Friday 12 June 2015

If you leave, don't leave now...

Sadly, I'm old enough to remember when Bill Clinton signed the Federal Medical Leave Act (FMLA) into law, and it was considered a legislative victory and represented progress for women's rights. Twenty plus years later, it's widely recognised that FMLA protection is rather inadequate as it only secures one's job while he or she takes twelve weeks of unpaid leave after the birth or a baby, adoption or need to care for an ill family member. Additionally, FMLA is rather restrictive as one must be a full time salaried employee for at least one year at a company with more than 50 employees  in order to even qualify. It is projected that 40% of employees are not even eligible for FMLA protection. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver recently broadcast a brilliant piece on the shitty state of maternity leave in the United States, and he featured some clips from the opposition to FMLA, which sound so familiar. There were claims that it would "cost jobs" and it was a "suffocating regulation being shoved down the throats of businesses and families" (from a female Congresswoman). Tom Delay, who many will remember was indicted on charges of conspiracy to violate election laws among other dodgy allegations, claimed the bill was "unfair, invasive, anti-business, anti-growth and deathly expensive". Yet less than 10% of business expressed any negative effects about complying with FMLA mandates. California broke ground in 2002 with the introduction of a Paid Family Leave, which provides partial pay for six weeks and is financed through payroll taxes. Over 90% of California businesses report a 'positive' or 'neutral' impact of the paid leave. As John Oliver describes, "It's like having an ice hockey game on at a bar. It's not bothering anyone and some people are actually really into it."

When I first spoke with the Disability Specialist (DS), I took note that she seemed reluctant to offer any information and only replied to specific questions. It would seem that she were just lazy or incompetent, but now I appreciate that she is a very diligent employee who has probably been trained to be evasive. She wouldn't tell me how much leave I could take, only that it would depend on my eligibility, which couldn't be determined until I submitted my request. I was instructed to apply for my leave 30 days before the intended date. As my latest ultrasound had revealed that my placenta is moving and my delivery date could be pushed out, I emailed the Disability Specialist to ask if it would be better to file 30 days before the earliest possible date of my leave and then change the date as needed. She never wrote back to me and as my office manager kept asking if she should open my schedule for another week, I decided to say 'fuck it' and planned to file a week later with the hope that I would need to change the date and would create extra work for the DS. At last when it was 30 days before my intended last day, I clicked on the weblink that the DS had sent me so that I could sumbit my request online. I couldn't get passed the first page before the site crashed. Repeatedly. I tried calling the 800 number that was listed, but after waiting on hold for twenty minutes, I had to leave a message. I called again and waited for another 20 minutes to no avail. When I didn't hear back from anyone at the end of the day, I called the DS and received her voicemail. I left a pissy message indicating that I did not want to have to work past my intended stop date and did not want to have to take unpaid leave just because her department didn't have their act together.

The following Monday, I finally reached the DS. There was no mention of my prior messages or email. She took my information started the process of my leave application. Two days later, I received a formal letter from her. According to my paperwork, I was approved to take six weeks off from my delivery date. She had already slated my return to work date, which was exactly six weeks to the day from my original due date. As that date falls on a Thursday, I would be expected to return on a Friday. As in 'don't be cheek enough to think you can take one more day and restart on a Monday...' The icing on the cake? She mentioned that I could use my PTO time, but according to her records, I had zero hours of stored PTO to apply. Cue freak-out from an emotional, hormonal pregnant woman.

I just couldn't escape the feeling that I would get screwed over by the process. I am a hard working, tax paying citizen who has never had to use the system, let alone have any idea how to work or manipulate it. One of our affiliate offices hired a new doctor who was about 4 or 5 months pregnant when she started working. She only took 6 weeks off,  as she wasn't eligible for California benefits since she hadn't been an employed state resident long enough. I've been a full time employed resident of California for the past 8 years and I have all the receipts to prove that I've paid my taxes. I realise that she has to put something down for my return date, and it was probably arbitrary, but it's hard to believe that when you're looking at an official looking document that also states how you can be penalised if you don't return to work on your anticipated date. Still it felt insulting. As if this was all the time I was allowed to take, six measly weeks, which I know is a reality for many new mothers. She was proposing that I take the shortest possible time as I needed to get my ass back to work right away. What was so aggravating, is that thanks to my cousin, I am aware of the paid leave options provided by the state of California. Why was she seemingly so reluctant to let me know my leave options? FMLA allows me to take up to 12 weeks. I wondered how many employees wouldn't challenge this letter and would only take 6 weeks off. She doesn't actually work for our company, so there is no benefit if I take less leave, which is financed by payroll taxes and does not accrue costs our company. Actually they probably save money as they're not paying my salary while I'm out, although they lose the income generated from my productivity. Maybe she was offered some incentive to screw me over.

