Family First

Just to give you an example of how important the core family is to Irish life and culture, let me show you a small part of company policy (national law) regarding maternity leave:

'The leave must commence 2 weeks before the end of the expected week of confinement (due date - this must be medically certified) and the employee may not return back to work any earlier than 4 weeks after the end of the expected week of confinement.'

That's crazy! They MAKE you take 6 weeks off and then the allowance is even more crazy. any guesses on how long you can take off with no fear of penalty? Well, it's only 22 weeks at the moment but that will change to 26 in March. and you get a payment through a special government program, so you don't quite lose out on money either. Madness.

Other than that the policies seem to match up pretty well with companies from home. I read through it once before (when I was hired in August) but they just re-issued it and you have to sign that you accept it and send the signed sheet back to the head office. Much like home.

Wait. I kept reading. After the 6 months, if you're still breastfeeding, you can take an hour of paid leave every day to go home and feed the baby. There's still no paternity leave, but it looks like this company lets you use 'parental leave' for the same purpose. Very cool.

You may be wondering what's with all the talk about babies? I ASSURE you it's not because the thought of having my own has even entered my mind. I'm just boggled because I know professional women who have put off having children or who wish they had more time to spend after their child's birth who would LOVE this policy. It boggles me how much they push family values and children to the forefront over here. Again - very cool.

That's about the extent of it. The other highlight was the 21 days paid leave, although they prefer you don't take more than 2 weeks at a time except for special circumstances. Billy and Dianne (the couple from the wedding) took 3 weeks for their wedding. Most couples take about a month when they get married. Most couple at home I know are lucky to get a day or two beforehand off.

Alrighty - back to work. Just thought I'd ramble about that for a bit... Hope everyone's having a great Thursday and looking forward to Friday!! ;-)