Can I Get Maternity Leave if I Just Started a Job
Starting a new job is never easy. Now imagine doing it when you also happen to be growing a human being life inside you. Non just are you lot dead tired and potentially nauseous, but the federal government'due south motherhood go out policy, and that of many employers, makes it uniquely challenging for pregnant women to change jobs.
An estimated 58 percent of companies in the U.S. offering some sort of paid maternity leave, co-ordinate to the Families and Piece of work Institute's 2014 National Study of Employers. (In some cases it may be a single week.) But just because your company offers it doesn't hateful you're eligible. Many employers only extend total benefits, including paid maternity leave, to employees after they've been at the company for a year. That makes it incommunicable for most meaning women changing jobs, who, scientifically, are only pregnant for ix months and would therefore need these benefits before they're eligible.
And whether you get paid leave or not, changing jobs while pregnant comes with no official guarantee of whether your new gig volition be there when you get dorsum: The Family and Medical Leave Deed (FMLA), the federal policy that protects a pregnant woman's job (or a similar job at the same company) for 12 weeks of unpaid leave, also just kicks in subsequently an employee has been at a job for a twelvemonth and only applies to companies with more than l employees. Wondering whether you're going to exist replaced in your post-birth days is a daunting prospect, emotionally and financially, especially when your costs are about to go manner upwardly (hospital bills, child care, diapers, etc.). It can brand it tempting to stay at a place where you've already proven yourself and have logged enough time to quality for any benefits.
On top of concerns about job security and benefits, job-hunting during pregnancy presents an boosted set of anxieties: Will employers guess you on your talent — or disqualify you because you'll be taking a big clamper of time off in the very near future? Pregnancy discrimination is unlawful, but it's nevertheless a persistent source of stress for meaning interviewees.
And so why bother applying for a job while significant? For some women, having a infant is an incentive to discover a more family unit-friendly visitor or pay the bills in lodge to finish college or stay on track in a high-powered career that's all well-nigh leaning in. And, of course, both job opportunities and pregnancies can come up out of nowhere — if a job search or an interview process takes a few months, you might end upwardly pregnant at your final interview, fifty-fifty if yous weren't planning on information technology.
Four women opened upwardly with Cosmopolitan.com about how they fabricated it piece of work.
Yoliyy Gamboa, 22, program assistant at Austin Sunshine Camps, a nonprofit for low-income students, Austin
I got pregnant at nineteen, 2.5 years into higher at the Academy of New United mexican states in Albuquerque. I'd never had a sex ed class. Ever. I was built-in and raised in a rural lilliputian boondocks called Hatch, New United mexican states, and my family is Mexican and actually traditional, then they didn't believe in talking almost safe sex either.
The only options I was seeing were to take my mom take care of my babe until I graduated or quit schoolhouse, which I didn't desire to do. I was majoring in psychology and instruction and wanted to go into education, specifically intervention for lower-income communities similar Hatch.
Everybody laughs at me when I say it, but I didn't want to be another statistic. Coming from a rural community, a lot of girls would get pregnant and give up and go back to their families. I was thinking about my daughter. If I gave up college and she went through the same situation, she would be like, "Well, my mom gave upwardly, why can't I?" That's what led me to say, "I accept to make this work." I had to find a job and pay for daycare or a babysitter to aid watch my daughter while I finished school. My partner, Arik, had come out of the military and was working at a warehouse, just things were tight.
I was already working at Payless Shoe Source, but when I got to be around four months pregnant, and I got bigger, I couldn't do a lot of lifting and the schedule was actually unpredictable, which was hard with my classes. I needed something that would work with school and being pregnant, simply it's really hard to get a part-fourth dimension job that will requite you fourth dimension off afterward labor and guarantee your job when you come back. Once the baby came, I needed shifts that would go out before six, when most daycares close. I did a lot of interviews, and I would always wait until the end to tell them, "I'chiliad pregnant." Every time I would mention information technology, they would hesitate. They'd say they needed people who could exist flexible about their schedule and work long hours if demand be. I never got any of the jobs.
