I am going to be the father of a baby boy sometime between now and December 15ish…
I work for a small company that is not subject to FMLA regulations. Several weeks ago I asked my boss what I could expect to have off when the baby is born and he did not really have a good answer, but told me he was at work the next day when HIS kids were born.
Today he said this is a time to use my vacation. Am I right to be a little pissed? Doens’t this seem a little chincey? The company has holdings of over $60 million, and they can’t get up off of a couple of days with pay for the birth of my child?
Second: FMLA wouldn’t help you all that much, it would pretty much just guarantee you the right to unpaid time off and your job waiting for you when you get back.
Third: This is not at the bottom of the chincey-scale. They could require you to schedule the vacation ahead of time (meaning you’d have to be psychic about the birth date) or just plain not allow you to take the vacation you want. That said, I work for one of those companies that typically make the “10 best companies to work for” lists historically, and they gave me 3 paid days for the birth.
My previous employer had no allowances for time off on a birth. I always thought that was silly considering I got time off for a death in the family. Why no time off for a new life?
Anyway, my boss gave me a little time off without tracking it. I extended his generosity with a few days of vacation. Otherwise, it would’ve been FMLA or Vacation time for all. It was understood that my pager & cell phone would be on for the duration for just-in-case contact.
My current employer has 3 paid days for V-birth & 5 days for C-section. Very nice but rare in my 14 years of working for corporate America.
You’re SOL, my friend. He owes you nothing. You (and a gazillion other workers) are nothing to your employer but a worker bee. They don’t care about you and your personal life. They just want you to be productive, which you can’t be if you’re off making babies. Fuckers.
One of my employees had a baby this week - we’re giving her 6 weeks of paid time; however, I know that’s not a common practice! I’m not sure what we’d give a new father, I’m guessing nada.
Congrats on your upcoming event, newcrasher!
Let’s see…at my last child’s birth, Sauron took two days of vacation.
Of course, the little one was born on a Wednesday so that actually gave us a nice long weekend to spend together before Dad went back to work.
I never have understood why companies won’t allow or don’t encourage husbands/new fathers to take a few days off.
But, then again, corporations are out to make a buck and for every one of you there are 10 others out there willing to take over your job if you don’t want it.
Actually, this is not entirely true. We learned from the Industrial Revolution that reproduction is important. Reproduction allows the supply of “worker bees” to remain at a constant, or increase, which increases “worker bee” supply, which allows lower pay, poorer work conditions, etc.
If you are going to be a big whig, you need to feed your workers bees just enough to survive and successfully reproduce. This is essential.
With my Department, you are allowed to take up to 12 weeks of leave (under the FMLA). You use your sick leave, then your vacation, then leave-without-pay. You keep insurance and have a job to come back to. This applies for births, adoptions, or immediate family illness. No gratis days.
DeVena is correct. The FMLA allows employers to substitute sick time/vacation for unpaid time. Our company is subject to the FMLA, so if you worked for us we would require you to use your accrued vacation time (not all of it, just what you had earned but not used up to that point) and then go into unpaid leave for the remainder of the 12 weeks.
Correction: your employer owes you nothing more than what you bargained for, i.e., what’s in your employment contract. If you started working without a written employment contract, then presumably the term of the contract relating to how much time you get off for a new baby is open to whatever your employer will give you.
If you wanted more time off to have a kid then you could have bargained for it, so it’s really a little late to complain.
What, for pointing out the reality of the situation? Gods and goddesses know I have fundamental disagreements with Taxguy in a lot of areas, but I really can’t count this as one of them. I try my damnedest to understand what is in my contract before I sign it, then insist I get what I am entitled to. But if its not in the contract, I really can’t hold it against them for not giving it to me.
Congrats, newcrasher. I hope you all have great joy.
Mr. Ujest missed all of a half day of work total for the birth of our superior children. As they were born, each on a Saturday (neither planned that way), and I checked out on a Monday, He took off of work in the morning to bring me home and then went back to work.
I urged him too.
There is not alot a new dad can do, if mom is breast feeding. And it takes all of what, fifteen seconds to change a diaper? Didn’t mean he didn’t call 978 times a day to see how things were going.
I just stayed at home, sleeping and nursing.
It’s an amazing time, but you and your wife may want to save that time for when your wonderful child has a doctor’s appointment and you both want to go.
Anyways, your wife may have stronger opinions on it and really, are you going to go anywhere on vacation in the next year with an infant/toddler?
A woman in my company recently requested time off as her daugher had a distressed (as in, on bed rest per doctor’s orders, despite having a 19th month old child) pregnancy and said daughter’s husband is currently attached to Iraq. “Laura” requested three weeks off and the company turned her down, as FMLA by law only specifies “dependent” children. Fortunately for Laura she has friends in the company who have donated to her several hundreds of dollars which shall see her through not only the unpaid vacation time not allocated to her by the company via FMLA but also the unpaid vacation time she shall use while trying to find a new job.
With all due respect, Mr. Chance, I do not see how it costs a company less to hire and train a new employee when the alternative is to allow an experienced and dedicated employee a few weeks off to take care of personal business.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s right.
I’m just saying that corporations will frequently make short-term decisions regarding tactical issues and that one shouldn’t be surprised when they do so.
