New Job Advice....UPDATE

[denna]

<UPDATE> I contacted my new supervisor this morning (I start Monday) and asked if he had time to go over my maternity leave. I am his first civilian employee (he's active duty military) so hes new to all of this too. I provided him w/ the opm link to the maternity leave section. And I told him I was planning on asking for advanced sick leave and that this required 30 days to process. He then replied that he supports whatever I need to do, and just let him know what dates I'll be needing. :) Thank you guys so much for all of your advice and support I really appreciate it.

Keep in touch!!!


Okay, so Ive been working at my new job for about a month and a half now. The job was given as temporary (not to exceed 2 years). After working here only a couple of weeks I was offered another job much better pay and benefits and its permanent employment. Of course I accepted this offer w/ no hard feelings from my supervisor. Well this coming Monday, 6 March is my first day. I am just a little nervous well because of obvious reasons but also because Im due in April and will be having to go on maternity leave just a month after starting a new position. I will be gone for 4-6 weeks. I know not very long...but what can I do. But then my husband and I were planning on taking vacation time at the end of August. You see we live overseas and my husband is in the military. This will be our families first chance to see the baby. Im just nervous about approaching my new supervisor w/ all of this, you know?
Oh, and the other thing (I forgot to mention) is that I have to request advance sick leave (no more than 30 days) if I want to get paid while on maternity leave. Federal employment doesn't offer the benefit of paid maternity leave. So...all of this is quite a dilemma for me. Especially since the advanced sick leave has to be approved by my new supervisor and is no guarantee.
Well I just wanted some advice on how to approach all of this with my new supervisor. Thanks for listening...

Denna

[karolyp]

Hi Denna!

The only advice I can offer you, as another fed employee, is to get started on your leave plans with your supervisor right away as some paperwork will probably need to be filed for the advanced sick leave request...and paperwork can always take some time. I know you're nervous, but I'm sure your supervisor will understand. It sucks that we don't get paid maternity leave...but that's a whole nother thread!!! Anyhow, can you use the the family medical leave act, or do you have to get paid? Also, what I did to strech out my leave (and perhaps you can use these too) was to come back part time (so I used 20 hours of SL and worked 20 hours from home a week). And when I did come back to work in the building, I went to part time working 33 hours. 33 is the magic # bc anything below that and they start prorating your benefits. Anyhow, I hope this info helps. If you need anything else, please don't hesitate to e-mail me.

If you don't mind me asking...what branch do you work for?

Good luck!

[denna]

Karol-

Thanks for your response that does help. As far as the Family Medical Leave Act that really wouldn't work, you see I've been unemployed for a little bit because we were stationed overseas and it was hard in the beginning to get a job. So that money would help with bills, and of course the new additon to the family. Advanced sick leave is authorized for childbirth (max 30 days), and since Im fairly new I really dont have any sick hours built up yet. But thanks for the advice about the going back and working part-time. That is a great idea. I never even thought to do that. I really appreciate the help and would love to keep in touch. How do I get your email? Im fairly new to the site as well.
Oh and I work for the Air Force, I was active duty I just got out last year.

Thanks again,

Denna

[karolyp]

Not a problem at all! I look forward to talking with you. I know getting through all the government's rules and regulations regarding leave can be daunting. Here's a good place to start: http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/HTML/ParentalReport.htm

Also, you can e-mail me by clicking on the e-mail icon that's right below the date of the thread.

Some other ideas that come to mind are asking for advanced annual leave (since I'm assuming you get more of this than SL and could repay it faster) instead of advanced sick leave, or asking for both. Or you could use 1/2 LWOP or the FMA and 1/2 AL or SL, that way you would still get some $ and you could strech out your leave longer. Can you work from home? In the very beginning (not now of course LOL), DD slept a lot so I was able to get work done between her naps. Even though I worked part time (4 hours a day for 20 hours a week), I would strech out the 4 hours all day long. I also had the ability to check out one of our laptops to enable me to work from home and found some projects that I could work from home as well (reviewing documents and such), so perhaps you can start looking for the same type of stuff too? Anyhow, checking out the laptop for such a long time needed more approvals and time so that might be something you would want to start on right away too. My supervisor is pretty flexible about alternative work sites, plus there is a congress man who is pushing for laws to make alternative work sites available to employees and so I showed my supervisor this information which also helped my case. If you want it, I can forward this to you. Also, if you can switch to the 33 hour a week schedule, you'll be able to strech your leave even longer since you won't have to meet the 40 hour a week requirment.

