This issue has been a hot topic at my job since I started in 2007. We are currently allowed 6 weeks of paid leave at full pay and an additional 6 weeks of time off which are paid at about 1/4 of our pay through state disability. We do not accrue vacation so no unused vacation or sick time may be added to maternity leave. Compared to some employers, this may seem generous. Compared to other businesses in this field competing for the same employees, this is a very unimpressive plan.
Many of the women (and some of the men) at my job have been lobbying for an improved maternity leave policy and a new paternity leave policy. The suggestions range from 12 weeks of fully paid leave plus accrued vacation of at least 4 weeks to 18 weeks of fully paid leave.
I have been told by the powers that be that this policy will be changing soon. I am hopeful this is truly the case. I will keep you updated as I learn more.
For now, I'm crossing my fingers!
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A positive change of policy would be very nice.
ReplyDeleteWe'll keep our fingers crossed.
Congratulations on the photogenic kid.
Love,
Jose Luis
With our firstborn, there was no maternity policy in place. He was born in late summer, and I had to start teaching at the end of September. I spent the entire quarter worrying about daycare and feeling guilty for the time I had to spend away from him. At the time we were commuting each week to the Bay Area, my million mile baby did beautifully, but I was a mess. His Dad literally had to put us on the plane to return to OC because I didn't want to go.
ReplyDeleteI now have a lecturer in my department who is expecting her first baby at the end of May. The maternity policy here is that she is freed from teaching the following semester with full pay; the expectation is that she will come in for meetings and have a normal service load during fall semester, but will not have any teaching responsibilities. I met with her to discuss the policy and to encourage her to take the semester off from teaching with full pay and spend the time with her new daughter. She has told me that she wants to teach full time!
As a compromise, I've also offered to give her a partial teaching load, but she thinks that would be unfair to her colleagues. I tried my best, to no avail. Love, dsn