Out of the blue, I got an alumni email from New Mexico MESA, a nonprofit that helps lower-income loftier school students pursue a higher education in science and tech, saying they were looking for a role-time office assistant. It was flexible hours, no heavy lifting. It was perfect. When I went to go interview, I put on a fluffy shirt and kinda tried to hide that I was pregnant. It was my first kid, so I wasn't really showing. Information technology merely looked like I was fatty. I interviewed with the deputy director, and when she asked if at that place was annihilation that would conflict with getting this job, I told her I was iv months pregnant. She just said, "That's fine," and even said I could have time off when the baby came. She asked if I planned to return to piece of work, and I said, "Aye. Of course." I couldn't believe it, but I got hired.
After I got the task, my life just became really stable. I went in whenever I didn't have course, and I even founded the MESA club at UNM while I was significant, to get higher students to mentor the high school kids. I thought a meaning daughter recruiting for a club next to all of the sorority girls would throw off a lot of the students, only it didn't. Sometimes I'd feel sick in the afternoon at work, and I'd accept to go home. But I worked until I started getting contractions about a week before I had my daughter, Arika, on New year's Eve 2012.
I came back to school two weeks subsequently. I didn't get paid because I was part-time, but MESA was great enough to give me a month off to just focus on the babe and school. I did a lot of online classes so I could stay domicile with Arika, and Arik would accept care of her while I did homework. Getting the job at MESA enabled me to not only end schoolhouse, simply actually provide some sort of income for my family. Nosotros moved to Austin recently, and I'm working at a nonprofit, sort of like MESA, and getting ready to start graduate school in August to get a master's in health pedagogy at Texas State. Arika is two years old. She'southward a piffling dancer, and she loves to sing.
After my mom saw me take care of my child and finish school and piece of work at the same time, she says she looks at other girls back in my hometown that are thinking about giving up and tells them, "Yoliyy did information technology. Why can't you?"
Rubina Madan Fillion, 31, digital engagement editor at The Intercept, New York
I started my new job at most 25 weeks meaning. I was working at The Wall Street Journal for almost seven years, and I wasn't actively looking to leave. But when this opportunity at The Intercept, an online news publication, came around, I was intrigued. It was a role with more than responsibility at a company that's doing really interesting piece of work.
When I started talking to the recruiter, I wasn't pregnant nevertheless, and when I started interviewing, I was pregnant but didn't know it. I didn't become the job offer until my second trimester, effectually the time I started telling family and friends I was pregnant. I was really, really nervous about telling The Intercept because I wasn't certain how they'd answer. But when I did tell them, after I got the offer, they were just similar, "Congratulations," and didn't encounter any obstacle at all, which made me really respect the visitor.
I still struggled with whether or not to take the job. I'd spent well-nigh of my 20s at the Periodical. It was a very stable and good job, and I actually liked my coworkers. And of class I was meaning and worried about making another big change. Just when I talked to my mentors, they all told me, "Don't be afraid to take risks. Don't be afraid in general." And when I found out I was having a daughter, I knew she would await to me to be a part model. That gave me some of the strength to go for information technology.
It wasn't until I started that I knew I'd made the right decision. Since it's a brand-new company, they didn't have a motherhood exit policy yet. I was the first significant employee, and so they wrote a policy for me, which will employ to all future employees. They assured me when I got the offering that they would requite me some paid leave, and I formally accepted correct later on that. I was terrified of switching jobs because of issues like maternity leave, and it ended up existence the best thing for me. Near companies, yous take to be at that place for a year just to be eligible for unpaid maternity leave for 12 weeks under FMLA. Simply after iii months hither, they're giving me at to the lowest degree 12 weeks paid, mayhap more than. To say I'thousand lucky is a huge understatement. I tin't even begin to compare my situation to most women'southward. I'thousand completely appalled that most women in this country become no paid motherhood leave. I had ii friends whose companies did not have a very proficient maternity exit policy, who only resigned when they went on maternity exit. It happens all the time.
I ended up at a place that is just really family-friendly. A lot of the people hither have kids, and so if somebody needs to work from home because daycare'due south closed or considering their kid is sick, there's no underlying animosity. It's a startup filled with people who value work-life balance and working mothers.
