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Author Meghann Foye became a target for angry moms everywhere over the weekend after the New York Post published an interview with her titled, “I want all the perks of maternity leave — without having any kids.”
Her fictional novel “Meternity,” which she was trying to promote in the piece, is about a woman who fakes her own pregnancy to get time off work. It’s something 38-year-old Foye admitted she once fantasized about.
“‘You know, I need a maternity leave!'” she recalled telling one of her pregnant friends years ago.
Foye felt parents received special privileges in the workplace — they often got to stay at home when their kids were sick or left early to pick them up. At the time, it made her feel like she had to pick up the slack.
She joked with her co-worker about plotting her escape from “10-hour days, fake baby bump and all.”
“Of course, that didn’t happen. But the more I thought about it, the more I came to believe in the value of a ‘meternity’ leave.”
What exactly is a “meternity” leave, you ask? Foye described it as: “a sabbatical-like break that allows women and, to a lesser degree, men to shift their focus to the part of their lives that doesn’t revolve around their jobs.”
“It’s not ‘me’ time”
Those who don’t have kids, she said, miss out on “that socially mandated time and space for self-reflection.”
Women were quick to inform Foye that her perception of maternity leaves didn’t exactly equate to reality.
“I don’t think most parents would consider maternity leave time that they’re taking to focus on themselves,” said Heidi Rolston of BuildDirect, a Vancouver-based tech company that specializes in home improvement.
“Maternity leave was one of the most challenging, exhausting things I’ve ever done. It’s not ‘me’ time,” Rebecca Ruiz echoed on Twitter.
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“These kinds of portrayals are disappointing because they perpetuate the myth that parental leave is some kind of relaxing vacation.”
READ MORE: Mom’s job cut after maternity leave; what are your rights?
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to leave a bad job or take a mid-career sabbatical,” Mikki Kendall wrote. “Maternity leave isn’t that though.”
Structured time off
So could sabbaticals or unlimited vacations be the solution?
This past January, BuildDirect introduced unlimited vacation to its 320 employees, some of whom have already taken a month off.
All employees (including new hires) are able to take as many month-long vacations in a year as they want, as long as their work gets done.
“We need to have flexibility in how we work,” Rolston said of the company’s results-driven philosophy. “And that’s why we want to focus on results rather than clocking in and clocking out.”
She realizes the concept of unlimited vacation may be difficult for a lot of organizations to wrap their heads around.
READ MORE: 6-hour workday catching on in Sweden; could it work in Canada?
“It’s sometimes hard to let go for fear of what might happen if people are left to manage themselves more directly.
“So far we’ve had nothing but good stuff,” she said, though.
WATCH: Why more employers are moving to an unlimited vacation plan
Some companies also allow what’s called a “deferred salary leave” program. It lets employees deduct a certain amount of their salary each month, and put it towards a future leave of absence.
“There’s nothing to stop any employer from offering their employees” such a program, financial expert Tim Cestnick told The Globe and Mail years ago.
A Service Canada employee told Global News that each province has its own set of rules for such a leave. But ultimately, it’s up to each employer.
So if some “me” time is what you’re after, you may want to check if your workplace offers those opportunities.
Just don’t count on a top up from your employer, like those on parental leave are entitled to.
READ MORE: Mothers who take parental leave see lower wages: study
As for Foye, in an interview with The View on Monday, she said the “meternity” leave she took in her 30s helped her figure out what she really wanted in life.
She stressed the term she coined was never intended to be synonymous with a maternity leave, nor did she mean to trivialize motherhood.
Her intended message was, in fact, the opposite: “We all need to have more empathy for each other and understand what we’re going through,” she said on The View.
“And ironically, that’s actually what the whole point of my book is.”
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