cyclefreaks

This is technically a money post, not a baby post, so I'm not putting it on the baby blog...

I've been doing some math. It's frightening, I know. But in order for me to stay home with the baby for the first six weeks of his/her life, I need to save $2300. I will have about 3 weeks of paid leave, which means I have to come up with 3 weeks of pay to make up the difference and us not be starting out in debt.

This angers me to no end.

I want everyone out there in worker land to look at their HR manual and see if their company offers maternity leave. My guess is they do not. Oh sure, everyone can get up to 12 weeks through FMLA, but that is unpaid leave. They won't give your job away while you're gone, but they sure as heck aren't going to pay you.

I remembered helping a professor write a book about maternity leave and how colleges don't offer matarnity leave for professors... they had to take short term disability. I thought that was horrible. Of course, now I wish I had taken out short term disability because at least then I could have SOME kind of pay while I'm off. My first thought was "well, benefit sign up is in November, I can sign up for it then..." but of course not. I'm already pregnant, so it doesn't count.

Cory is checking into how OSU handles it but my guess is they will tell him he can use his FMLA, to which we will respond "OK, thanks" and then Cory will "work from home" or call in sick. I mean, tell me this people... why does anyone get to decide what is an "eligible" use for sick leave? People call in sick all the time when they are hungover, don't feel like working, etc. and that's all fine and dandy because they are lying. HR isn't going to their house to see if they are really "sick" or not. But being honest and saying, "Hey, we just had a baby. I need to be at home. I'm calling in sick." would be against the rules. It's ridiculous. It's a ridiculous system.

The sad thing is most of the healthcare workforce is women, so you would think at least MY end of things would be better suited for this type of thing.

Off the soapbox for now, but i'm serious about looking at your policy where you work. I want to know. And you know, most of you need to know these things anyway. ;) For the future geeks in the bloop!!