Adventures in maternity leave

My job has been a difficult fit from the get go. Initially, I had a lot of reservations about taking. Being pregnant and unsure of how it fit into my career goals, I caved when they met my salary expectations and offered very good benefits.

One of those benefits is maternity leave. I knew going in that as an employee who would be with the company less than a year before giving birth I would not be able to apply for FMLA job protection, which also requires employers to give employees 12 weeks off for maternity leave.

I was very upfront from the beginning of the process. I made sure the headhunter knew I was pregnant and that the company knew. I was also very frank about a requirement - 12 weeks off, even though I would not be guaranteed it through FMLA, I would not take the job unless I got 12 weeks off.

My headhunter came back with "That should be fine, the director of the department says their maternity coverage is fantastic. Beyond competitive." And I was uncomfortable with this, because it was not written out, but I ignored my instincts.

So when I started, I tried to get this hammered out even more, discussing my wishes with the head of the department. Even though I wasn't eligible through FMLA, I still wanted it. 12 weeks unpaid time off. I offered some flexibility - I'd work part time for home for the last few weeks if that was preferred. I could compromise a little. I wanted 12 weeks off. And I did not want to use my 3 weeks of paid time off to do it, as I'd prefer to save that for emergencies that generally arise with two kids, as well as a family trip in November. The director took very careful notes and nodded.

And then I discussed the situation with HR, and was very frank and transparent about what I wanted, and the fact that none of this was a surprise, as the head hunter knew, the director knew, and this had been on the table since before I was hired. And she nodded and took very careful notes.

And then I got my maternity leave offer today. And it's 6 weeks off. Unpaid. Using up all of my PTO. So the company is really giving me three weeks off. It is the exact opposite of everything we talked about and what they knew I wanted. I feel like I got slapped in the face. I feel like I was just told that I am of no value to them.

In my first month I was publicly applauded at a company-wide meeting for going above and beyond. In my first two months I received emails from the CEO and COO in response to a company-wide email I sent, applauding my positive energy and asking me to keep it up. Having now been there four months, I am the only person in my position who has worked in multiple departments on major projects, including producing a video designed to land a multi million dollar account. I'm the VP of Marketing's go to person for copy editing and rewrites, and I'm ghost writing online content for a lot of the higher-ups. None of which is part of my job, and none of which effects my performance at my actual job description.

I got so flustered when I got the maternity offer, I had to physically sit on my hands to keep from firing an email back. This weekend I am going to write a proposal for a compromise that involves me working from home part-time for an extra six weeks, but my heart's not really in it. I'm so offended by this. There was no context, no "We know this isn't what we discussed." Nobody ever said, "What you're asking for is very unlikely."

And the reality is I've come home in tears and upset about how much this job is not what I wanted, how hard it is to adjust. I wrote some of it off to hormones, and my plan was to stick it out, try to move to a position in the company that would be more comfortable for me and my skill set. But, now I just don't know if it's worth it. Particularly when a woman who has been there for almost ten years listened to my predicament and told me to, "Run, screaming."