Would an option be to take the job for the duration of your pregnancy, use whatever PTO you can acrue and keep searching for another job?

Why even bother with two days?

eta: I see ita said it better already. But two days just seems dumb. If it were no days or something, they could say they can't afford it or whatever. Two days makes it seem like they expect you to drop the baby somewhere and come back to work.

Jessica that's insane and unfair. A quick google tells me NY employers are required to provide disability which usually includes some form of income replacement. Hopefully that is true in your case.

[link]

Or is it possible to take it and just take however many unpaid days you have to? Which would suck, obviously, but if they'll guarantee the job ...

Hey, maybe they are just trying to keep women from gaming the system and getting pregnant all the time to take advantage of maternity leave. Think how much easier recovery and taking care of a newborn is than going to work.

Think how much easier recovery and taking care of a newborn is than going to work.

Yes indeed. There are few things in life easier than caring for an entirely helpless human. Much easier than paperwork and whatnot.

I could probably negotiate for extra unpaid leave.

I have a sneaking feeling that the state-funded STD would only kick in if I had another c-section.

Would an option be to take the job for the duration of your pregnancy, use whatever PTO you can acrue and keep searching for another job?

Yes, that's one option. And my current job doesn't turn into a pumpkin until the end of February, so I have some time to scramble for alternatives.

Holy CRAP I miss posting with you guys.

Wow - I've been shocked before by the ridiculous brevity of US maternity leave, but that's the worst I've ever heard of. Jessica, I hope you're able to negotiate something better.

There are a number of high-IQ people that I've known who could maybe benefit from reading this: Clever fools: Why a high IQ doesn't mean you're smart

Or not.

How can someone with a high IQ have these kinds of intellectual deficiencies? Put another way, how can a "smart" person act foolishly? Keith Stanovich, professor of human development and applied psychology at the University of Toronto, Canada, has grappled with this apparent incongruity for 15 years. He says it applies to more people than you might think. To Stanovich, however, there is nothing incongruous about it. IQ tests are very good at measuring certain mental faculties, he says, including logic, abstract reasoning, learning ability and working-memory capacity - how much information you can hold in mind.

But the tests fall down when it comes to measuring those abilities crucial to making good judgements in real-life situations. That's because they are unable to assess things such as a person's ability to critically weigh up information, or whether an individual can override the intuitive cognitive biases that can lead us astray.

Much more at the link....