Maternity Leave Discussion

I am currently 27 weeks PG. I have a meeting scheduled with my boss tomorrow morning to discuss my plans for maternity leave and how they will cover while I am out. I am the finance GM for a smaller subsidiary of a large company so my staff is about 6 people but I am very heavily involved with day to day stuff. I am doing my best to ensure that everyone is cross-trained but know that they will still rely on me to answer questions, review things, etc.

I feel that under other circumstances I wouldn't mind helping out here and there. BUT, my company is only paying me for 13 days of maternity leave and 2 weeks vacation (so a total of about 5 weeks pay). I am taking 12 weeks leave. My feeling is that since they are so graciosuly taking me off the payroll, I really have no inclination to be their "on-call" manager while I out on leave. My boss has been very good to me over the last year and I really think that if I come up with some compromise he may be willing to work with me so that I can still take the time off in exchange for some flex arrangement whereby I can start getting paid before the 12 weeks is up. I really do want 6-8 weeks of off-time. No calls, expectations, meetings or anything. The last month I'm sure I can compromise if they gave me an incentive.

So, my question is, do you guys have any ideas as to an arrangement that I can propose to him tomorrow? As it is the last 7 weeks of my leave is completely unpaid and that is assuming I work untiil I have the baby. It is a huge financial hit for us but my feeling is that I work so hard and I really need to take a "break" and do this for myself and our new family. Any advice? I feel that it would be better if I can go in there and propose something as a starting point. TIA Sorry so long.

Re: Maternity Leave Discussion

I can kind of relate with the expectations from work so I think this is what I would do. I would make detailed list of your day to day responsiblities along with all the projects you are working on and how much of your time they normally take. I would then let them know how you have distributed some of this work and to who. Then I would start the conversation of no matter how much I cross train or train I am sure that I will still need to be somewhat involved and ease into the conversation that way. From the sounds of your responsibilities they are going to welcome the fact that you are willing to give them some of your time in the last 6 weeks. Good Luck!

Re: Maternity Leave Discussion

what about offering to be a consultant during that time? Just for phone calls. You will track the amount of time you spend (even if it's just an hour for a week) and bill the company that way? consultants can make $250+ an hour. It would be a nice way to bring in some money.