Balancing a thriving career and the demands of motherhood is no easy task. Join us on Coffee and Career Hour as we unpack Armine's experience while navigating maternity leave, postpartum, and preparing to go back to work. Armine's experience underscores just how vital maternity leave is for both mother and baby, offering insights into how varying company policies can influence the duration and quality of this crucial period.
For those navigating maternity leave policies within their own companies, this episode is a must-listen. We explore essential strategies such as meeting with HR representatives, understanding paperwork, and familiarizing yourself with key laws like the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA). Practical tips, including maintaining an email thread for important deadlines and leveraging resources like the Employment Development Department (EDD) website, provide listeners with a roadmap to smoothly manage their leave.
This episode delves into the nuances of disability insurance benefits, family bonding periods, and the flexibility they may offer. Armine's candid revelations about her personal transformation and new identity as a mother offer a heartfelt connection for listeners, with an open invitation for ongoing support and conversation. Tune in and gain not just knowledge but a sense of community and shared experience.
Balancing a thriving career and the demands of motherhood is no easy task. Join us on Coffee and Career Hour as we unpack Armine's experience while navigating maternity leave, postpartum, and preparing to go back to work. Armine's experience underscores just how vital maternity leave is for both mother and baby, offering insights into how varying company policies can influence the duration and quality of this crucial period.
For those navigating maternity leave policies within their own companies, this episode is a must-listen. We explore essential strategies such as meeting with HR representatives, understanding paperwork, and familiarizing yourself with key laws like the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the California Family Rights Act (CFRA). Practical tips, including maintaining an email thread for important deadlines and leveraging resources like the Employment Development Department (EDD) website, provide listeners with a roadmap to smoothly manage their leave.
This episode delves into the nuances of disability insurance benefits, family bonding periods, and the flexibility they may offer. Armine's candid revelations about her personal transformation and new identity as a mother offer a heartfelt connection for listeners, with an open invitation for ongoing support and conversation. Tune in and gain not just knowledge but a sense of community and shared experience.
Welcome. Welcome back to Coffee and Career Hour. We're excited.
Speaker 2:
Happy June. It's June 1st. Well, you guys will be listening to this on like June, I think 4th. But happy June.
Speaker 1:
Happy June. Exciting. It's like it's not officially summer yet when you look at the seasons. But you know June is pretty much summer.
Speaker 2:
June is summer. There's a lot of things happening in June. One of those is we get to have Armine back in our office, which I'm so excited for.
Speaker 1:
Yes, I am actually returning to work after my maternity leave at the end of this month. I can't believe six months has flown by.
Speaker 2:
Oh, those like couple of days, those like 30, 40 days that I was away from you in the beginning felt longer than this. So the six months has flown by for me.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I think the 30, 40 days, because it was like you know, I was going to work every day, we would see each other every day and then all of a sudden it got cut.
Speaker 2:
It was horrible. I don't recommend. I do not recommend I love it.
Speaker 1:
I do recommend taking maternity leave if you are having a baby, absolutely.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely yeah, so why don't we kick it off? This episode is going to be for those who are maybe pregnant, currently thinking about having a child, but also those who are in your career. Right, for women it's really difficult. I mean, we all can relate to this in some type of capacity and us thinking about having kids and how that might impact our work and the work that we do for society and our jobs, and that takes a toll on ourselves. To something definitely that I'm thinking about for the future as well.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, honestly, I've been. You know any resource that I've been reading, even on social media, like resources that I come across. There's a lot of information out there and it's pretty consistent, about how women do end up having more of an impact when they have a baby. You know, yes, maybe the man in the relationship will also have it. Of course they're going to have an impact as well. They're having a child, but at ultimately, when it comes to like how it affects your career and your long-term goals and long-term success, it does end up affecting women more.
