In my last post, I talked about, probably ranted about a bit, maternity leave and how am I hoping to work at home some after my medical leave is over.  I had the talk today with my manager and VP.  While it is not completely unheard of at my work (people here work on their vacations ALL THE TIME, but that's another post), the nature of our work (hospital/clinic) does not allow us to apply a work at home option unilaterally, especially on the short term.

I was so nervous going into the meeting that I only brought one copy of my "plan of action" -- a Word document that I put detailed thought into, with lists and bullet points.  When I started the document, I knew it would help me, but thought it would help my case to hand something to my manager and VP.  As my manager and I started the conversation, I started jotting down some of her thoughts as well and at that point could not hand over my nicely typed case.

I think I did a good job, otherwise, of stating my case.  The changes to our PTO policy have made it impossible for me to be able to be paid for a full 12 week leave and my little family cannot afford for me to take much more than maybe a week of unpaid leave.  I have enough time to cover 9 weeks total: barring complications that means 6 weeks for medical and 3 extra weeks.  I had promised myself when my first child was born that next time would be different, that I would spend more time at home with my new little one.  I told my manager and VP how hard it was to take my wee baby (Mags was probably only 8 pounds when she started going to daycare), but the fact that I had onsite daycare at my previous employer helped the transition.  I do not have that luxury here.  The ability to ease back into work from home will help that tough transition when it is finally time for me to return to the office and take my new wee one to daycare.

I touched on the projects that we have put off and put off that I could work on at home, not tied to a telephone or to a schedule: I can just as easily work on job descriptions at 6 a.m. or 8 p.m. or in 1-2 hour stretches throughout the day.

My manager and VP were very encouraging and had ideas of their own of what projects I could work on from home.  My manager's one concern was that I would be pulling my 4 year old out of daycare while I was on leave.  While I will keep her at home a day here and there, if I pull her out completely, we risk losing her spot and I really can't justify pulling her out and continuing to pay for her spot if she's not there.  I think it will be good for Mags to have some semblence of her routine and spend time with her friends. 

So, now it's in their hands.  They are going to discuss it with the other manager in our office to provide some consistency.  I feel a little like a trail blazer.  And I hope this helps make some changes for the future here.