Maternity leave benefits?

I've contacted HR here in Washington and they've told me to wait until I get closer to my due date which didn't make any sense to me.. I just want to have everything in order.

Your job should have a company policy manual or a policy manual specific to maternity/paternity.

I'll have to call them again.. I just feel like every time I call its a dead end

Do you have any coworkers with kids that you can talk to and figure out what they did? Sometimes it’s hard to connect with HR but keep being persistent. I had a meeting with HR two weeks ago and they haven’t sent me any paperwork yet. They also suggested waiting but I told them I want to fill out everything I can as early as possible. Going through HR paperwork during the first week after baby comes is stressful!!

I don’t think you qualify for FMLA if you’ve worked under 1 year at a company. But the company should hopefully have a maternity leave they can tell you about or PTO / sick time you can use at the very least. If not, some jobs also let you use short term disability if you pay for that benefit already.

I've heard you do qualify as Long as you've worked a certain amount of hours in a year idk that's what I saw on the fmla site

It could be different with each company. I know my company doesn’t offer any paid maternity leave unless you’ve worked for at least a year. I’ve seen some discrepancy about if they will pay for 6 weeks or the full 12 weeks so I have to contact HR as well.

@Chloe Yes, I think it’s 1250 hours within one year. With a typical 40 week schedule, that would be around 7 months of work. You can call the wage and division hotline to confirm if you’d qualify.

@Hanah N. Stupid question but do you know the phone number ? I'm sure i would qualify. Before this I worked full time at the hospital..

My company doesn’t give me FMLA (I haven’t been with them for a year yet) but they do ensure that everyone gets short term disability from Day 1 working. So I get to tap into that to provide 100% salary coverage for however long my doc says I need to be out (we get 26 weeks of short term disability and hoping I can get 8-10 weeks from the doc for recovery).

My company said I qualify but since I am already pregnant it’s to late to enroll in my benefits because they wouldn’t start til August so it’s technically a pre existing disability (my pregnancy). They knew what they were doing and screwed me over.

@Aisha is short term disability leave paid? I should look into that.. are you in Washington?& @Ambreana the stress that it causes is so real, I wish I could be easier and more stress free..

FMLA isn’t paid leave. It is unpaid protected leave and requires that you’ve worked at least 1,250 hours within the past 12-months at your current employer to qualify. Some states like California have paid family leave and short term disability where you receive partial payment. Otherwise paid leave is up to employers to provide as a benefit.

My short term disability in the State of NY is full coverage of my salary. Not partial. The university pays for. I pay a small amount for long term disability. It may be state/company dependent.