Speaker 2:
Um, you know, it's it's just the reality of it yeah, and I think that that's so important from the moment that child begins, no matter how you're being impacted, to show them how dedicated you are to them, right, and one of those things you already said in Armanet is taking maternity leave, and you are already showing your child that you took six months right on a pause of your career so they can have a healthy and strong start to their life here on this world with us too a healthy and strong start to their life here on this world with us too.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, and I will say that I'm lucky that I was able to get six months. I know that that's not always possible, depending on where folks are working and their company and their policies, but thankfully I was able to get six months. The standard is definitely less than that and we're going to get into some of the technicalities too. The standard is less than that and so, depending on where you're working and what your company dynamics are, you may be able to get longer around six months. Seven months is a sort of the average from what I've been gathering from people that I've talked to as well. Some people are able to get longer, like I know someone who's maybe potentially going to get about eight months, so it can be a little bit longer. But what I've been gathering from just word of mouth, a lot of people tend to get around six months.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, so why don't we kind of start off this episode, arminia? Why don't you just talk to us about your experience taking maternity leave, so, and I guess the story kind of starts right around a little bit before you started taking it.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, definitely, wow, it's definitely been a journey. So if we're looking at some of the technicality of it, the first thing that when it started to feel real was when I actually was filling out the paperwork, and this was before my due date. This was about two months, maybe a month and a half, before my due date. Before that, when I was ready to announce to my employer that I was pregnant. That was all fun, you know, you just announce, and we generally talked about what that might look like, but there was no concrete steps taken until closer to my due date. I would say that I talked to HR. I would recommend this this is one thing I would recommend to everybody is talk to your HR representative and you might want to set that meeting up with your supervisor along with the HR representative, depending on how your company functions. But in my case, I ended up meeting with our office HR rep and the HR rep from the human resources department at UCLA, so it was two HR representatives within the meeting, representatives um within the meeting, and they were able to explain all the policies to me and send me all the paperwork for an advance than when I had to submit it, and it was all um, via email. I do want to preface that too. Like you definitely want to have an email thread of like when your estimated due date is and what forms you need to fill out and what policies your company follows, because it does tend to help later on when you need to fill out and what policies your company follows, because it does tend to help later on when you have to go back and, like, remind yourself what conversations were had. Definitely try to have an email thread of everything as well, but I would set up the first things first. Once you announce it and have have it all out there, set up a meeting with your HR rep to get all the information that you need From there on. When it got closer to my due date is when all of the actual technical processes happened.
Speaker 1:
So, depending on the company that you're working at, your company may qualify for different things Depending on the size. There has to be a certain size, a certain number of employees for your company to qualify for the policies right, certain number of employees for your company to qualify for the policies right, and so that's one thing to consider. Another thing to consider is you have to be working at the company for at least one year in order to qualify for these benefits as well. Wow, yeah, if you're changing jobs and recently, you know, around the time when you're going to try to take maternity leave that might pose a challenge if you don't have the benefits set up yet in that sense. So, things to consider yeah, thanks to consider, but I'll give a general rundown of what some of the policies are and then we'll provide resources as well. Sure, yeah. So, mj, have you heard of the Family and Medical Leave Act, fmla.
Speaker 2:
No, I have heard of the Central American FMLA, which I was jokingly telling you about before this. That exists in El Salvador, but I have not heard about this one here in the US. Tell us more about these laws and policies that you've had to navigate yourself.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, definitely so. Fmla is probably the most popular one that most people might have heard of. Or if you're considering being pregnant and, like your Google family or maternity leave, you're going to come across FMLA. That's probably going to be the first thing you come across. That FMLA is the Family and Medical Leave Act and it actually is a federal law that allows an individual to be an individual, to have their job covered or protected while they're on maternity leave. So the actual law itself is for unpaid job protected leave, right. There is also the California version of FMLA, which is the California Family Rights Act, cfra, so FMLA and CFRA together if you are living in California. Of course, every other states will have their own state laws, so you might wanna check out your own state laws as well. Fmla, obviously, is federal, so in my case, I had both FMLA and CFRA and these are both unpaid job protected leave. Essentially, your job, your position, is protected while you're on maternity leave for a certain amount of time, which we'll get into. Any questions about that, mj, how's that sounding?
