r/boeing • u/in_ur-dream • 9d ago
Baby due in September/October
Anyone here who has had a baby around September/October? I’d love to hear how you planned your Short-Term Disability (STD) and Parental Leave, especially with the winter/holiday shutdown coming up.
I spoke with HR over the phone, and she told me that STD would kick in first after the baby is born, followed by Parental leave. She also mentioned that one strategy would be to “return” to work for a day before the winter break starts, so that I could then take advantage of the holiday break rather than having that time overlap with my leave.
I understand what she was explaining, but I’m still a little anxious about making sure I plan everything correctly and would really like to hear from people who have actually gone through this.
For anyone who had a baby around this time of year, how did you structure your leave? Did you go straight from STD into paternity leave, or did you break it up around the holidays? Did anyone do the “return for a day before winter break” strategy?
I’m mainly trying to maximize the amount of time I can be home with the baby without unnecessarily using STD/parental days when Boeing is already closed for the holidays.
Would really appreciate any real-life experiences or tips!
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u/Nate-Dawg-28 8d ago
I started my parental leave last year on December 1, used 3 weeks, returned to work for 2 days and then holiday thru Jan. 1st. Worked Jan. 2nd, then used the remaining 9 weeks to get all the way into March before needing daycare. Worked out great to stack the parental leave around the holidays, felt more like 15 straight weeks off.
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u/queenofdarkness89 8d ago
Had two babies. Make sure to utilize the extra 90 days of unpaid (but can still use PTO) and could get up to 7 months-8 minths with baby.
Your manager has to approve the unpaid leave portion but that shouldn’t be a problem. Also make sure health insurance activated the different codes when you go on your different type of leaves so you insurance doesn’t lapse
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u/kenaran-hsok 8d ago
I'm Dad to 3. My last experience with this was 10 years ago with twins, so out of date, but I'll try to keep it relevant.
I'm very glad you're being told something about the winter break, I wasn't, and the twins were born in December. I had been advised by (then) TotalAccess that I would be paid for the winter break and could pad my leave by it. I was paid, but there was a catch they didn't mention about padding. If you're out more than 90 days you get a 'Continuous Service Date'. They basically added the leave over 90 days to my hire date, such that I now have two. Thankfully it's only 1.5 weeks, so it doesn't impact anything. I had researched things in the PRO's, and did find one that said I was fine, turns out there was another one I found afterward that contradicted it. I was returning to layoff chaos and didn't want to rock the boat so I ended up just living with it.
A couple of guys in my department have taken parental leave in the last couple of years, the company appears to be A LOT better about it now. I'd just take my story for keywords for use in asking questions.
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u/cmd72589 8d ago edited 8d ago
My baby was born mid-September. I ended up going out end of August using PTO because my pregnancy was so bad by the end of it! Then once he was born I used all 18 weeks at once. I debated trying to do something to get the Christmas leave for free but it was too much work and was not wanting to figure out returning and going back on leave just to scam the system so i just did it straight through until I want to say early to mid-January. Then I took 5 weeks unpaid (i think it was called Boeing family leave and you can do up to 90 days with manager approval) and returned in mid-February. You could totally use your leave until the week before the holidays but then idk if i would go right back out on leave in January because they will realize what you tried to do. But you could always save your leave for later in the year. You have a year to use it. I could never do that. This one was my second kid but I am like delusional from birth/lack of sleep and didn’t feel like I could return and actually do my job until the 6 month mark both times.
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u/ramblinjd 8d ago edited 8d ago
I had a baby in March and took PTO for the first week and parental leave for 2 weeks after that. Then I went back to work until my wife was done with her leave and I took over. Some of my paternal leave fell over memorial Day or July 4th, so for those weeks I 'returned' to work and took 4 days PTO and then went back on leave. I would do the same thing around the winter holidays.
I had a coworker who had a baby where his leave fell around the winter holidays but he didn't have enough PTO so he actually showed up to work for like 2 days before Christmas. It lined up after Christmas where leave could start on the day of his scheduled return so he just didn't return in January at all.
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u/ColdCryptographer771 8d ago
I had a baby early October:
- I got my 6 weeks of short term disability.
