When you're pregnant, we recommend you inform your lead and the Lifely confidant no later than three months before your due date. This allows us enough time to have the necessary paperwork in order for the Dutch social security institute (UWV). We also need a pregnancy statement from your doctor with the due date.
As a partner (if you're not the one giving birth) you're also entitled to leave of absence after the birth of your child. The official term for this is birth leave ('geboorteverlof'). By law you can take six weeks off to enjoy your new baby and help your partner (within the first six months after birth), from which the first week is paid 100% and the following five weeks are 70% paid. Just make sure you and your Lead have made arrangements about the continuity of the ongoing projects/work within your team during your absence.
Again, please let us know if you and your partner encounter unexpected complications. We’ll do our best to help where we can.
As a parent (both parents) you're also entitled to parental leave for every child. In total, you can have 26 x your weekly work hours off per child. So if for example you work 40 hours a week, this would amount to 26 x 40 = 1040 hours of parental leave for each child. This right applies to each child separately and you can make use of it until a child is eight years old. You can choose to take time off either for a longer period at once, or spread it out, for example one day per week off.
Update August 2022: from 2 August 2022, a maximum of 9 out of your 26 weeks parental leave is 70% paid. Paid parental leave is only possible in your child’s first year (or in the first year of caring for an adoptive- of foster child).
Important note → During the greater part of parental leave (26 - 9 weeks paid = 17 weeks), your salary and other allowances won't be paid. This means that you aren't saving up for holiday hours or holiday allowance.
Please, notify your Lead and HR if you're planning to take parental leave. HR can help you with all your questions.
We love babies. And now that we have made some of our own, we also understand how challenging this period in your life is going to be (even under the best circumstances). That's why we've implemented the following additional policies to support parents.
We fully understand new parents don't have the mind-space anymore for 40-hour work weeks. Therefore, we offer you the opportunity to lower your working hours up to 40% during the first year of parenthood. You'll then be able to increase your hours later in the year when you're ready. By law, Lifely can't keep your working hours at this lower level. We guarantee you can go back to your pre-birth contract hours.
Chances are very likely your baby could be sent home from daycare, let's say because of a fever or some other unfortunate circumstance (all forms of daycare are valid, be it professional or informal, like grandparents). You're not expected to compensate for those lost hours.