Speaker 2:
It sounds good to me. Luckily, I don't have to think about these things for a while. But, armanay, when I do have a question for maybe someone who's navigating this for the first time when you were researching this, what were the things that you were searching for and what? What resources did you look at more than others? How did you know to vet different information online, because there's so many different things that you could find?
Speaker 1:
Oh yes, oh my gosh, it gets overwhelming for sure. What I was searching for was family sorry, maternity leave laws in California. That was the most common theme of what I was looking for. The most trustworthy website is the EDD Employment Development website that one. Obviously it's a government website. It has a lot of trustworthy information. But also I trusted my HR. I talked to them because they know what you need to do for their company and what laws the company falls under. I would recommend someone to do their own research.
Speaker 1:
I watched a lot of YouTube videos as well. People were, you know, to kind of have someone explain these things in layman's terms so I can understand them better, but what I gathered. I would then ask more questions to my HR rep, because sometimes they would just like acronyms like this is what you qualify for, and then I would, you know, have clarifying questions or say, based on my research, this is what I'm understanding and they would clarify it. So I would definitely say trust your HR rep because they know what your company qualifies for, but also do your own research. There's so many YouTube videos as well, just to get more of a basic understanding of it. I think the YouTube videos helped, but to obviously read from the ADD website and we're going to link this resource on the podcast show notes, you can get all of the clear, like clear information from the ADD website.
Speaker 2:
Another question for you too. Were you meeting with your with, I guess, our HR representative of the institution routinely, or was it just a few meetings here and there routinely?
Speaker 1:
or was it just a few meetings here and there? We had two meetings. It was not routine. I don't think it's necessary to have routine meetings. They give you kind of all of the basic rundown in one meeting and then, when it got closer to the time and I had to fill out the paperwork, I had some additional questions. So I followed up. So, yeah, I don't know that you need a routine meeting, but I know other folks in our company as well who were going through the same process. They had a couple of meetings with the HR reps as well, because there's going to be questions.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and for our first timers is the HR rep once. You kind of tell your supervisor and I know we have an HR rep in our office but is the HR department supposed to come to you? Are you supposed to initiate the conversation there with them for our first time? Moms out there.
Speaker 1:
I would initiate honestly. You got to ask for what you want, so, and you sent like an email.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I sent it to our office HR rep and she connected me to the HR rep from the main HR office and that's how our process works. But, depending on the company and if you have an in-office HR rep or not, regardless it doesn't matter you would still want to connect with the HR office. I would recommend people to call their HR office and ask like who is the specialist for maternity leave, and get their information and send them an email directly, and you could also funnel this through your supervisor, if that's the protocol at your office too. Nice, cool, yeah, so with fmla and cfra, I'm still with acronyms it's been six months and I'm still like questioning. But with FMLA and CFRA you also get.
Speaker 1:
It's great to get job protection Right. Of course, that gives us peace of mind knowing that our position will be there waiting for us when we're ready to return. But there's also you want to consider if you're going to get wage replacement. Thankfully, in California, going to get wage replacement. Thankfully, in California we do have wage replacement. I believe some states have different rules and regulations and so you definitely want to check your state policies, but in California we do get wage replacement and so we have the disability insurance and the paid family leave act, the PFL. Those two work in conjunction with your FMLA and your CFRA, so those two are protecting your jobs and the other two are giving you wage replacement.
Speaker 2:
That's a lot of stuff. Working together for this one person, that's a lot.
