Re:Ask HN: How much time did you take off after the birth of...
by secretagent on Tuesday February 22, 2011 @05:55PM
(#2251969)
I'd rather not give away any clues about my identity since most of my co-workers read Hacker News. I'm just trying to get gauge how others have handled this.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
Re:Ask HN: How much time did you take off after the birth of...
by bartonfink on Tuesday February 22, 2011 @06:38PM
(#2252130)
Okay, that makes sense. I was just curious because the more time you have up front, the easier it's going to be to get the time off without unnecessary friction. Hypothetically, if I were a manager and one of my reports told me "hey, I'm having a baby next Tuesday - can I have two weeks off?" I'd be pretty teed off. I left my last job partly due to a lack of understanding over what my wife's pregnancy meant for my ability to work the same hours as the rest of the team (I was the only one with a kid and nobody understood why it's important for me to go to OB/GYN appointments). Don't put yourself in that situation.
Tell your boss early and remind him/her often that there is a baby on the way and you're going to need this time off. The only way you can screw this up is by springing a huge surprise on your boss like the hypothetical above.
Good luck and congratulations on the baby!