All of my experiences using my extensive benefits were great, until my husband and I decided to have our first child.
First: the maternity leave rules were hard to find and harder to understand. I had to read, then re-read, then email HR, then email HR again for clarification on their previous email before I finally understood what leave time the company would pay.
Second: After having a great experience with all my other benefits and finding them more than adequate (especially for the area), the maternity leave benefits (or lack thereof) were sorely dissapointing. There is no *true* benefit.
Employees are allowed a mere 12 weeks per FMLA which the company is required to follow in my location. They do not allow leave beyond what they are federally required to allow.
Leave compensation: After requiring the employee to use 2 weeks of their personal leave, the Short Term Disability program will pay 75% of the employee's pay for 4 weeks. That's it. That's all. Nothing else. Any other time you take and want to be paid for, you must use your own leave store. Oh, and extra bonus: when you get back to work and have 0 hours of leave accumulated because you took it all on maternity leave - you have to build your leave back up to 32 hours and maintain a minimum balance of 32 hours before you take any additonal leave OR you can be dinged for it in your performance review (which affects your annual raise and bonus). When you earn 7 hours of leave every 2 weeks, that means you're not supposed to take leave until 10 weeks after coming back from maternity leave. Anyone who has ever put a child in daycare understands how impossible that is with all the germs going around and very immature immune systems.
Flexible Work/Leave Options Available to New Parents: None. There are no reduced schedules, flexible schedules, or telework options offered (unless you were grandfathered in on the very small pilot program years ago). Additionally, there is no increased leave offered.
