Harvard Library is committed to supporting employees' personal and professional lives, which may include an employee taking a leave of absence. As a manager, your role is crucial in helping employees navigate their transitions away from and return to work. Your HR Consultant is always available to meet with you to sensitively and effectively approach these challenges and transitions.

An employee's plans for taking a leave call on a manager's planning skills. Advance consideration of how you will cover the employee's job responsibilities during their leave, along with sensitivity to the personal challenges or changes they may be facing, will pay dividends in your whole work group's productivity, morale, and retention.

Whenever one of your staff members will be taking a leave, please notify the appropriate leaves consultant as early as possible for assistance:

• For Harvard Library staff, please contact the Central Administration Leave of Absence Specialist, Alexandria Zaccagnini, at 617-496-1081 or alexandria_zaccagnini@harvard.edu
• For Harvard College Library staff, please contact the FAS Leaves Consultant, Nikki Brown, at 617-496-2553 or leaves@fas.harvard.edu

The Importance of Sensitivity and Compassion

While the process of considering, approving, and managing an employee's leave involves documentation and adherence to rules, it is important to always bear in mind your employee's personal challenges and feelings, and to communicate with sensitivity and compassion. Be aware that work demands and the need for documentation may be the furthest things from your employee's mind, and be prepared to be flexible in dealing with them. Your willingness to help staff balance work and personal issues—and your kindness throughout these encounters—can lead to greater employee loyalty, morale, and retention that may extend to the affected employee's co-workers as well.

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

The FMLA covers many of life's challenges, as detailed in our Family and Medical Leave overview, and virtually every situation covered by the FMLA involves strong emotions, whether joy at a baby's arrival or fear and stress at news of a medical issue.

In accordance with the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Harvard provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave (”FMLA Leave”) to eligible employees during a twelve-month period for one or more of the following reasons:

• For incapacity due to pregnancy, prenatal medical care, or child birth.
• To care for the employee’s child after birth or placement for adoption or foster care.
• To care for the employee’s spouse (which includes qualified domestic partner as per Harvard policy), son or daughter, or parent who has a serious health condition.
• For a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform his or her job.
• To attend to certain obligations relating to a family members' military service.

Additional unpaid time off is allowed for Multiple Births/Adoptions (8 weeks per child born or adopted concurrently, under the Massachusetts Maternity Leave Act); and Military Family Leave (up to 26 weeks, depending on the reason for the leave).