More time off? Yes, please!

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Get started now! We think you’ll like it!

Fine then, I’ll just take paternity leave…

“Many years ago, I was a Sales Manager for the now defunct Circuit City. My wife and I were expecting our first child. This was in 1999.

My wife was leaving her place of employment as she was planning on staying home with our daughter once she was born. Being our first child, I wanted to be home for a little while at the beginning.

As I was talking to my store manager to arrange having some time off when my daughter was born, I asked for a week off.

That didn’t go well…

I was met with opposition and told I could only have 2 days off, because “we don’t have extra management coverage.” (Yet we somehow cover peoples vacations)

This was absolutely ridiculous and luckily I had done my homework.

The way the FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) law is written, the parents can take up to 12 weeks of Maternity/Paternity leave, and their job is guaranteed to be waiting for them when they return.

I believe this is meant to be combined between the parents, but since my wife was leaving her job permanently and not taking Maternity leave, that left 12 weeks available for me to take.

Paternity Leave is rarely ever done, because it is most often unpaid leave.

I, however, had plenty of PTO saved up (Vacation and Sick Time).

Here’s how it’s gonna work…

So, I informed the Store Manager that I would be filing for Paternity leave under FMLA and would in fact be taking 12 weeks off and would be using my saved PTO to cover my income.

He tried to argue with me, but I told him, he should probably go contact HR.

He returned later that day and sheepishly asked me if I would accept the week I originally asked for? I told him that I would accept 2 weeks or 12 and that the choice was his.

I ended up with 2 weeks and that Store Manager learned that, though I was young (at the time), I wasn’t going to be pushed around, and that reasonable requests should be reasonably accepted.”

Let’s check out the reactions from Reddit users.

This reader uses all their time.

Another individual talked about how it works in Canada.

This reader nailed it.

Another individual left a job because they didn’t like what was going on.

And this Reddit user applauded this guy!

Hope he enjoyed his time off.

Nice work!

If you enjoyed that story, read this one about a mom who was forced to bring her three kids with her to apply for government benefits, but ended up getting the job of her dreams.