Time off to breastfeed

[ney001]

People have mostly given begrudging reasons. Women should strive to be better prepared - cmon, that cannot be taken seriously.

Take from it what you will - but in my opinion the woman in particular had 10 months to get into a suitable routine for breastfeeding that doesn't involve an hour off each day and doesn't impact co-workers. So yes I do believe she should have tried to be better prepared or strive to be better prepared whatever suits.

 

[truthseeker]

But if it did, as you suggest, become a more common practice you could at any time have many mothers in a workplace coming in late, leaving for an hour in the afternoon, or leaving an hour early. It just isn't practical. It's ideal, yes, but not practical. A more practical solution would be for the mother to take an hour off unpaid every day and for that money to pay another employee to take on the extra work. At least that would be fairer and would formalise the situation so everyone knew where they stood and no one felt they were being hard done by.

Ah yeah I can see it from both sides alright, I just do think that as a society we are a bit less supportive than we could be of breastfeeding women.

Itd probably drive me mad in the workplace too, particularly if the individual was a general slacker anyway.

 

[liaconn]

Ah yeah I can see it from both sides alright, I just do think that as a society we are a bit less supportive than we could be of breastfeeding women.

Itd probably drive me mad in the workplace too, particularly if the individual was a general slacker anyway.

Fair enough!

Maybe I'm just bitter and twisted because I can't have children so will be unable to take advantage of some of these nifty policies. (Or maybe I'm just fed up answering her phone!)

 

[truthseeker]

Fair enough!

Maybe I'm just bitter and twisted because I can't have children so will be unable to take advantage of some of these nifty policies. (Or maybe I'm just fed up answering her phone!)

Nah, youre not bitter and twisted at all.

Hopefully you feel better for getting it off your chest, if you didnt have me to take the opposing side to draw it all out of you youd still be fuming. Im providing you a good service here lol!!!!

 

[liaconn]

Nah, youre not bitter and twisted at all.

Hopefully you feel better for getting it off your chest, if you didnt have me to take the opposing side to draw it all out of you youd still be fuming. Im providing you a good service here lol!!!!

I owe you a drink, Truthseeker

 

[Firefly]

Itd probably drive me mad in the workplace too, particularly if the individual was a general slacker anyway.

I think this is the crux of it really. There will always be those who take anything that's going....sick on Mondays and Fridays and the like. This benefit is ripe for the picking for these types of people too, and the same people, with a lazy attitude anyway, will probably use the bottle/formula and still take the time off! I generally don't let these people bother me too much anymore...it's a pretty negative mentality IMO and their lives outside of work can't be too enjoyable either..let them off.

Sadly, IMO, there are more of these people where poor performance is not addressed by the fear of getting fired and also where top performance is often not rewarded enough either...people in this situation will tend to gravitate toward the middle. I've worked for large banks, semi-states and large companies where I see this happening. There are exceptions but these are in the margins. I haven't (yet) contracted services to any civil service dept so cannot comment on this but I would imagine this would also hold true too.

 

[The_Banker]

I think this is the crux of it really. There will always be those who take anything that's going....sick on Mondays and Fridays and the like. This benefit is ripe for the picking for these types of people too, and the same people, with a lazy attitude anyway, will probably use the bottle/formula and still take the time off! I generally don't let these people bother me too much anymore...it's a pretty negative mentality IMO and their lives outside of work can't be too enjoyable either..let them off.

Sadly, IMO, there are more of these people where poor performance is not addressed by the fear of getting fired and also where top performance is often not rewarded enough either...people in this situation will tend to gravitate toward the middle. I've worked for large banks, semi-states and large companies where I see this happening. There are exceptions but these are in the margins. I haven't (yet) contracted services to any civil service dept so cannot comment on this but I would imagine this would also hold true too.

But surely if it wasnt for the slackers in an organisation then the people with the "can do" attitude wouldnt look so good?

While the slackers will languish on the lowest rung of the ladder the people who work hard, do all the extra hours humanly possible, come in when sick, neglect their families in the pursuit of advancement will rise to the top and get the recognition they deserve. Wont they?

If everyone worked themselves into an early grave how would management recognise those that deserve to be recognised?

I think the slackers (as someone called them) deserve recognition from those who get promotion/bonuses/share options.
By them sacrificing their careers others can rise to the top.

 

[Purple]

But surely if it wasnt for the slackers in an organisation then the people with the "can do" attitude wouldnt look so good?

While the slackers will languish on the lowest rung of the ladder the people who work hard, do all the extra hours humanly possible, come in when sick, neglect their families in the pursuit of advancement will rise to the top and get the recognition they deserve. Wont they?

If everyone worked themselves into an early grave how would management recognise those that deserve to be recognised?

I think the slackers (as someone called them) deserve recognition from those who get promotion/bonuses/share options.
By them sacrificing their careers others can rise to the top.

Brilliant!

 

[ney001]

I think the slackers (as someone called them) deserve recognition from those who get promotion/bonuses/share options.
By them sacrificing their careers others can rise to the top.

Yeah but if you give the slackers recognition then they will have achieved something significant, then they are not slackers anymore they've become achievers - it's a catch 22 I reckon the achievers should just carry on ignoring the work done by the slackers - thereby keeping the status quo!

 

[casiopea]

Take from it what you will - but in my opinion the woman in particular had 10 months to get into a suitable routine for breastfeeding that doesn't involve an hour off each day and doesn't impact co-workers. So yes I do believe she should have tried to be better prepared or strive to be better prepared whatever suits.

Why do we assume she did not? I do agree with your point regarding planning - and I think most women (and especially working mums) do. You are making a mistake though that many make, including myself until I came face to face with it, which is deciding to breastfeed and when to stop breastfeeding is not one persons decision but two. The mother and the baby.

I went back to work after 8 months with number 1. I planned to phase out breast feeding at around 6 months. While trying to phase it out I came down with mastisis and got very sick, as well as antibiotics one of the cures is to keep on breastfeeding. I made 3 attempts to phase it out and every time got sick finally when my body seemed to cooperate the baby would not and we could not get her onto bottles. So I went back to work still breastfeeding - despite my best plans.

With no. 2 I went back to work after 20 weeks and started phasing out BF much earlier (after 12 weeks) due to my previous experience and after a week the baby and my body cooperated and ironically I stopped breast feeding much sooner than necessary. However when I went back to work baby number 2 got sick and I missed much more work than I ever did with baby number 1.

Number 3 is due in a week. I will breast feed, I will go back to work, I do have a plan, whether it will come to fruition is up to many factors and not just me alone.

In short - your point is correct - the mother should plan how to manage returning to work, but I firmly believe a very high percentage do and despite best laid plans baby and or body might not cooperate.

To the pump point, made by another poster, definitely viable option, its what I did with baby no. 1 when I went back to work but a pump takes twice as long as baby to extract milk. If you can get to baby (which the lady in the OP post seems to wish to do) its much more efficient.

 

[Mynydd]

Maybe it mentioned before, but that piece of legislation covers only for babies up to 26 weeks. There are not many women who return to work earlier due to the 6 months maternity leave unless they are class s PRSI. I always expressed during my own time (break), but the company I work for has changed policy and you are not even allowed to express in work if your baby is older than 6 months.
In most sectors of the civil service you can take extra breaks or leave for breastfeeding until your child turns 2 years of age.