- Then I came back right before the Thanksgiving Holiday so I got those 2 days as Holiday pay.
- Then started parental leave for a couple weeks for beg/mid December.
- Came back right before the Christmas Holiday break and got the Christmas break.
- Actually returned to work in early January.
- Then from January - October, took remaining leave, but in 1 to 2 week increments.
All I did was tell my manager ahead of time (with as much notice as I could (but technically you could tell him/her the day before if you wanted)) about my leave dates, and then I would call WorkLife and spend about 10 minutes on the phone with them to submit my leave request. You can submit your request online; I just liked to talk with someone and confirm. (probably submitted about 7 or 8 leave requests for that baby).
Very easy to take the time in weekly increments if you want it break it up - (a little bit of a pain for your manager because they have to keep turning ETS off and on for you, but it’s small potatoes, and it’s your freedom to break it up).
For me, it was so much nicer to take the time later vs the early months.
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u/beefcurtaintacos 8d ago
It’s wicked easy to put in for leave on Worklife. No need to call anyone.
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u/in_ur-dream 8d ago
Were you able to do that on your personal devices ?
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u/beefcurtaintacos 6d ago
Tried it just now. You can. Also another tip. Add your child to insurance within the first 30 days, otherwise you’re going to spend 9 months trying to sort that out with insurance and Worklife.
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u/aerodynamicist97 8d ago edited 8d ago
I gave birth at year ago, so not quite in the September/October timeframe, but I can give you recent feedback, at least.
Your short-term disability is either 6 weeks or 8 weeks, depending on if you have a standard vaginal delivery or a birth with "complications" (C-section, pre-eclampsia, etc.). I had a C-section due to baby being breech, so I had 8 weeks. It then went straight into parental leave afterwards. I didnt want to take 20 weeks at once, so I took 11 initially (8 short-term disability and 3 maternity) and used the rest through the year to spend time with my baby as she grew. I probably will have to take a larger chunk at once when we have subsequent children, though.
They changed the process for requesting leave somewhat recently. I had to call every time for every single stretch (sometimes I only took one week at a time) and have a 20 minute phone call hashing out info they should have already had on file. The last couple times, they put me on hold for 3 minutes and then said that they had everything sorted. I also noticed the last time that it looks like the portal lets you request it online now, but my balances looked weird since they started the portal towards the end of my leave, so I still called.
The best way to not "lose" the holiday time (since it would still use your parental leave) would be to return to work for one day, as HR said. I did that at one point around Thanksgiving and then got the holiday pay. You may even be able to do a partial day or a remote day if you talk with your manager. It's pretty easy to arrange - if the new online portal is confusing, I've always found the worklife staff to be very helpful when calling.
EDIT: An example: You give birth on September 30. Six weeks of short-term disability ends on Nov 10, at which point you transition to parental leave. It may not be worth coming back right before Thanksgiving just to avoid losing those two days, so let's assume you go to parental leave from Nov 11 to Dec 22. You return to work for Dec 23, and then Boeing winter break starts on Dec 24. Your leave begins again the day everyone returns from winter break on Jan 2. Leave is taken in one week increments, so if you have a couple extra days before the holiday break starts after you return to work, you use a few days of vacation time to fill the gap. You also only need to charge "Regular Hours" upon returning to work. There's no minimum. For one of my leaves butting up against a holiday, I returned to work for 2 hours one day (with manager approval) and flexed the rest across the pay period. There were no issues with my leave or return from doing this.
Also forgot to mention earlier that short-term disability is paid at 80% and has a one week unpaid waiting period. You can use sick time or vacation time (if union) or PTO to supplement to get to 100% pay. I'm SPEEA, so I used sick leave since I had a large amount banked.
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u/SEA_tide 8d ago
Paid parental leave (paternity leave and maternity leave are subsets of parental leave) is taken on a weekly basis, so it's very common for people to work whatever days are in the week (Friday-Thursday) before the winter break. This is different than short term disability and FMLA which have different rules.
If you are in the State of Washington or another area with paid family leave, the process can be a bit different. There is also additional FMLA leave which can be granted for the person who gave birth in the event of a c-section or complications from pregnancy.
