| What you should know before negotiating with your boss Nicole Abbott The pregnancy test reads positive and we all jump for joy with excitement and anticipation of the journey ahead until we are reminded of…Maternity Leave. The appropriate time to share your pregnancy with your employer varies depending on your situation and your personal preference. I had been working at a small office for about 4 years and considered my co-workers to be friends so I shared the news right away. However, when the time came to negotiate my maternity leave, you better believe I played hard ball!  I hate to admit this but women tend to be subservient in the workplace in many ways. We work hard and sometimes we’re not compensated as we should. I have been reading Suze Orman’s Women and Money (a must read by the way!) and she talks about how women are always hesitant to ask for the raise that they deserve and normally take less without complaining. So it doesn’t come as a surprise to me that women have a hard time negotiating their maternity leave. The most important step you must take before negotiating is: RESEARCH.
Laws vary from state to state. Some require paid leave while others don’t, but they all have one in common: You are entitled to up to 3 months of maternity leave. Your employer is required to secure your employment at the same pay rate for that time. Visit your state’s Department of Labor website for more information. If you work for a large company, they probably have a maternity leave policy. Find out what it is. Talk to other women in your office that have had a baby while working (even if they gave birth while working at another office). I was the first person in my office to go on maternity leave so there was no one I could ask and they didn’t have a maternity leave policy. Luckily, a client contact of mine had recently returned from her maternity leave and she was willing to give me all the details of what she had worked out. Make a plan. Figure out what you want/need before you meet with someone to discuss your maternity leave, but please be realistic about your expectations and what you are offering. Don’t go in there and tell them that you will be working from home a few hours a day when your baby is asleep in hopes that they will offer you paid maternity leave. Once you are settled in your new routine, if you feel like you can do it, your employer will most likely be pleasantly surprised to receive a call from you offering to work from home. However, if you offer it before hand and cannot fulfill your promise, that is going to make you look very bad and create some unnecessary tension for you when you return to work. [header = page 2 ] You should come up with your ideal maternity leave situation. Then, review it through a ‘reality check’ lens and figure out which points you are willing to do without in order to get things that you really need. I wanted to stay home as long as I could so instead of taking 3 months of m... | 