I sent her another email and I revealed that I had a family member who is a Human Resources director and had discussed my leave options, including California's Paid Family Leave. Her simple response: "that's a different leave. You'll apply for that when your disability leave finishes". I wanted to write back to ask when or if she even planned to discuss this leave with me and why any mention of it was omitted from the forms in my 'Leave Packet'. I sat on my hands to prevent myself from writing such a message. Firstly I figured that she would just reference the extremely vague and confusing handbook that can be downloaded from the company's intranet. Secondly, until everything is complete, it's probably best not to completely piss her off. I emailed the Bean Counter to inform her of my intended leave, which included my Pregnancy Disability Leave, Paid Family Leave and my 4 weeks of PTO, which I knew were available to me. Much to my surprise, the Bean Counter actually asked the DS to remove the arbitrary return date as she did not want my schedule to be opened, which could lead to booking erroneous appointments for patients.

The California disability leave also allows pregnant women to start their leave four weeks prior to the due date. I've always held a certain admiration for women who work up until their due date. One of my colleagues in Connecticut started contracting as she finished seeing patients in the afternoon session. We hooked her up to the office monitor and she finished her charting while banging out contractions every 3-4 minutes. Once she was done, she walked over to Labour and Delivery to be admitted and her baby was born later that night. Over the past few weeks, I've developed an apprehension as I leave the office each night. If I had to be taken out of work, how many tasks would I be leaving for others to finish? Thus, it's become a push not to leave anything for the next day. All my billing, results reconciliation and other correspondence must be complete each night. I realised that it would actually be less disruptive and less of an imposition to my colleagues to have a set end date, even if it does mean starting my leave earlier. Additionally, there really is no benefit to working longer, except that it's more time get paid on your full salary than partial disability pay. I've heard some patients say "I'd rather work up to the due date to be able to take more time off after the baby is born", but the four weeks prior to the due take is a 'take it of leave' it proposition. You can't apply it to the leave after the baby is born. My new mantra; don't be a hero. It's better to leave on your terms.

It's funny how over a year ago, I was longing to be able to take a maternity leave as I was starting to feel burnt out. As my work load has been much more reasonable, I no longer feel such a need to escape. Since I entered the work force, I've never taken longer than two weeks off at any given time. I fear I'll lose a little of my identity during my leave. I'll miss my patients. I wonder how many office policies and procedures will change while I'm gone. I wonder how rusty and out of sorts I'm going to feel after four months off. Mostly, I wonder how lonely it's going to feel going back to work without Jate. I've grown accustom to his or her company.

11 comments:

  1. I actually came to he same realization yesterday, that I should leave work on a specific day even though I don't want to have all this time off before Ivy comes so I can use my time off to be with her. But my husband and I (we work at the same small company) decided staff could use a firm end date instead of an ambiguous one, so our last day is next Wednesday (and Ivy is due next Saturday).

    I'm sorry about your HR issues! Women shouldn't have to work that hard to get information - they deserve a little more than that!

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  2. I'm jealous of your four months as I only got 3 months off....but sadly that is better than some other women have it. Insane. I want to slap the DS. Here at my company it's just as hard to get information about maternity leave and the policies are flexible depending on your boss. I'm glad that you got it figured out and have an end date for work.

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  3. 4 months sound amazing. Sounds like you really went through the ringer to get them though! Glad it's figured out and your leave is insight!