My baby is due in May. I just started the third trimester. Information technology will be hard, for all the reasons that working in your third trimester is difficult at any chore. Simply I read a few capacity of Lean In when I was trying to figure out what to do about the new job, and Sheryl Sandberg talked virtually women like Marissa Mayer and the YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, that they both switched jobs while pregnant. I recall having those kinds of women having washed it earlier me made it seem similar it was a possibility.
I hope that more women see their peers doing it and follow that same path. My sister, who works at Google, was really happy that I was doing it. She was like, "That's and so great for women. That'south so brave." I remember information technology makes a lot of women really happy to know it's possible.
Cooper Collier, 30, freelance designer, Charleston, S.C.
I was self-employed as a freelance designer in San Francisco, doing marketing designs like Web banners and print ads. It doesn't sound glamorous, just before that, I was in project direction, which I hated. Hated! And so I was finally feeling like, "This is task satisfaction." I'g not dealing with budgets and timelines and miserable people. I was super excited.
Effectually that time, my husband, Nate, and I decided we were ready to have a baby. No time is a good time. Let's just practice it! My freelance stuff became contract work for the stationery division of 1 visitor, and they said, "We want to bring you on full-time somewhen." When I got pregnant, I was similar, "Anything can happen. I'one thousand not gonna tell my bosses, or anyone outside my family, until I'm out of the first trimester, and I've had the big tests and know the baby is basically going to exist OK."
I was actually nauseous through my first trimester and I was going into the office, then that was a little uncomfortable because I was new and everything people were eating made me want to throw up. Just to add some other layer of fun, Nate got a new job in Charleston, Southward Carolina. My boss said I could be every bit effective working remotely, so we made the move across country. Every bit we were settling in, I got my full-time job offering and came on full-time. I really wanted the chore, and it was dainty to have something consistent because freelancing design and contract work can be sort of feast or famine.
Once I was out of my first trimester, I told my boss and she was incredibly supportive and excited. She said, "We'll figure out your maternity leave. Don't let that stress you out." I was nether the impression that I could get six weeks paid time off through short-term disability and the visitor would give me an additional half dozen weeks get out for "emotional bonding," [which is part of California'southward motherhood leave policy]. Only literally the week before my girl, Lily, arrived, my HR rep said, "Oh, no, y'all can simply file for emotional bonding time if you lot're on total-time benefits." I didn't qualify yet because you have to exist with the visitor for a year. My eye sank, because information technology'due south your offset baby and you lot retrieve you have all this time.
In a not-pregnant earth, vi weeks seems similar a long time. Merely I remember ii days afterwards the babe came, emailing my dominate and being like, "I'll come back at vi weeks, but you are not gonna want the work that I am gonna put out." Your brain'due south simply non functioning properly. You're breastfeeding, so you're the infant's full food source. Your hormones are merely rushing out, and you're sleeping two hours a night. Like clockwork, at seven p.m, I would walk into our living room and just burst into tears, because I was so exhausted. I kept thinking, "I've gotta get into a routine, considering I have to become back to work next month." I called my doctor and said, "I'm having such feet. I tin can't focus, I can't concentrate." I gauge fortunately for my absurd hormones my doctor wrote a note to my insurance company recommending that I take the total 12 weeks.
The six-calendar week extension nonetheless had to go through a review process with my insurance company. I was supposed to go dorsum to work on a Monday and the Th before, there was withal no update. I was like, "I'one thousand not prepared. I don't take child care. She can't fifty-fifty hold her caput up. I'g not gonna put her in daycare." Information technology was such a daunting thought. When I got approved for the boosted half-dozen weeks, I felt similar I could finally enjoy this wonderful baby. I got two-thirds of my salary. I know a lot of women got a lot less. If I were notwithstanding a freelance employee when I had the baby, I could have taken six months off, but I wouldn't have gotten paid at all.
When I came dorsum from maternity exit in April, I survived a round of layoffs. This past Jan, I was laid off in the second round. So now I've got child care to recall of and I've got to search for some other task. Finding a task is already a full-time job. And existence a mom is a full-time job. There aren't enough hours in a mean solar day to do both. Looking back, accepting a job while I was pregnant — what I wouldn't give to go dorsum at that place. I'd yet say, go for it.
