Weekly News Update

17 Comments

1. The Boss Mom column made me feel really, really sad about my upcoming 8 week maternity leave. My brand new job essentially doesn’t “owe” me a single day of leave, past the sick time I earned so far. This means that when my new boss said, “We love babies here, I am assuming you are going to take 2 months off?” that this really means, “The very most leave we will give you is 2 months off”

   I want to cry like a baby. I worry that I won’t be ready to come back to work after just 8 weeks, or that this could really throw a monkey wrench into my breastfeeding plans.

   Can someone who took a short maternity leave reassure me?

   1. My second was a May baby, and I realized that my 12 FMLA weeks would end in mid-August, which is the start of the dog days of trying to find childcare since most camps and preschools end around mid-August. So I went back at just after two months.

      It went fine. I was able to come back two days a week at first, which helped, but I actually didn’t like working that schedule and was happy to start back full-time after Labor Day. A year later, he is Mr. Happy, Smiley, Bouncy who loves hairbrushes and waving at people and objects.

      If you boss is someone who might not be up on maternity leave stuff, you might try mentioning that 12 weeks is actually more the norm, but this is a big “know your office” type thing.

      1. Thank you! That really did help. And I might try to casually bring up the 12 week thing if my boss is in a chatty mood in the next few weeks.

         1. You really should just ask for the 12 weeks if you want it. You will never get it if you don’t advocate for yourself, and really it’s very likely that the worst thing that could happen is he’ll say no. Big whoop.

   2. I only had 6 weeks with #1. I was able to nurse him for a year. I started pumping probably after two weeks to get used to it – I had a lot of bags of a half ounce of milk in the freezer – (but they coming handy when you are introducing solids, I just mixed them with the cereal) – but I was able to work out the kinks. Also, he was in daycare very close to work, so I could occasionally go nurse at lunch time (planned in advance a couple times a week) and I’d nurse at pick-up, before heading home. So don’t worry so much about nursing…

      As for being ready – don’t worry too much about it now. You aren’t leaving the wee one, just going to work. The wee one will be asleep most of the time away from you at that age. Just find a safe facility, or care giver. It will be okay.

2. Kat, good to read your experience over on ProBlogger. It was good insight into the behind-the-scenes of Corporette. FOOEY to the commenter that said your baby is more important than your blog. What a troll-jerk.

   1. I wanted to tell him that most things are more important than HIS blog, but JSFAMO prevailed.

      1. Ha — agreed.

   2. It didn’t even make sense to me. I would hope that Kat’s baby is more important than her blog, awesome as the blog is.

3. Anyone understand Kat’s comment about making the most money off of shoes/accessory posts? I didn’t really understand it. I assume she gets paid if we click through to view the item-but does she also get paid more if we buy it? That comment left me feeling a bit squicky-I understand the payments from the ads to the side and the clicks to view, but it seems weird if she gets paid by Target each Friday that a Target item is featured, and we all jump to buy it!

   1. I think she does get paid if we buy through “referral” links – she does a better job of explaining it here :

      https://corporette.com/affiliates/

      But it seems like if we click an affiliate link and buy, Kat gets somewhere between 2 and 15%. I assume shoe and accessory posts do best because shoes and accessories are more “universal” whereas the cut of a dress or the color of a top might not be flattering on a large number of people.

   2. No, it’s really just numbers. In general my commission ranges from 2-20%. Shoe places tend to be on the higher end of the commission spectrum, and the purchases tend to be more dollars (both because the items are more expensive and people tend to buy more items), and as a result I get a higher commission. As with all of these affiliate relationships, if you click a link through me and purchase *anything*, I get a cut of it. That’s how coupon sites like RetailMeNot.com and Ebates make their money too (but, I’m sure, on a much bigger scale.)

      1. I’m glad you get a cut if I purchase anything. I really like your style–hence my presence–but usually I end up buying something I like a wee bit more (but on the same site).

         1. Yeah, it doesn’t bother me at all that she gets a cut. I don’t see any reason she shouldn’t.

            Keep up the good work, Kat!

            1. I felt weird about the affiliate thing at first, too (says the former journalist), but a) I can now monetize almost anything so I don’t think it interferes with my editorial decisions that much at all, and b) because it’s my primary source of revenue it means YOU guys are my primary “clients,” which is how it should be…. I don’t have to do the “hustle” that a lot of bloggers have to do for advertisers and sponsored posts and so forth. (I have ’em here, too, of course, but at least with sponsored posts I hope I keep it to a low roar (like 1 or 2 a month, max), versus the 2-3x per week I’m seeing on other blogs.)

   3. Argh – moderation but check out

      http://corp o r e t t e . com/affiliates/

      without the spaces.

4. Always interesting to hear about people who’ve successfully managed a career change or pregnancy leave. And you did both at the same time: Way to go Kat!

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