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Saturday, July 26, 2008

Work is back on - lovely

I finally managed to track down boss at 11:35pm on Thursday night. He had Friday off so it was literally the last chance to figure out what the hell was going on with my proposal to return to work on Monday -- of next week! -- with partial stay at home and going into the office as needed.

Here's the deal - I can work from home for 2 months as long as I come into the office frequently as needed. Then I got the inquisition of - am I going to continue doing my job as before with trips and travel? A question that I'm sure has never been asked of a man who has just had a child. I was told that now I have 2 jobs, as a mom and director and would I be able to do both jobs? It felt like a job interview.

Considering husband and I have decided he will be stay-at-home-dad Monday - Friday (look for his blog to pick up a ton of action soon!!!), working as a dog trainer on Sat & Sun, I will be able to travel M-F. I assured him that my brain hadn't shriveled and died with 5 weeks home with baby and that I could definitely do my job with the same skill and success as before.

Sheesh!!!!!!!!!!! Let this be a lesson to all you young women just getting out of college. 7 years servitude at a company in Florida with less then 50 people, working 60-80 hour work weeks, traveling 3-4 weeks at a time to Asia several times a year, sacrificing personal time on vacations and holidays DO NOT buy you job protection post maternity leave. Employers with less then 50 employees can question your ability to do your job and terminate without cause. Let that be a lesson to all of you. If you want job protection, work for a 50+ person corporation.

If you want paid maternity leave, the following states have the best coverage - New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and California.

7 comments:

Grit said...

i agree! if he met a new father, he wouldn't have asked ... basically you shouldn't go through that ordeal, and your changing family shouldn't be held up for you to account for. all good luck for what looks like a challenging transition.

R. Molder said...

Thanks Grit. I'll be okay; I know things will settle down once I'm back to work and prove my brain hasn't fizzled. I just needed to rant and rave a bit.

crazywildberry said...

I guess I don't need to tell you that (I think) you are working for an idiot who should count his lucky stars to have an employee like you. HE should have been the one finishing this conversation well before (literally) the 11th hour of the last day prior to your return. Ugh! What was he thinking? I hope all goes well your first week back and that you dazzle him with your awesome (non-shriveled-up-brain) abilities!

R. Molder said...

Well at least I got permission to work from for 2 months.

Potty Mummy said...

You guys in the US really need to sort this out. Or, alternatively, get a job in Europe. Preferably in Austria, where apparantly they get 2 years maternity leave on FULL PAY! (I don't speak German - and Husband pays the bills, so thank heavens I don't have to go that far...)

R. Molder said...

Yeah for all our freedoms we sure have some poor support laws. The worst has to be the high cost of health care - over 67 million without. Our taxes are lower then say Canada which offers health care to all and decent maternity leave. Maybe I'll move to Canada for #2. Or perhaps any of the 4 states that offer benefits. One thing is sure, I'm planning better for #2.

I've heard Norway offers 2 years as well. Some very interesting choices.

crazywildberry said...

If I had worked full-time before baby #1, I would have only have had to work 3 months before getting maternity leave again. That sounds pretty good to me. Austria and Norway are starting to look inviting to me too. LOL!