Anyone work a little during their maternity leave?

[lowcountrywed]

I'm going to have to have the dreaded conversation soon with my boss regarding my maternity leave. I want to take 12 weeks - maybe stretch the end into partial weeks. We are a small company and I am the only person who does my job or can do my job. I'm wondering if any of you did small amounts of work, either from home or went in the office, during your maternity leave. Or even if you didn't, do you think this is a feasible situation? It should only be a few hours a week. Also, I know every situation and baby is different, but when realistically could I start doing this? 6 weeks? 8 weeks? Sooner?

I'm a public relations coordinator for a nonprofit, so a lot of this will be writing and launching electronic newsletters, maybe writing and sending a press release here and there. The occasional web update. All stuff I should be able to do from home.

Also, how did you work out getting paid? I won't get any paid leave, so I'm guessing that getting paid by the hour is the best way.

TIA for your input!

[kiki61872]

i worked during my leave. i brought some stuff home but most of what i do needs to be done in the office. like you i work for a nonprofit and there are a few aspects of my job where i am the only one that knows how to do it.
i went in a few times as well as bring stuff home. my boss just paid me for any hours worked - i'm salary but payroll figured out my hourly rate and paid me accordingly.

[cpbride8203]

I worked from home while on leave with my DD and plan to as well with #2. I started doing it about a week after we got home from the hospital. Everything I needed to do could be done from home while I was plugged into my work PC, so I would do things at odd hours. I probably worked a total of 6-7 hours a week.

My leave was 12 weeks and was completely paid, so I did not ask for extra compensation but instead took 5 extra vacation days when I got back and used those to take off one day a week when I first came back from maternity leave.

[Lil_Mrs_0702]

I am also planning on working some while I am still on maternity leave. We are moving into a new building and I will be moving the paper work in so it will be all set when they come back. I figure that I was in the perfect position to volunteer and they will let me bring the baby in there with me since I won't have anyone to really disturb. I think it's a nice way to ease yourself back into working.

If you are not getting paid leave I think you can just get paid by the hour or by the job.

[EJH]

DP worked from home a ridiculous amount on her maternity leave. This will be bitter because I'm still so angry about what happened.

What was supposed to be a small basic website design project turned into massive project requiring hours and hours of work. I can't tell you how many times she was up working until 2AM during those 12 weeks.

She agreed to do the "small" project before she left, and they were going to pay her for the time that she worked. However, it turned into a big project, she worked way more hours than had initially been agreed upon (but she worked these at the direction of one of her bosses). Anyway, HR decided she worked too much and no, they wouldn't being paying her anything after all. Um. Excuse me??? She didnt' want to be working all those hours!!!! She did what she was told. Whether or not her boss went through the right channels of HR is not her fault and she (we) should not be "punished." Her other boss basically has said to make up for it she can take whatever time she needs, whenever, and not count it out of the vacation bank. It's something, but they truly owe us thousands of $$$ and well, it stinks.

In the end it was worth what she did. The company has since gone through a layoff and she was kept, and is currently in the process of a promotion. Her doing this work while out showed them a commitment to the company. In my mind though, it's just another way they've taken advantage of her.

It kept her mind fresh though, which was good. If you do decide to work from home, make sure that everything is really very clearly laid out before agreeing to anything. ALL sides should be aware of what is happening.

Erin

[tgr68]

I work at a library and our summer program had just started when DD was born. I took the week of her birth off, then went in once a week for the program activities!

[Winter Biscuit]

I did some work here and there, in order to comp some time for later, but I set the pace. My boss would have loved it if I had done more work, but I was very adamant about not wanting to do much - if any - at all. All but 10 days of my 12-week leave was fully paid. However, I was required to use all my remaining vacation time before our salary continuation kicked in. This means that when I returned to work in March, I was going to have NO time off until July 1. I felt it was in my best interest to comp enough time so I could take time off if my DD got sick or something (which she did - she had an ear infection 2 months after I returned to work which required me to stay home with her). I comped a total of 2 days, so 16 hours, and the work was spread out over 3-4 weeks.

[villanelle75]

I work at non-profit as well. My coworker did this durign her maternity leave, both workign form home and comign in for a few hours a few days each week. I beleive she just used that tiem to extend her total maternity leave, which, to my knowledge, was paid. So if she worked 5 weeks roughly 8 hours/week, then she in effect got an extra week of maternity leave.

[ginadc]

I'm a freelance writer so I don't get "maternity leave"--if I don't work, I don't get paid! I've tried to cut back a little on my assignments, but it's been challenging. Since we adopted, it was hard to know for sure when I'd definitely be "out"--I had scaled things way back last fall, when we were matched with a birthmom due in mid-November, but then the baby came nearly two weeks late, and the birthmom ended up deciding to parent. So all of my scaling back was a bit for naught...and I didn't do as much of it this last time, so of course things did work out.

Anyway, so I'm working from home with significantly less efficiency than I was before, but working. I think it's actually easier when she's this small (she's one month old tomorrow) than it will be when she's a bit older and more mobile. My current plan is for half-day day care starting in the fall; crossing our fingers that we can get in to the really fabulous day care run by the early childhood development graduate program at our area university.

[psusna]

I worked during my leave. I'm in PR too and we had our big charity golf tournament for the local Habitat for Humanity chapter during my leave. I worked approx. 2hr/day 2 days/week for 1.5-2 months. I also had to do a lot of running around picking up auction items and just took DS with me. I'm salary so didn't expect any pay (I had LOTS of issues with my leave. Our HR dpt. is horrid) but in the end my boss worked out a very nice "bonus" for me.

All of this went on while DS was 2-3 months.

[bluebunny]

When DS was about 5 weeks, I started working a few days here and there. I worked from home a couple of times and went into the office about three times for almost full days during the course of my ten-week maternity leave. Knowing that it was only for a short time made even the full days (6-7 hours) okay.