Maternity leave

My better half is a retail manager and one of the assistant managers is out on Maternity leave so the store is shorthanded. This has caused a lot of stress as the store is down to only 2 people who can open/close. As a result, my girl had to drop a class from school, eating $500. The girl had her baby by C-section 2 weeks ago and is out for another 6 weeks.

This morning she checks her facebook account and the girl has been at clubs and bars all weekend long 2 hours away from where she lives.

Normally, I'd tell her to MYOB but she's been working 6 days a week (salary, no OT) and going to school the other day. I'm suggesting that she report it to our company's ethics hotline. Has anyone experienced anything similar in their job? I.e. an employee who got some injury and then milked the leave?

 

That just blows, tell your girl to delete her as a friend... It will send the message that she is pissed about it.

However, the real issue lies in upper Mgt. They should put things in place for when things like this occur. What happens if somthing happens to the other two? The store dont open? They should be able to elavate folks from with in to fill voids. Possibly a dual rate supervisor that can fill in at certain times, then go back to normal pay when not needed.

 

Sounds like your girl should have renegotiated her salary for the time that this other lady is out on maternity leave... If she can do that, then I'd say let the other girl do whatever, she'll get herself caught soon enough.

Or, for example, my company has an annonomous ethics hotline, she could go that route but that doesn't do anything for her situation. Renegotiate the salary first (leave the ethics out of it, just state the facts that she's working a lot more hours and her schooling is suffering as a result), then explore the ethics hotline route depending on the outcome.

 

If the girl is at bars and clubs 2 weeks after having a baby tell your GF to plan on working more OT in another nine months. Definitely have her bring it to someone's attention. If she's worried about losing the friendship over it there should be anonymous ways to alert upper management to the situation.

 

there's no "friendship" its more of an: I know you because I work with you, so we're F-book friends kind of thing.

We have about 200 employees and our VP gets 3 stock grants every year and she was chosen as one of the recipients - so from a money standpoint its almost square. She's just pissed bout her time.

our company takes their sweet time hiring people so by the time we could have gone to a headhunter and gotten a retail manager to on a 3-month temp contract, she would be back anyways.

 

Maternity leave is every woman's right (federally and could be extended depending on the state law's). Although you, your GF, and me included may not agree with how she's spending her nights. There is nothing in the law (that I'm aware of) that say's she has to stay at home caring for her newborn. Even though she needs to be using this time to bond with her newborn and adjust to being a new mom, it is still her choice.

I think the ethics hotline would be more concerned if she was doing something at work that affected the business, not with how she is deciding to spend her free time, unless it affects her work performance.

Look at it this way! You were injured at work and were off on worker's comp. You decide to go to a restaurant and have a few (six) beers. You run into your boss at this restaurant. Although he may think you should be at home resting, does he have a right to fire you or punish you when you are not at work?

 

Unfortunately life is unfair and I wouldn't believe everything you read on facebook.

 

Sucks, but she can do whatever she wants on maternity leave. This situation is a little bit different than injury/disability leave. This is also a reason why you shouldn't be friends with people you work with on facebook.

Tell your GF to keep working hard. It will eventually pay off in the future.

 

Maternity Leave does not equal Sick leave. It's meant to allow a new mom time to recover from birthing, bond with the child, and try to get a handle on having a life with the new lil one running around. If she is well and needed the time off to go out with friends- she should. An injured worker spending the time off remodeling or milking the leave is a problem because the time off is specifically for them to heal and then come back to work. Maternity leave is a set time, not a set amount of recuperation.

IDK if she is breastfeeding-if she is probably shouldn't be drinking...but that's not you or the businesses place to worry about at all.

The problem your girl needs to deal with is why she's working more hours for the same pay. Salary should have gone up if she's working more hours-Salary doesn't mean no over time. It's X amount of dollars for x amount of time worked. If she is working more than that...she should be getting paid for it. Just make sure she is really working more hours than she is supposed to. If her contract says 30K a year for 40 hours weeks and she was working 30 hour weeks before and is working 40 hour weeks now this can back fire.

So in short...MYOB and tell your girl to go push for what is hers.

 

Not saying that maternity and sick leave are the same thing. Just using worker's comp as a analogy since most of the members on here will never be off for maternity leave. To come back from maternity leave, you must have a doctor's note allowing you to come back from leave. Same thing with worker's comp, you must have a note to come back to work. Like I said in my original post, she should be at home with the new baby, not out in a bar. Same thing would be true for a worker's comp injury, they should be at home recovering. In either case though, what you decide to do in your off time is not a concern to your employer unless it affects your performance. Being off for worker's comp and going out to have a few beers will not affect your recovery nor would it be "milking" a worker's comp claim.