My bonus was pro-rated to deduct my maternity leave

[mh86]

Update: they’re saying I don’t get a bonus because I was out over 90 days. I was out 98. This policy was never communicated to me during all the conversations I had with HR about leave. I do understand the logic of not receiving bonus pay during unpaid time off. It negatively affects me so of course I disagree, but I see the logic. I was required to use all but 5 days PTO during my leave so I used rollover vacation, purchased vacation, person days, and all but 5 days of the vacation I’d accrued until the leave started. Overall I had 25 working days unpaid so let’s dock my bonus 1/12 instead of 1/4 yeah?

Original post:

Really tempted to comment on one of our many “In HoNoR oF wOmEn’S hIsToRy MoNtH” posts… way to support women.

Is this typical or should I throw a sh*t storm?

 

[cookiedough7177]

@mh86 Pretty typical and shitty in corporate, unfortunately. At least at all the places I worked at.

Just another way for a company to say that they’re ok with penalizing women for having a uterus and using the family planning benefits that they’re entitled to.

 

[mh86]

@cookiedough7177 This is absolute bull. Let’s forget all the time and effort I put into preparing to be off and getting caught up when I got back.

 

[chadstick]

@mh86 I’m about a month away from starting my maternity leave and am doing the same thing. I’ve been working at least 5-10 extra hours per week for the past 3 months to plan for the upcoming leave.

So basically I’m not getting a true “leave”, just a schedule/workload timing adjustment.

 

[swilson]

@chadstick ....don't do it? Seriously, state exactly this to HR and stop working extra for free. You're doing the rest of your corporation a disservice by setting this unrealistic precedent.

 

[mh86]

@chadstick Exactly! And if you’re salary like me, you’re doing that extra work now and you’ll still have your pay deducted later.

 

[anlytcphil]

@mh86 It’s typical if HR calculates bonus based on working hours. Maternity leave doesn’t count towards that

 

[mh86]

@anlytcphil What about PTO that I was forced to use during this leave? Those are paid days off that I would have used had I not been on leave

 

[abel_emanuel]

@mh86 OP I’m sorry you are going through this.. Same crap happened to me they took my roll over pto along with the time I had left which made sense.. I brought it up that the extra pto I had was rolled over from year prior .. they brought up some shit that I didn’t accrue the time?? 2 days was from year prior..

When I seen the “international WoMens ApPreCiAtion” hr email..

 

[mh86]

@abel_emanuel Wow that’s extremely horrible! I hope you’re not there anymore.

 

[frigga]

@mh86 Exactly. You likely worked a lot of extra hours making sure your leave wouldn't adverse affect your team.

 

[mh86]

@frigga Exactly. They’re they ones that would have been hurt if I didn’t, not the company.

 

[nicolelucy]

@cookiedough7177 The year I gave birth, my employer offered 16 weeks paid maternity leave and I thought that was amazing. I was to be responsible for paying my own health insurance but otherwise I'd get my full check each biweekly pay cycle. Upon returning we had annual merit increase a few months later and my boss dropped my raise from 4% to 1% because he didn't have a full year of performance to critique me on. It still irritates me I didn't advocate for myself more and just accepted their insulting 1% as a non-negotiable.

 

[orthodox_christian]

@nicolelucy Especially because 16 weeks is only 30% of a year so if they were going to do it that way it should've at least been just under 3%!

 

[spiritualseeker1989]

@orthodox_christian This makes sense and is fair. For those arguing that maternity leave is unfair,bthe majority of companies that do this do it for all types of leave. If they didn't prorate it for pregnant women, but did it for someone else on extended leave, the discrimination argument would be on the other foot. It's unfortunate but it's the reality of business.

 

[katrina2017]

@mh86 I’d push back to HR and say something like “I noticed my bonus payment appears to have been adjusted due to my protected parental leave taken last year, can you please advise where I might find the section of the employee handbook that details how this calculation is performed” — this might be a flag to someone to recognize that type of policy is questionable practice?

FWIW, my company didn’t do any sort of proration of my merit award last year, I was submitted via the typical process for the work performed. You

 

[mh86]

@katrina2017 I’ve got an email out to HR already but I like this wording

 

[frigga]

@mh86 Nothing makes me hate corporate America as much as reading the workingmoms thread

All these corporate decisions makers HAVE mothers, right? Or were they all created in a big HR policies lab???

 

[mh86]

@frigga Shit about half of our decision makers ARE mothers!

 

[laila28]

@frigga Right! I'm Canadian. Ohhh does this sub piss me off about how Americans are treated regarding maternity leave etc.