attending maternity leave

[EskimoFriend13]

I'm looking at a job that's kind of a hybrid of employer types. There's an hourly rate and okayish benefit plan they contract with. But I don't see anything about maternity leave. I'm not pregnant but hope to be in the next couple of years. How does this work? Do I just take off work without pay? And if there's a yearly hour requirement, do I have to cram those hours in on the other months? What if I get put on bed rest during the pregnancy? Anyone wanna volunteer to be a surrogate for me? Or turn the human race into seahorses?
Seriously though, I'm a little overwhelmed by all this real world stuff and don't know what is a good deal and what isn't.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Dr Mantis Toboggan]

Unless you work for a big hospital or academic institution directly (no SDG/CMG) and are on a salary I would not expect any maternity leave. For the vast majority of EM docs, no work = no pay. Personally I need to do a better job of saving in case I can’t work temporarily down the road.

 

[EskimoFriend13]

Wow that sucks. I'm already not thrilled about having a parasite destroy my insides. I guess it makes sense, but they have a yearly requirements for making partner and retaining sign on. I don't wanna put off having kids for three years. I also dont want to have to work 200 hours on the other months. I'm sure I'm not the only young female in this situation. Any advice?

 

[bravotwozero]

Wow that sucks. I'm already not thrilled about having a parasite destroy my insides. I guess it makes sense, but they have a yearly requirements for making partner and retaining sign on. I don't wanna put off having kids for three years. I also dont want to have to work 200 hours on the other months. I'm sure I'm not the only young female in this situation. Any advice?

Why not work for a large hospital (directly) or academic institution, like Baylor Health, or Mayo then? I'm pretty sure they can offer maternity leave, without you having to compensate, and you don't necessarily have to be in a research/academic role...

 

[precisiongraphic]

I agree with Bravo that it might be easier to get a job with an organization that already has a maternity/paternity leave policy.

But, if not and you are still in the negotiation phase with a potential employer I'd ask about the mandatory yearly hourly minimum and I'd start by asking what happens if someone is on medical leave. See what they say - it'd be better to find out now that they aren't flexible than after the baby is a reality.

Look at law firms and tenure-track employees to see how other firms handle it. At "big law" firms with a yearly billing requirement (not butt in seat but actual productive work) of 2200 hours (standard), they pro-rate the target hours for the number of missing months. So one can still hit their target billing hours even if off for a few months. These firms also normally have a 7-year partner track and being on maternity leave doesn't impact that (in all but dysfunctional firms).

For tenure track professors, they can take a year off the tenure track so they go up for tenure a year later than expected with the leave year not counting toward the metrics or not counting against the metrics (research, writing, committee membership, teaching).

So if you're negotiating, I'd ask for some type of leave and adjustment of the minimum to recognize that you're gone for a period. It's certainly better than trying to make up the hours with a newborn.

 

[Apollyon]

Wow that sucks. I'm already not thrilled about having a parasite destroy my insides. I guess it makes sense, but they have a yearly requirements for making partner and retaining sign on. I don't wanna put off having kids for three years. I also dont want to have to work 200 hours on the other months. I'm sure I'm not the only young female in this situation. Any advice?

If you describe a child as "a parasite destroy my insides", then, I might suggest to you that children are not in your future. However, if you, in all candor, tell your children just that - that you believe that they destroyed all your insides, well, good on ya! However, I would TOTALLY hate to be that child, that my mother told me that.

But that is just me.

 

[EskimoFriend13]

If you describe a child as "a parasite destroy my insides", then, I might suggest to you that children are not in your future. However, if you, in all candor, tell your children just that - that you believe that they destroyed all your insides, well, good on ya! However, I would TOTALLY hate to be that child, that my mother told me that.

But that is just me.

I was totally joking. Guess it's hard to make obvious through text.

 

[deleted480308]

You will pay for your time off one way or another. Either by missing your paycheck only when you are gone or by finding an employer who will just take an amount out of your paycheck forever to cover the risk of employees getting pregnant

You just have to pick which way you want to pay

 

[deleted547339]

Having kids never works out well, you just do it.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Get a short term disability policy - those often cover maternity leave and are not that expensive.

 

[EskimoFriend13]

Thanks guys!

 

[dchristismi]

Having kids never works out well, you just do it.

That's why I skipped right to grandchildren. Much easier.

 

[The White Coat Investor]

You will pay for your time off one way or another. Either by missing your paycheck only when you are gone or by finding an employer who will just take an amount out of your paycheck forever to cover the risk of employees getting pregnant

You just have to pick which way you want to pay

Exactly. Would you rather make $400K a year and not have maternity leave or make $325K and have it? When it is phrased that way, it doesn't seem like such a big benefit, does it? Plus, maybe that sort of a job attracts people who plan to get pregnant soon so you're having to cover their shifts more frequently than you would at the job that doesn't offer that benefit.

In our group, you pretty much can take off as much time as you want/need for as many kids as you want to have. But we don't pay anything toward it. We do offer a ST disability policy that will cover up to 3 months, but most people just save up money/cut spending so they can afford to be off.

There's no great solution to this. It must be paid for one way or the other.

 

[Tiger26]

Yeah--where I'm at (community site of one of the bigger names mentioned), no work = no pay. We don't have sick days, paid vacation, maternity/paternity leave, etc. We scheduled an induction (at 40 weeks though) to coincide with my schedule for this reason