12:18 am

amother Strawberry wrote:

You sent those emails before six months? How early was your baby?

amother

NeonPink

Sun, Feb 19 2023, 12:19 am

amother Amber wrote:

how does it work, how can a coworker take on the load of two people?

Highstrung

Sun, Feb 19 2023, 12:27 am

I did not pressure myself. What I did do was type up what I referred to as “Highstrung’s Bible” with step by step desktop procedures and instructions of every detail of my work. This way , any person replacing me could self train.

amother

Burntblack

Sun, Feb 19 2023, 12:42 am

amother DarkPurple wrote:

Not sure what this means
They can't not let you take the full 12 weeks
Legally they can get in big trouble

It means that as a teacher it would really not be ok for my students to have a sub for 12 weeks. I get that. If I'll insist on taking 12 weeks, they probably won't want to rehire me. Legal or not, the standard in teaching is to get 6 weeks maternity leave and 8 if c-section.

I'm not mad about it. Just wish I can take off already and go back not exactly 6 weeks after, but when I feel up to it and baby has good schedule and babysitter.

Now with pesach coming up, I won't have to go back exactly 6 weeks later.

amother

Narcissus

Sun, Feb 19 2023, 1:44 am

amother OP wrote:

I wanted to know if it's standard for experienced, decently-paid office people to have to kill themselves and have to put in insane overtime in order to be able to take off 12 weeks.

I'll provide the other perspective. Yes, as a manager of a team in Corporate America, I do put in a fair amount of overtime prior to my maternity leaves, in order to leave my team in good shape while I am out. That said, overtime is an expectation of my job, regardless of maternity leave - but I put in more overtime before maternity leave.

Iymnok

Sun, Feb 19 2023, 2:02 am

amother Burntblack wrote:

In Israel maternity leave is 16 weeks. The teachers take that too. There is a new teacher for that time. It works. That’s also how new teachers get their foot in the door.

amother

Aqua

Sun, Feb 19 2023, 3:52 am

Yes, but I live in Israel and receive 15 (not 16, lymnok) paid weeks of leave. However, that leave's payment is calculated by the average of the past six months' salaries, or the past three months' salaries, whichever is higher. They then take that average, divide it to get the per-day average payment, and multiply it to get the sum per day for 15 weeks.

So whatever extra hours I put in before I give birth I get compensation for in my salary that month, and then also in my maternity leave payment later on. And the higher the maternity leave payment, the more money I have while on leave and the higher chance I'll be able to go back after 16-18 weeks instead of after just 15 weeks.