Speaker 1:
It is, and so, depending on your company, you might have to apply to the disability insurance separately, in case I had to. So UCLA works with a different sort of an external company that does this paperwork, so I essentially just had to fill out the paperwork for that company and our HR representative kind of took care of the rest. But I know there are companies where you basically just apply directly to the disability office, the EDD office, and so even on the EDD I looked it up just to see what the process was. It was actually very clear and everything could be done either online or in person. They mail you the form, but obviously online was faster and what you can do is you log in, you create an account on the UDD website and essentially you fill out like I'm applying for disability insurance. You click that button. It takes you to that location. It's very actually, to my surprise, very easy. The way it was done, yeah.
Speaker 2:
Do you know if there are any? So I'm also thinking just about, like individuals who may just need extra layer of security or like reassurance in this process. Is there an office you think that can help or somewhere where we can go like women can go to receive support and going through all of this paperwork? I know sometimes that makes some of an office you think that can help, or somewhere where we can go like women can go to receive support and going through all of this paperwork? I know sometimes that makes some of us a little bit nervous because it's a bunch of legal terminology.
Speaker 1:
In my experience I don't know of any person, any resources personally, but I would say your HR office should be able to support you in filling out this paperwork so they'll let you know, right, like if you have to go fill it out on the ADD website. Specifically, you can ask them questions like how, as you're filling out the application, if questions come up, you can ask your HR office. They would know. If they have their own paperwork like in my case then you would essentially just they would know because it's their own paperwork, like in my case then you would essentially just they would know because it's their own office paperwork. But I would stick to your HR representative. I don't know of any other outside resources.
Speaker 1:
Okay, um, so there are some policies around your pay, your wage replacement. Essentially it depends. It all depends on your due date when you're filling out the paperwork and it all depends on whether you are having the baby naturally or, like vaginally versus a C-section vaginally versus a C-section. That's going to impact how long you get disability insurance for. So the general rule of thumb is, for the disability insurance you get, six weeks after baby is born, six weeks of pay.
Speaker 1:
If it's a vaginal delivery versus if it's a C-section, you get eight weeks of pay Full pay so it depends on your company. For example, in my case, it was 60% of your salary, but depending on your company, it might have more or less Now and this is the stuff that your HR representative will be able to tell you, based on how your company functions Besides your six to eight weeks postpartum, there are new policies around you being able to get additional weeks prior to delivery. Oh, wow, yeah. So this is a little bit new, because I remember having this conversation with my supervisor, as well as the HR rep, as well as researching it on YouTube and learning more about this. So it's essentially two to four weeks before your delivery date you can take maternity leave in addition to the six to eight weeks.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome Because it gives you time to prepare for the baby or, if unexpected situations happen, you're ready at any cost.
Speaker 1:
Yes, definitely, so I think it's actually a really great one. In my case, I planned to take two weeks before my due date, and I did, thankfully, but my baby was born one week before my due date, and I did, thankfully, but my baby was born one week before the due date, so I ended up having just one week before delivery, which was so great. I was able to prepare everything, thankfully, and was ready when he came. Yeah, so then you have your, you know, prior to your due date and then postpartum six to eight weeks. But then, depending on how you're healing, right disability insurance is for your medical situation. You are giving birth.
Speaker 1:
Regardless of how you give birth, this is a medical situation. So, depending on how you're healing, you're going to have a six week or eight week follow up with your doctor, your gynecologist, and they're going to check you and, depending on how you're healing, you may need more time to heal. And this is where your doctor will determine if you're ready physically, medically, emotionally, to go back to work. They will ask you questions. Your doctor vets also psychological well-being as well postpartum depression, anxiety, those kinds of things. So they will ask you a series of questions and essentially kind of gauge and ask you.
Speaker 1:
My doctor directly asked me are you ready to go back to work? So once you have that conversation with your doctor, that's where it's determined, you know if you need more time. They provide a doctor's note. So you follow up with your company and let them know that, whether if you need more time or not, and that's where, depending on how long your doctor says you need, right, and it could be. It's not like the set in stone thing where, like your doctor says, ok, you need five more weeks, for example. Like the set in stone thing where, like your doctor says, okay, you need five more weeks, for example, it could be that once you get those additional five weeks, if you're still not ready to go back, then you get in, you go to your doctor, they vet you again and there could be longer period extended depending on your situation and you're still getting paid for that time the percentage that you agreed, that you understand that your employer is paying you yes, because this is for the disability insurance.
