How to Negotiate More Maternity Leave - Career Advice Blog for Millennials

How to Negotiate More Maternity Leave - Career Advice Blog for Millennials If you have ever negotiated for a higher salary or for additional PTO, you’ll know how daunting the idea of negotiating for maternity leave feels. For many women, the day comes when they will need to ask for maternity leave due to the sad fact that, unfortunately, many women only take two weeks off, when the recovery and bonding time with their child requires more. Since the United States is the worst developed country when it comes taking maternity leave, especially paid, what’s a woman to do? You ask for it, anyway. Even when your employer has a written policy on maternity leave, realize that you have the power to make change happen and claim what other mothers, you and your baby deserve. The worst an employer can say is “no.” Knowing what your rights are and developing effective strategies during negotiations will help you feel more empowered to approach your employer for maternity leave negotiation. 1. Consider a Starting Point for Negotiation What does your company policy say regarding maternity leave? Experts at the Center for WorkLife Law say that, while bigger organizations have outlined policies on maternity leave, they aren’t chiseled in stone like commandments, and many pregnant women should also negotiate for better accommodations while at work. Many negotiations continue with supervisors, and the policy functions as a starting point with guidelines for maternity leave. So, read up, and talk to other coworkers who’ve taken maternity leave. 2. Know What You Deserve Besides talking to other mom coworkers at your workplace, speak with a trusted individual in Human Resources who will be able to confidentially and efficiently help you develop your negotiation strategy. They’ll know more about state and federal laws that will help you. For example, if your organization employs more than fifty people within seventy-five miles of its site, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) mandates that employees who are expecting must receive twelve weeks of unpaid parental leave, at least. Very few companies offer paid leave, roughly twelve percent, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try. You’ll need to have worked at least 1,250 hours in the last twelve months to be eligible. 3. Be Specific With Requests As with salary and benefits negotiations, know what you’re worth and what you need, then stick with specifics. Avoid asking for more without asking for a specific amount. Consider the time you’ll need to recover as a new mother and bond with your baby and consider whether your partner will be opting for time off as well. While FMLA gives you twelve weeks, if you think you need more time to bond with your baby, you may be required to use vacation or sick time. If your partner works for the same employer, your twelve weeks may have to be shared. Prepare for these scenarios. Be open to negotiation, but don’t accept less than you need. Perhaps there’s a way to work from home with fewer hours, for example, and meet in the middle. 4. Develop Your Negotiation Skills First Don’t go into the meeting with naïve negotiation guns blazing. Get your feet wet, and brush up on your negotiation skills with reading and practice. Scan through a giant stack of books about the art of no in the workplace, saying no and maintaining a good relationship and how to navigate a maze of no wrapped in red corporate tape and jargon. Practice with a friend or partner and turn to mentors for advice. Write down what you’re going to say and memorize statistics without breaking a sweat or sounding overbearing. This way, you’ll stick to the facts and be specific and confident. Be prepared to discuss your reentry and goals for the future, which reiterate your value to the company. The fact that you’ve planned everything out will show the company you’ve considered them in the equation, as well as your contribution. You can grow your family and your career. It’s about balance. So, showcase your maternity leave as a positive for everyone. 5. Choose the Right Person to Negotiate With First Who is your best advocate at work who is also in a position of power to grant you what you need? Look back over the chain of command, analyzing the order of workplace operations closely. Your direct supervisor may be your best advocate or it could be a prior supervisor who will be able to help with a preliminary discussion. HR will also be open to helping you plan and schedule a time to negotiate, however, it’s best to request a meeting in person. Negotiation doesn’t have to stop with one “no.” Go up the ladder if you have to, and ally yourself with those will advocate for you. See your request for maternity leave as a positive for all involved, and show up to the meeting prepared with research and a plan from the time you leave to your reentry. Be specific, and place yourself in the shoes of your employer. Consider their needs, too. As with any negotiation, all sides will need to make appropriate plans and points. Be open to possibilities, but don’t accept less than you truly need because you and your family are worth it. Work-life balance starts with good communication among all parties. Please continue the conversation by leaving a comment below, and get more negotiation and career tips by subscribing to Punched Clocks. Get everything you need to build a career you love by signing up for the newsletter.

Writing One Page Resume - How to Get Your Job Interview Successfully

Writing One Page Resume - How to Get Your Job Interview SuccessfullyWhen you have the qualifications and ability to write a one page resume, but you want to impress your interviewer, you need to make sure that you create a resume that is effective. Many people are confused when they are asked to create a resume. Here are some tips on how to get the job done effectively.The first thing that you need to do when creating a resume is to know your strengths and weaknesses. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses can help you see the opportunities you have within the field that you are applying for. For example, if you are very good at mathematical calculations, this will likely not be an area where you would want to apply.Next, you need to write the resume in a manner that it will catch the attention of your potential employer. Do not go into detail in the opening paragraph, just focus on describing your skills. Don't ramble, but rather show an interviewer that you are confident in your abi lities. If you keep this in mind, you will be more successful at getting a job interview.Once you have put together a resume, the next step is to wait until the interview. Some people say that they should give the interviewer as much time as possible to read the resume. But, if you can give the interviewer enough time to read it, this will help you so that you can get them to call you and interview you. When you are preparing for an interview, you need to take your time to prepare. It may sound hard, but the interviewer may not even realize that you have spent time to prepare.While you are waiting for the interview, you will also need to do other things to help you prepare for the interview. Make sure that you are wearing comfortable clothes that will allow you to move easily. You also need to bring along a stack of reference books with you when you are waiting for the interview. When the interview finally comes, you will need to show your expertise by presenting your resume. Before presenting the resume, you will need to write a summary of what your career objectives are. Once you have done this, you will then need to present your resume. This will be where you will be telling your interviewer about your strengths and weaknesses.After the interview, you will need to sit down and look at your resume. Once you have completed your review, you will want to have your resume reviewed by a professional. Remember, when you are applying for a job, you are applying for yourself. So, do not ever waste time or effort reviewing your resume.