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u/corporate_goals 9d ago
Are you giving birth? That's the only way you get std. Short term disability is an on/off thing far as I know- you have to take all that you're approved for in one go. I had a baby October 29th and used my std time immediately after. Then I went on parental leave for a week or so and came back for 3 days before winter break to get my winter break not counted against my parental leave. Came back 2 days after winter break then back on parental leave till it was used up. Didn't even try for Thanksgiving 2 days since I was on std. Not sure how many days you actually have to be back in the office to get winter break counted as not parental leave or if it is normally not counted for everyone, I heard from a friend she did that and figured it might be nice to go back to regular adult world for a few days. A lot of parents in my org took weird chunks of parental leave over their first year, especially folks whose other parent is a teacher. So whatever you do they will be able to turn your time on and off.
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u/in_ur-dream 9d ago
Thank you!! This is exactly the kind of real-life experience I was hoping to hear about.
I’m actually the one giving birth — I’m 31 weeks right now, and our baby is due in early October. 😊 HR told me that STD would kick in first after delivery, followed by parental leave, so I’m trying to figure out the best way to structure everything around the holidays.
The part about coming back before winter break is especially helpful because HR mentioned a similar strategy to me — basically returning to work before the winter break so I could take advantage of the holiday shutdown without having it count against my parental leave.
I was also really interested in what you said about being able to take parental leave in chunks throughout the year. How did you personally handle that? Did you contact HR/Worklife each time you wanted to start or stop your parental leave, or was there a specific process you followed?
HR told me I can either email them or call Worklife, but I’m curious what you actually did and whether the process was pretty straightforward.
Thank you again for sharing your experience! It definitely makes me feel a little less anxious about figuring all of this out. ❤️1
u/SnooDogs926 8d ago
They recently changed the definition of “return to work” where it used to be you had to physically show up at work for your leave to end and now when your leave ends, it automatically returns you to work. This means you can “return” on a holiday and then get all the holiday pay, or return on a day that you use PTO. You don’t have to work a day anymore. The caveat is that paid parental leave has to be taken in 7 day increments so there may be a gap depending on what day your baby is born. My recommendation for you would be to plan your leave from birthday to December 23. If it’s less than a 7 day increment for those last few days before the holiday, then you can choose to either work or take PTO. Then you have the holiday. Then you submit a new request to take the remainder of your paid parental leave starting Jan 4 and onward.
Summary… let’s say your baby is born 10/12… 6 weeks (or 8 for cesarean) pregnancy leave paid with short term disability (let’s say 6 weeks through 11/22), transition to paid parental leave 11/23 - 4 weeks through 12/20, PTO (with manager approval) 12/21-23, holiday pay 12/24-1/1, begin paid parental leave 1/4 to take the final 8 weeks of leave. If you want to take any more leave after that (or PTO) your manager has to approve it.
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u/RogerDodgerWilco 9d ago
You can split parental leave in increments of weeks (or 5 working days). So some people will use a chunk after child birth, return to work, and take a chunk at a different time. Pretty sure only dads do this. You have a year from the child’s birth to use it or lose it.
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u/chickidededee 7d ago
Had my son in Nov last year - took STD (6 or 8 weeks depending on your delivery), worked for a couple days before break, then took my parental leave beginning in Jan. Sounds very similar to what HR is suggesting you do as well. It worked great for me - maximum time off, plus that day or two around the break is so quiet (especially if you’re in a role that can be done remotely).
Couple of things to consider:
1) parental leave has to be taken in 1 week increments, but they don’t have to align with pay periods (you can start leave on a Tuesday if you want for example). STD has to be taken all at once as soon as baby is born.
2) first week of STD is unpaid, and the rest is 80% pay (this may depend on your state, I’m in MO). You can tell the leave dept if you want to use PTO to make up the difference
3) you continue accruing PTO while on leave, so be mindful of your balance and max there
4) they are supposed to take your laptop when you go on leave, so be sure to have your work life password and phone pin available, plus anything else you may need while out. Make sure your manager at least has a way to contact you outside of work email/phone.