Speaker 1:
Okay, so once your doctor, then you know if if they give a doctor's note to extend it or not. Whatever happens there, when the time comes that you're actually cleared to go back to work by your doctor, then you will get into family bonding, which is the other piece of this. After your disability six to eight weeks, you are eligible for wage replacement. This is 100% paid family bonding wages 100% of your salary is paid. Wow, yeah, and this one is up to 12 weeks.
Speaker 1:
Now the interesting thing about family bonding is that you don't have to take it all at that time. You can actually go back to work. Let's say, if you decide you want to go back to work after the six to eight weeks or however long it takes for you to clear and get ready to go back to work, once you're medically ready to go back to work, you go back and then you're still eligible for up to 12 weeks of your family bonding for a year. Within a year you could do those intermittently. Some people take it intermittently and maybe a couple of weeks here, a couple of weeks there. Some people go on a hybrid schedule where they'll work it out with their employer and do like break out that 12 weeks into like, I'm just going to work part-time for a few weeks until they exhaust their family bonding um, or you could okay, and who decides how long that?
Speaker 1:
what that looks like your employer um, essentially, in my case it was essentially like what I needed and I had that conversation. So if it's up to 12 weeks, but 100 paid is up to eight weeks at least that was for my company, but depends on your company's situation. So they asked me okay, you get 100 paid for eight weeks if you want to take all eight weeks at once. And then this is where I had to ask for clarification because I was like, oh, my understanding was it was up to 12 weeks and that's where they clarified that you could take up to 12 weeks, but the last four weeks either you would have to use paid a vacation and sick time, or you can go unpaid gotcha gotcha. If you don't want to take up to 12 weeks, you could just finish up with your eight and sick time, or you can go unpaid Gotcha Gotcha. If you don't want to take up to 12 weeks, you could just finish up with your eight weeks, right, and go back to work at that time. So it just depends on your preference. Okay.
Speaker 2:
Wow, you make it sound very easy to navigate, which is insane, because I know there's a lot of different terminology and legal policy around this as well, and it all depends on every woman's situation, right? We have no, yeah.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it was very confusing and overwhelming at first but I think, like once you break it down in your mind like this is how I processed it and understood it in that level right, the paperwork really wasn't that bad. I think maybe I was expecting more complication with the paperwork. That's why I was like, okay, it's not as bad as I thought. It depends if your company is organized and they know what they're doing, which most companies, especially if you work at a large institution. They've dealt with this many times, so they know the paperwork in and out right.
Speaker 1:
That's why I think for because UCLA has done this so many times with their staff they know it's easy. Maybe if you work for a smaller company or it's like a new company who maybe hasn't dealt with this as often, it might be a little bit more complicated, as your employer is trying to navigate all of this too, but regardless, I would say ask questions. There's so many resources out there even just to like simplify the material for you. So the American Pregnancy Association is another resource that you can use for information. I use some apps as well where there's like discussion boards. You could also ask in those discussion boards. For example, what to expect is an app, and they have a discussion board. They also have a lot of other information for pregnancy and childbirth, but the discussion board on what to expect has been helpful in general as well, so you could ask these questions and have a conversation with fellow pregnant women.
Speaker 2:
That's awesome. So you're not alone in the process, no matter what.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and I would say one thing that worked for me was actually reaching out to other people in my office who did go through this process. So ask your coworkers, ask folks at your company who you know might have gone through like recently, maybe in the past couple of years, if you know they went through it. Generally, people have been pretty open to like sharing their experience and that's been really helpful for me to know to to kind of navigate this process as well, knowing like what they did or what challenges they faced.