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  4. DS is a straight up bitch. Why is she acting like your leave is coming out of HER paycheck? Ugh, I can't stand that. I'm impressed you were able to hold back the snark on replies to her (though I can see why you had to do that since she does hold some power at this point).

    The sole silver lining to my c-section (you know, besides the fact that it saved my baby's life) was that it gave me 2 "extra" weeks home that work paid for. And that's just so sad. I remember being so frustrated trying to defer my student loan payments when the loan representative kept demanding to know the exact date I would return to work. I said, "6 or 8 weeks after the baby comes, which could be anytime." and she just didn't get it. So eventually I too had to just make it up. Bureaucracy!

    Maybe eventually the US will get their act together on this. Maybe.

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  5. Ah, the leave dilemma. Sounds crazy to work right up until you are in labour, but I understand the motivation when there is SO little time with baby allowed. Under my mat leave rules moms where discreetly encouraged to take "sick leave" prior to the birth (which gets full pay) which then allows them to start mat leave right at the time of birth (meaning longer mat leave). As a healthy mom that didn't apply to me, so I ended up setting a date (I could have tried to convince a doctor that I was sick and couldn't work, but that just didn't sit right with me). But your procedures seem a lot more confusing. What a pain to have to deal with all this bureaucracy when you probably want to be focusing on birth and life with Jate. I hope you get the full maternity leave, which is still way too short IMO. And I hope there is political pressure to reform the laws. I don't see how mat leaves will kill jobs; they should actually create temp jobs for the people filling in.

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  6. That John Oliver piece was both hilarious and immensely disturbing. Until I joined the blog world and made friends with American moms I had no idea how absolutely horribly US moms have it with the mat leave situation. However, I also believe that HR people worldwide are idiots when it comes to advising you of your entitlements. For instance, my pay specialist never once told me that I needed to apply for unemployment insurance online after Q's birth in order to be entitled to my top-up payment from work. I was either supposed to just know that, or (in my case) find out from other work mom friends. If I hadn't, all my payments would have been delayed while I went back and fixed it. They do the same thing when people in my department move for work; they don't tell you all the individual allowances you are entitled to for moving expenses, you just have to know that you can get them and make sure they're paid to you or else you're shit out of luck. It's ridiculous, it's like they're trying to save money by hoping people won't ask for what they're entitled to. Anyway, I'm glad you're in one of the states that has its head as least halfway out of its ass on the mat leave issue and that you'll get a good chunk of time home with Jate. Who will be here SO SOON I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!

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  7. How aggravataggravating is your DS? I can't believe how shady she is. I'm glad you settled on a firm date, if my circumstances weren't what they are, I'd work up to my delivery date as I'm trying to save all my leave for when the baby gets here. Mainly to save on daycare costs. I wish that we had better maternity leave, I'll get almost 16 weeks, but I'm using all my PTO; Christmas vacation is going to be short this year. My poor husband gets 3 days; I'm tempted to tell him to go back to work while I'm at the hospital so he can be at homE with me and the baby those first days.

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  8. Sorry it's been forever since I commented - been definitely reading but things have been a bit crazy around here :). I have exactly the same thoughts about maternity leave, and I LOVED the John Oliver piece as well although it added to my growing anger about maternity leave in the US (on top of the anger I already have about having zero coverage for our infertility - now I get to be pissed off about benefits before and after). I still don't quite understand how my leave is going to be paid out though my company and short term disability - I just know that I'm getting screwed somewhere in here. They definitely do not make any of this easy to understand, and I consider myself, like you, a pretty intelligent and detailed oriented person. So excited that Jate will be here soon!

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  9. That DS is a piece of work. Ugh, maternity leave sucks. I can't believe how she was acting. I'm hoping everything works out. You get to meet your baby soon!

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  10. So jealous you get four weeks off prior!! That's at least a nice state allowance. But I agree, maternity leave is really stressful and confusing. So many different rules and regulations.... There's the federal laws but then that also differs my state leave laws. So confusing!

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  11. It straight up pisses me off how difficult it was for you to get your leave figured out, and with no help whatsoever from the one person that SHOULD help you! Ugh. Glad you got it straightened out, and that you don't have to go back after ) weeks!

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