I work for a Fortune 100 company in the U.S. My corner of the company is more mission driven than others, and my work is technical and stimulating, so I've found reasons to stay over the years.
The maternity leave benefits are good for the U.S., but that doesn't mean much -- six weeks paid leave, plus short term disability at 60% pay (6 weeks for vaginal birth, 8 weeks for c-section). Going on maternity leave means using up all your PTO to supplement your 60% paycheck, just so you can afford to buy formula and clothes and all the expenses that come with having a baby.
I had my first baby this past fall. My 29-hour labor was traumatic and excruciating, and it ended in an unplanned c-section. One of my most vivid memories of the whole thing is lying on the operating room table and happily realizing that I'd get an additional two weeks of short term disability by virtue of the fact that I was getting my abdomen cut open instead of having a vaginal birth. As time has gone on, I've realized how messed up that is -- instead of being 100% focused on labor and the baby I was about to meet, I was thinking about my stingy maternity leave benefits.
A few hours after my baby was born, I was on the phone with my disability benefits administrator, notifying them of the birth. Literally hours after having major surgery, as I lay in a hospital bed, I'm speaking with a random stranger instead of basking in the joy of being a new mom. How indignifying. And over the next few weeks, I spent hours and hours on the phone with the benefits administrator, working to correct a litany of errors caused by their incompetence.
As the cherry on top, when I returned to work after putting my 3-month old baby in daycare, a male superior commented on my baby weight.
So I found a new job. I'm moving to a new company that values working moms and provides 2x better maternity leave benefits. To be clear, there are other reasons I'm leaving my company. But I can't shake the memory of staring at the ceiling of the operating room as the OB pried my abdomen open, thinking "oh goody, two more weeks of leave!" I deserve better than that. Every mom deserves better than that.
The maternity leave benefits are good for the U.S., but that doesn't mean much -- six weeks paid leave, plus short term disability at 60% pay (6 weeks for vaginal birth, 8 weeks for c-section). Going on maternity leave means using up all your PTO to supplement your 60% paycheck, just so you can afford to buy formula and clothes and all the expenses that come with having a baby.
I had my first baby this past fall. My 29-hour labor was traumatic and excruciating, and it ended in an unplanned c-section. One of my most vivid memories of the whole thing is lying on the operating room table and happily realizing that I'd get an additional two weeks of short term disability by virtue of the fact that I was getting my abdomen cut open instead of having a vaginal birth. As time has gone on, I've realized how messed up that is -- instead of being 100% focused on labor and the baby I was about to meet, I was thinking about my stingy maternity leave benefits.
A few hours after my baby was born, I was on the phone with my disability benefits administrator, notifying them of the birth. Literally hours after having major surgery, as I lay in a hospital bed, I'm speaking with a random stranger instead of basking in the joy of being a new mom. How indignifying. And over the next few weeks, I spent hours and hours on the phone with the benefits administrator, working to correct a litany of errors caused by their incompetence.
As the cherry on top, when I returned to work after putting my 3-month old baby in daycare, a male superior commented on my baby weight.
So I found a new job. I'm moving to a new company that values working moms and provides 2x better maternity leave benefits. To be clear, there are other reasons I'm leaving my company. But I can't shake the memory of staring at the ceiling of the operating room as the OB pried my abdomen open, thinking "oh goody, two more weeks of leave!" I deserve better than that. Every mom deserves better than that.