Speaker 2:
Sounds like you did some informational interviews, huh yes, I did.
Speaker 1:
You see are all like you know you could do them even outside of the career exploration process awesome all right, armenay.
Speaker 2:
Um, some other questions for you are what is, what are some of your tips for first time moms, as you are yourself to a first time mom navigating this space once you're getting ready to go back to work?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, you know, I'm not going to lie, it is definitely a whole, especially if it's your first child. It's an identity shift like that that would even cause more challenges and stress. But even if things go smoothly, baby comes around the time they're supposed to come and you do all the paperwork and stay as organized as possible to try to minimize the stress as much as possible, it's still going to be an overwhelming process because you're going through an identity shift. I would recommend trying to stay as organized as possible to at least minimize the stress in whatever you can control, right, but the rest of it one day at a time. And find your community, find the people that you feel comfortable talking to, whether that's online or in person. Therapy I have embarked on that journey as well. I think therapy is has been really helpful for me and processing like this new identity shift.
Speaker 1:
I am now thinking about what it's going to be like going back to work as a mom, right, because I would say the past six months, especially the first three months, I felt very much in limbo, like even when the baby would nap. I would feel like what do I do with myself? Because baby's napping for an hour, maybe two, and it's like there's so many things I could be doing in those two hours. I would would feel frozen, like what should I do? Should I take care of my basic needs? Should I take care of the house? Should I think about my career? What should I do in those two hours that the baby is napping?
Speaker 1:
And then, once they wake up, you start the cycle again with feeding, changing, playing and going back to, like, nap time again, right, you basically live your life in three hour increments and I still feel like I'm in limbo, but it's definitely decreased. But the first three months was definitely more just like in limbo. Identity wise. It's a big shift, so I would say, take it one day at a time, expect it to don't expect yourself to go back to the person that you were once you're healed, right. I think maybe I was expecting like okay, once in six weeks, like you heal and you're physically you've healed, then you're like gonna feel normal again and for a while I would feel like this is temporary, I'm gonna get back to normal, and then I had to realize like no, this is the new normal, like there's no going back to who I used to be.
Speaker 2:
That's a lot. That sounds insane. It sounds like you've transformed. I mean, of course, you transformed because you became a different, you have a new identity, but it's a lot of different transformation to happen in a six month period.
Speaker 1:
It really is. That's why I would recommend folks to try and take as much time as possible, but everybody's different and maybe going back to work is going to help you actually navigate this, this emotional journey, better. So think about this is what I would recommend for my listeners our listeners is think about if going back to work is going to help you process these emotions. Think about if going back to work is going to help you process these emotions better, or if staying home with your baby is, depending on who you are and how your family dynamics are and your financial situation and all of those things are obviously going to be a factor in this formula. But I know some folks will say like I'd rather go back to work earlier because I feel like myself again, I feel normal again, and so that's one thing to really think about.
Speaker 1:
But whatever pathway you choose, I would say know that this is going to happen. You're going to feel in limbo, you're not going to feel like yourself. And so now me going back to work. I'm thinking how am I going to combine my working identity with my motherhood identity? Because I've gotten into a little bit more of a flow with motherhood now and it's ever changing. As your baby evolves, you're going to evolve too, but going back to work is going to be a new form, like a new piece of the formula, piece of the puzzle that I have to put into. So we'll see how that goes.
Speaker 2:
I don't know yeah well, armanay, thank you so so much for bravely sharing with our listeners your experience on your maternity leave and you embarking on this new identity. We appreciate you and I, oh, and I know for sure you are more than happy to speak to respond to any listeners' thoughts or anybody who comes across this episode, as they're also embarking on this journey too.
Speaker 1:
Yes, definitely Feel free to reach out. Even if it's more just as a sounding board, someone to just listen to, I'm happy to be that soundboard for you all. Or if it's for informational resources, happy to provide that as well. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
Well, thanks so much, armanay. Thank you everyone.