All in all, I was able to strech out 3 months of leave to 5 using the above methods. I'm sorry to keep rambling on, I just hope I am making sense though!! Let me know if there is anything I can do to help out.

[denna]

Thanks you are already helping so much. With the job I have I cant work from home. Its scheduling flight hours for the fighter pilots. Its using a specific program on the government computers, so for security reasons Im not able to work from home. I'm sure you understand all the different security measures. Which branch do you work for by the way?
As far as the annual sick leave, Im not sure. I was considering that however my husband and I would be needing 2 weeks of paid or unpaid leave at the end of August to go back to the states so Im not sure how this will work. Im sure I could try both avenues if one is not approved. If it is possible for me to return before the 6 weeks (Im not sure how that works or if I will be able to), then I could do the 33 hours a week. Thanks again for all of your help. Oh, and for the link, I used the OPM website before thats where I found the option for taking advanced sick leave. I think this is the best choice (if it gets approved) just because I dont plan on using sick leave at other times (knock on wood) and if I do get really sick I can call in one or two days w/o pay here and there wont really make a difference.
Thank you so much for your advice, it really has been helpful. Ive tried talking to other employees here w/ me but they dont really understand my situation given that none of them were in the federal system when they had their children and ALL of their children are middle school age and up. So this is soo helpful to me.

Thanks so much .....

[jdm]

Another federal employee here. You should also see if you're eligible to receive donated leave under the voluntary leave transfer and leave bank programs. I know the Department of Defense is a particpating agency but I'm not sure if there are restrictions on the length of employment for eligibility.

Good luck and I hope this all works out for you.

--k

[pcha72]

Hi Denna,

I work in HR for the feds and had to chime in. You've gotten really good advice from PPs and I highly second the recommendation of laying out your leave plans w/your supervisor as soon as possible. You can always talk to your HR office for clarification of all the rules and regs. They may even be able to offer some alternatives for you. And you are protected under FMLA as long as you've had 12 months of service (doesn't have to be continous or recent).

You should also consider the Voluntary Leave Transfer Program as mentioned previously. One caveat though: you have to exhaust all your SL and AL before being eligible. Also, we don't really see many donations come in for pregnancy situations, unfortunately. It IS worth a try, IMO.

If you can find any way to use an alternative work schedule, go for it (part-time, job sharing, flex hours, etc.). Here's one of my favorite OPM sites, http://www.opm.gov/oca/leave/.

And just to add my personal experience: I was 4 months along when I started my current job, and since I was relatively a newbie, I didn't have a lot of leave saved up also. I ended up using mostly all of my AL and SL, leaving just a few hours of SL for emergencies. I ended up taking 3 months off, with 1 month of LWOP. Financially, it was a bit difficult, but now I wish I would've taken more time off because time sure does fly when you're having fun! And I will be doing the same thing in July when DC #3 comes!

Good luck and I hope it works out for you!

~P

[denna]

Thanks for the advice and support!!! About the leave transfer program Im not really sure how that works either. I was asking a couple other people I work w/ and they have never used it so they dont know. For childbirth I do qualify as far as time working I think as long as I go past the 90day mark w/ the baby (fingers crossed) I think its okay. But question do you know how the leave transfer program works, as far as getting donated leave? Does someone have to specifically donate it to me? Or is there some sort-of 'pot' per say that holds all the donated leave and people who need/qualify for it can have it?

Thanks again for all your help, its great!!!

Denna

[denna]

Thank you all the PP have been helpful. Now I have a question for you =). (My HR office is not the best, at first they said childbirth wasnt authorized advanced sick leave only adoption, so I had to show them the reg on the opm website.
But back to my question for you. I have not been a Federal CIVILIAN Employee for more than 12 months. I was a DOD Active Duty employee for 4 years I had 7 months at a non-federal job, and then in January returned to Federal employment, does my military service count towards the 12 months?

Thanks again for your assistance!!!

Denna