Maternity Leave and the workplace

[33girl]

Question...

For the countries that do allow maternity leave up to a year, is the firm compelled to hire someone else to do that person's job while they're gone? Or does their work just get shoveled onto their coworkers' load?

I understand and do agree that parents should have more time off, but speaking as someone who had to partially take on the workload of someone w/ an FMLA issue, the only thing that got me and the other people affected through it was knowing it was going to be over soon. If we'd had to work like that for a year, there would have been several nervous breakdowns.

It sounds great the way other countries do it, but think about the people who are left behind as well.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Question...

For the countries that do allow maternity leave up to a year, is the firm compelled to hire someone else to do that person's job while they're gone? Or does their work just get shoveled onto their coworkers' load?

I understand and do agree that parents should have more time off, but speaking as someone who had to partially take on the workload of someone w/ an FMLA issue, the only thing that got me and the other people affected through it was knowing it was going to be over soon. If we'd had to work like that for a year, there would have been several nervous breakdowns.

It sounds great the way other countries do it, but think about the people who are left behind as well.

I hear ya. The question is whether the costs outweigh the benefits. We'd have to know all the costs to the employers, families, and overall society.

[Drolefille]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Question...

For the countries that do allow maternity leave up to a year, is the firm compelled to hire someone else to do that person's job while they're gone? Or does their work just get shoveled onto their coworkers' load?

I understand and do agree that parents should have more time off, but speaking as someone who had to partially take on the workload of someone w/ an FMLA issue, the only thing that got me and the other people affected through it was knowing it was going to be over soon. If we'd had to work like that for a year, there would have been several nervous breakdowns.

It sounds great the way other countries do it, but think about the people who are left behind as well.

I found this: http://www.thelocal.se/14022/20080829/

Which does explain that the state pays the parental benefits which are up to 480 days with a minimum of 60 for any one parent, but an expectation that the parents will split the time equally.

So the company has the money to hire someone because they're not covering that leave time, but I couldn't find an indication if hiring is common practice or required by law or neither.

[Lil' Hannah]

Originally Posted by 33girl

Question...

For the countries that do allow maternity leave up to a year, is the firm compelled to hire someone else to do that person's job while they're gone? Or does their work just get shoveled onto their coworkers' load?

I had a friend who was in a foreign country while her husband was in school there and got a job covering someone's year-long maternity leave. It was perfect for her because they were only in the country for a short amount of time, but I don't know if there's a large pool of workers who would want to hang their shingles to be long-term temps. I also don't know if that's the usual practice or if that company was unique.