Finding the Perfect Balance Between Work and Fun in Retirement

Finding the Perfect Balance Between Work and Fun in Retirement “Damn the submarine. We’re the men of the Merchant Marine!” That singsong phrase woke me up every morning for seven months on my first ship, the SS San Francisco. I went to sea after graduating from college. For four years, I worked on ships, mostly tankers, steaming through the Suez and Panama canals, past the Rock of Gibraltar at midnight under a full moon, stopping in ports like Athens, Dubai, and Yokosuka. A number of my peers had similar adventures after college, including leading wilderness trips, tending bar, teaching English overseas and traveling around Europe picking up odd jobs. Ah, those were adventurous days before the desire for a career and family responsibilities took over. Peter Millon is living the adventure, tooâ€"in his Unretirement, at age 69. Last year, he spent about 70 days skiing the slopes in Park City, Utah, when he wasn’t working four days a week for ?Rennstall World Class Ski Preparation, repairing skis and waxing skis for racers. Essentially, he split his retirement time 50/50: working half-time and pursuing his passion the other half. In the off-season, Millon plays golf with his oldest son who lives in Salt Lake, fishes and takes target practice. Not bad. Leading a Wealthy Life A wealthy industrialist? A Wall Street master of the universe? A high-tech titan of business? Hardly. Millon isn’t wealthy, but he leads a wealthy life. “Do something you love, something for you,” he says. “Don’t do it for anyone else.” Millon began his career working at a small ski maker in St. Peter, Minn. He then spent decades as a technical director at Salomon North America and its various competitors. During the real estate bubble years, Millon was selling high end appliances for the home, living in a townhouse in Massachusetts. Business tanked when the bubble burst, and he took advantage of an early retirement package. Three years ago, he sold the townhouse and moved to Utah where he was known in the ski community, picking up a condo on the cheap. These days, Millon lives comfortably off Social Security, some investments and the income from his part-time job. The ‘World’s Oldest Intern’ John Kerr is living the 50/50 life in his Unretirement, too, working as park ranger in Yellowstone between May and September. He didn’t plan on becoming a ranger, though. Kerr had a four-decade career at WGBH as a marketing and fund raising executive, retiring at 65. “It took the shock of the change to rattle my bones a bit,” says John Kerr. “I had way too much energy and experience to sit around.” His exploration took him out to Jackson Hole, Wyo., where Kerr has a small condo. While walking around Bozeman, Mont., he saw a sign for the Yellowstone National Foundation, which supports Yellowstone National Park. He walked in unannounced and from an off-hand remark during a conversation with the organization’s head, he learned it had an internship opening. Kerr applied and for the next year he was “world’s oldest intern,” talking to visitors about wolves. Kerr became a Yellowstone ranger five months a year for the next nine years, living close to Jackson in the winters and using his time off to visit family. Now 76, he recently moved back to New England to be near family. Still, he expects next season he’ll return to Yellowstone. “It has been a great adventure,” he says. Advice for Your Unretirement When I asked Kerr and Millon what advice they’d give to others in their 60s and 70s eager for adventure, Kerr emphasized the importance of an open mind. “You have to have your eyes open and your ears flapping,” he chuckled. Millon suggested drawing on the relationships you’ve made over the years and the skills you’ve developed without trying to compete for the kind of job you had earlier in your career. What I took away from both men is that the financial penalty of working fewer hours and doing more of what you love can be much less than you might think. “The key is that when your interests align with your work, there is nothing from which to retire,” says Ross Levin, a certified financial planner and head of Accredited Investors in Edina, Minn. “We save money to ultimately create a lifestyle. If that lifestyle doesn’t need much money, then we need to save less.” Think of it this way, says Levin: You earn $10,000 a year in your fulfilling work on a ski slope or in national park or down in the Florida Keys. That’s the equivalent of having $250,000 in investment assets, assuming the 4% withdrawal rule (a standard guideline for safely taking money out of retirement savings). A $20,000 income is the equivalent of $500,000 in assets, and so on. Much of the conversation about prospects in the traditional retirement years often forgets how creative people are at coming up with solutions. Many Unretirees I’ve interviewed over the years have found they made significant cuts in expenses without slashing their standard of living. So, if your career didn’t leave you with the kind of portfolio that pushes you into the ranks of the wealthy, that doesn’t mean you can’t construct a comparable lifestyle. The question is: What’s your adventure? Chris Farrell is senior economics contributor for American Public Media’s Marketplace and author of the new book Unretirement: How Baby Boomers Are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community, and The Good Life. He writes about Unretirement twice a month, focusing on the personal finance and entrepreneurial start-up implications and the lessons people learn as they search for meaning and income. Tell him about your experiences so he can address your questions in future columns. Send your queries to him at cfarrell@mpr.org. His twitter address is @cfarrellecon. More from Next Avenue: Doing Great Work After 60 Shifting From Full-Time to Part-Time Work 12 Takeaways From a Mini-Retirement