Christine*, 33, attorney, Richmond, Virginia
I started interviewing in my second trimester, mayhap four months forth. Life was a little crazy at that signal. My husband, i-year-old son, and I had moved from Washington, D.C., to Richmond, Virginia. We're both lawyers with intense schedules, and living in a smaller city was going to be better for our family. Literally the day that I sent my farewell electronic mail to the old firm, I found out that I was significant with baby number two.
I was really worried that if I didn't go a job before I had the new babe, it would really be difficult for me to get a task in Richmond ever. At that place'due south a lot fewer working moms hither than at that place were in D.C., so I was really worried that people wouldn't accept me seriously if I took time off and didn't make a direct switch from 1 job to another. Staying dwelling house wasn't an selection for me. I loved bonding with my son for maternity leave — the nice thing near law firms is they give long leaves; I had 18 weeks with my son — merely I've realized information technology'due south ameliorate for everybody in the house if I'm working. I like having the professional interaction during the solar day and the challenge of the legal piece of work. I worked then hard to be here that I want to succeed, and I still owe money in law school loans. I know that our kids will only be young for and then long, and I don't want to miss anything, but I also think information technology'south going to be really important that I still have a career left when I want information technology.
Considering I was concerned most the pregnancy overriding my merit, I was actually hoping that I could get at least my first interview in before I was noticeably significant. There are not as many women at law firms in Richmond as there are in D.C. and I didn't want to be the token pregnant adult female that they hired just because. I was also really aware, as a lawyer, about the legal ramifications of telling someone you're meaning when you're interviewing. I was really worried that if I said too early, "You should know I'm pregnant," that they would retrieve, "Well, if we don't hire her, she could sue us for bigotry," which plain I wasn't gonna practise, but they don't know that. So I wanted to be upfront with futurity employers about the pregnancy, but I didn't want to tell them as well early that it would put them in a difficult position. And even though there are those anti-discrimination laws that should protect women who are pregnant, you're rarely always going to be able to know whether you didn't get the job considering you lot were pregnant or for some other reason.
I was visibly pregnant when I started interviewing, but you might have just thought I was fatty. I had to buy a new suit that was a size bigger, but I got through the interview without anyone mentioning it. When I sensed that they were giving me the offer, I told them I was pregnant, and they reacted very well. In a lot of law firms, they tend to expect at hires long-term, hoping that this person might be a partner candidate and stay for a long time. In that context, going on motherhood leave in the offset half of my get-go year is just a blip. Yes, I've been pregnant for nearly of the final 2 years, between my son and daughter. But hopefully I'k going to be a working chaser for decades. This is simply a small portion of my overall career.
I started the job last March, at near 5.5 months along, and was merely able to work for about four months earlier our girl was born in June. It was difficult to get assigned to active cases during that short time, because anybody knew I was going to exist gone for a while. And I felt self-conscious about coming together new people while I was pregnant, considering it sort of defines you among new coworkers. You stop up just talking almost your pregnancy a lot. But the work days and long hours during my pregnancy weren't and so bad. There was and so much going on with our son, who was well-nigh xv months old, and working, that I didn't really recall about the pregnancy that much.
I was non entitled to whatever leave, not fifty-fifty FMLA leave, because I hadn't been employed for more than than a yr. But my firm honored the motherhood leave policy as if I had been an employee for a year. I didn't accept to fight for information technology; they offered it up front. I'm happy with the way the firm treated me, but if I had been a legal secretarial assistant or a staff member who is not a lawyer, I'm non certain they would take extended information technology to me. I think that the fact that the business firm hired me while I was pregnant was a really good starting place for my human relationship with my employer because I felt similar they treated me well and they really valued me. Now that I've been back at work for almost 5 months, I've been really decorated and taken seriously.
My mom was a teacher who had summers off and was habitation with the states a lot when nosotros were little. I didn't know until I had my first child whether I would want that too. Simply I'yard a different person. I went to constabulary schoolhouse for a reason. I like being a professional and having kids didn't modify that.
*Name has been changed.
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Source: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/career/a37970/getting-a-new-job-while-pregnant/
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