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Anonymous
06/04/19 at 1:05PM UTC
in
Parenting

Can I advocate for better parental leave when I'm new at the company?

I've been at my new job for 4 weeks, and I started halfway through my pregnancy. I did this knowing that my maternity leave would be 12 weeks, and mostly unpaid, but the small salary raise and better health insurance made the move a financial wash from my old job. All that said, my new employer does not have a clear family leave policy of any kind. They adhere to FMLA, and there is some short term disability, but even on their benefits website, there's no section for family leave policies. Everything is worked out individually with HR. I'm deeply concerned about the general lack of family leave in the U.S. However, I'm also new at my job, and fairly low on the power ladder (I'm a coordinator). Is there any way for me to advocate for better leave policies this early in a job? Has anyone tried to change the policies at their own companies? Successes? Failures. I'd love to hear all of your stories. Thanks!

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Anonymous
06/06/19 at 9:13PM UTC
I agree with the above! Sometimes having a fresh perspective is all that needs to happen to get the ball rolling. Also -- I wouldn't worry about the fact that you're new or your title. You are an employee and you matter! The worst that could happen is they say "no". If you don't ask, you'll never know! In terms of changing policy -- while I haven't done this myself, I've had co-workers do it. What was key in their success was creating a proposal. In this, they defined the need, the goal, why it was important, and used data to quantify impact of the change. You HR partner can serve as a resource to help you figure out what would be important for them to see in order to facilitate change. Good luck!
PenelopeSage
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849
06/06/19 at 6:12PM UTC
I would take being new as an advantage for at least bringing it up. When you're new, you get to ask questions without being questioned. So even if it's talking with HR about current benefits and sliding it into his/her ear about benefits you'd like to see in the future... that might help move the needle a bit!

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