Does anyone work FT but make regular use of unpaid parental leave?

[letsallbemermaids]

Considering returning to work after maternity leave full time or nearly full time but actually making use of unpaid parental leave. I've got two children and I've never used it before so I think I should have 36 weeks available (9 years at a rate of 4 weeks a year). If you do this, what sort of pattern do you do? Long summer holiday? Just more frequent weeks off?

Obviously assuming you had more that one child. You’d need to have 9 children to have 36 weeks off though, at which point I imagine some bosses might sympathise with and understand the request more ;)

We had one employee apply the summer before lockdown but they applied for three weeks of school holidays but it was rejected as other staff had/would be booking holidays and annual leave applications had priority. The employee was offered dates in November which they didn’t want.

I hadn't heard of this, do both parents get 18 weeks each for every child or is it 18 weeks between both parents?

@GreenFly56

I hadn't heard of this, do both parents get 18 weeks each for every child or is it 18 weeks between both parents?

It's 18 weeks each for each child

I know a few people who have been turned down for this due to lack of cover

@Hottubtimemachine

I know a few people who have been turned down for this due to lack of cover

I certainly wouldn't rely on businesses agreeing to dates during periods lots of staff want time off - like school holidays and Xmas. In my experience employers will tell staff to take the leave at other, less busy times or when not many staff are on leave.

I feel like if you're actually planning on using this as part of your way of managing childcare or work life balance then it's going to get really annoying for your employer. As there's going to be a significant chunk of time you're not available to do your job.

They've obviously calculated how many hours of staff time they need for a job to be completed. If you take yiurdlswlf out of the workplace for an additional 4 week plus per year then who is doing that work?

It might be legal, but honestly if an employer is down on staff time consistently because of you, it will do you no favours.

I've used it a few times in the 6 week holidays. Just so I have some leave the rest of the year. Thankfully my organisation is super flexible.

Personally I would consider 4 days so you can have some time with the baby without the eldest. Could you have a Wednesday off so it's only 2 days off each time?

I think people are much more understanding about past time workers now. You can always check emails twice a day at set times.

@StealthPolarBear Surely the maximum of four weeks is for if you have 5+ children. People saying it dmwouldnt be possible if it didn't accrue. no when we had six children my dh took 24 weeks at once.

@NavigatingAdolescence But if you are not in work for 4 weeks for one of your children, and then claim another 4 wks for another child and so on, does that mean you might be off for say 16 weeks of a year if you had 4 children?
Yes it does, see my previous post.

I've used it a couple of times, once when my eldest started school and was only doing part days, and once to cover childcare when my childminder was on holiday.

I work for an employer known for being very family friendly and I also booked it off months in advance so there weren't any issues.

I know it's unreasonable but it really annoys me that so few people seem to understand what it is or get it mixed up with dependants leave. It's not that hard...

@letsallbemermaids
Hi,
This is my input!
Parental leave is reliant on the employer agreeing its convenient for them. And given its in addition to annual leave, many will, understandably, struggle to be able to necessarily allocate this at the times which would benefit your children the most. For example, the summer holidays.
Whereas, if you say 'only' work 4 days a week, regardless of what happens with annual leave, you'll always have 3 days a week available for the children, during school time and holidays 52 weeks of the year. This is, ultimately, my driving force for not, at this time, increasing my days.

Career wise, I personally think that having a set working pattern of say 4 days is preferable to potentially appearing flakey if you not only are taking annual leave then an additional 4 weeks of ad hoc parental leave. That's also more difficult to plan around longterm projects etc and you could appear less "present" and visible. Whereas say 4 days a week and always there appears more reliable and dedicated.

I take about 3 weeks unpaid per year to supplement my paid annual leave. I don't actually take parental leave, just agreed when I started that I could take unpaid leave from day 1 (normally you aren't eligible for the first year).
I take 2-3 days per month to spread the cost.

I work 32 hours per week, which is 4.5 days. With my extra days off, it's like working 4 days on average over the year which many mothers do.

How does this work if you move jobs every couple of years or the leave is taken by both parents - how do employers keep track of how many weeks you are entitled to?

Live reporting to HMRC.

I have done. has the age limit on it changed as i thought my kids were too old now?

A colleague used it to spend extra time with his kids in the school holidays.

@NavigatingAdolescence

Live reporting to HMRC.

Thanks Navigating - is this something the employer is responsible for?

Yes I use this - sorry haven’t read the full thread

I have 2x DC and tend to use 2x weeks unpaid per year most often during the summer holiday

Thanks Navigating - is this something the employer is responsible for?

Yes. It’s how your tax gets paid.

I’ve used it more for emergency (more flexible workplace) for example chicken pox & appendicitis.
Not sure if it quite fits in with this as we could use it without notice & only a couple of days as needed.
I’ve never thought to ask to use it for leave for holidays etc
I do have a very supportive boss and with my daughter during some mental health issue I was allowed to utilise carers leave which helped a lot with emergencies or after a late night a&e visit catching up on sleep! But I’d never take advantage of it.

My work let me take a day a month unpaid to cover the two weeks a year I want to take of parental leave so I don’t get one big hit. I usually only take one week so get a week paid back. Daughter starts senior school in September so probably won’t use it anymore.

Wow, I can't believe I have a child who is almost into double figures and I didn't know this was a thing!

It's sad that this isn't more well known, but I can understand from an employers perspective that it's difficult for cover.

I've been thinking about this and wondering about doing something next summer. Maybe 2 weeks paid annual leave and 2 weeks unpaid parental leave. (I'm sole employee so no one else to consider and DH has a technical role that he can hire freelancers to sub for him)

If approved - do you think it would be okay to ask for those 2 weeks unpaid to be spread out over the salary from April to March?

Employers can refuse the date you ask for and give you alternative dates within a certain time period. A colleague at work used it when their partner was diagnosed with terminal cancer to look after their kids.

You can’t do that.