Stranded in Houston thanks to SuperShuttle

I've been a professional services marketer for the past 16 years and spent a considerable amount of my career as a member of the Society for Marketing Professional Services. Maybe I should rephrase that...I've been an active member of SMPS since 1997. My involvement has included board positions on the New York and Long Island chapters (I'm currently president of the LI chapter)and I served on various national committees.

This past weekend, I went to Houston to be one of the jurors of the Marketing Communications Awards. Historically, the judging takes place in the city where the current committee chair is based and over 100 judges and volunteers get together for this "meeting of the minds."

Friday was a travel day and some networking took place, we reviewed close to 200 entries on Saturday and Sunday was a travel day. Well...it was a travel day for everybody but me.

I made my reservation in advance for SuperShuttle to pick me up from my hotel and take me to the airport. Included in my reservation profile was my flight information. THE VAN NEVER SHOWED UP. When I noticed that 10 minutes had passed and there wasn't a sign of the van's arrival, I called customer service to find out what was going on. As a New Yorker, I understand traffic and realized the possibility that the van might be stuck in traffic...I'm in DT Houston, there's an Astros game in the vicinity, a bunch of festivals, etc. Imagine my surprise when traffic wasn't an issue but the van couldn't even be found. To add insult to injury, the local office was even answering their phones.

Needless to say, I'm frantic. The van is late/can't be located, I have to get to the airport, go through security, make a flight, and the customer service rep can't give me any answers. I spent over an hour on the phone (mostly on hold) while the customer service rep was locating the van, locating a dispatcher, locating a supervisor...meanwhile I'M STILL IN THE HOTEL LOBBY WAITING FOR A RIDE. At the conclusion of the call, the only thing the customer service rep could say was "I don't know what to tell you." What kind of a response was that?

I ended up paying out of pocket for a private cab to get to the airport but missed my flight. By the time I got through security and to my gate, the doors were already closed and I saw my plane leaving without me.

The best the airline could do was have me go standby on the next flight...leaving the following morning. There was a seat for me on a flight leaving 18 HOURS LATER!!! I'm stranded in Houston due to the gross incompetence and negligence of SuperShuttle and based on the response (or lack thereof) from their staff, they really couldn't give a damn.

If you've been following me on Facebook and/or Twitter, you know that I spent Sunday night & Monday morning putting SuperShuttle on blast. In addition, I filed complaints against them with various agencies and disputed the charge on my credit card.

Yesterday afternoon, I got a voicemail from Corporate to find out what happened. I gave my side of the story, was given an apology and was told that there was an obvious breakdown on their end (ya think?). I was also told that I should've been taken care of by SuperShuttle in terms of a better response time (an hour on the phone is unacceptable), better follow through, a cab on their dime, hotel stay on their dime, etc. What should've happened and what actually happened are two streets that never met. To tell me what "should've happened" after I finally made it home falls along the lines of the proverbial "day late and dollar short."

In the meantime, SuperShuttle is "researching" my case and will be in touch "in a few days." Whatever.

NYS Disability in a nutshell

One can collect up to 50% of his or her salary with a maximum of $170 a week. So if you make $340 a week or less (which equals $8.50 an hour), the 50% business applies to you.

Like unemployment, when one is accepted to receive benefits, the first week is considered a "hold week" and benefits are not paid.

In the case of pregnancy, a woman can collect payments for 4 weeks prior to the birth of her child and 6 weeks afterward for a vaginal delivery or 8 weeks for a c-section.

In my case, I worked until my 37th week and delivered 6 days after I stopped working. My first week off was considered a hold week and since Jordyn was born during that week, I could only collect for 5 weeks & 3 days.

I wonder what our elected officials have to say about this

To say that I am pissed off about what rights women have for maternity leave is an understatement. I found out that I am cut off from disability and that led to my decision to return to work 5 weeks earlier than I intended. I started writing about what annoys me about the system and sent that text to my elected officials. The following contains portions of what I sent.

For years, I have heard about the rights (or lack thereof) that women have when they go on maternity leave. In recent months, I learned firsthand about the deplorable conditions that women are subjected to when taking time off from work to give birth and spend time recovering…[I] was in for the biggest surprise of my life when I learned that the most that I am entitled to from disability is $170 per week; this equals 12% of my weekly salary. To make matters worse, the economy doesn’t help matters; my husband lost his job as an engineer and hasn’t had much luck securing employment. What we collect on a monthly basis between his unemployment benefits and my disability payments is less than what I gross on a bi-weekly basis when I work. I found comfort in the fact that I was able to work until my 37th week of pregnancy (6 days before my daughter was born) even though my doctor classified my pregnancy as high-risk and am fortunate that I have a job to go back to at the conclusion of my leave. I knew that I had the right to take 12 weeks off under FMLA and my firm allowed me to take 14 weeks.

My firm doesn’t have a “human resources” department so it was difficult for me to find out what I will be facing while I’m on leave; the only concrete thing that I knew of is that my job was protected. As part of my benefits package, I paid into a disability package only to learn that those payments were for a “long term disability” program which did not apply to my situation. The maximum payment I could receive on “short term disability” is $170 a week which is beyond insulting and inhumane; to add insult to injury, the State Disability Board reserves the right to terminate payments 6 weeks after the birth of a child. Since “disability” implies that one had a medical condition that forbids a person to work, there is a need to carry health insurance to pay for doctor visits to continue the certification of not being allowed to work; the substandard disability payments make paying for COBRA impossible.

It is rather disconcerting that a woman who has worked hard to forge a career path has to be forced to live in destitution because she decided to take time off to have a baby...I loathe the fact that this detestable situation forces me to go back to work a lot earlier than I intended and I wonder how productive I will be on a day-to-day basis. My daughter isn’t sleeping though the night which means that I’m getting up a few times per night to take care of her. I can’t operate at my peak if I’m sleep deprived.…

Quite frankly, I don’t know what genius determined that $170 a week is acceptable compensation for somebody that’s unable to work while somebody that’s unemployed can collect up to $405 per week. The fact is that living expenses (mortgage, utilities, etc.) and other incidental expenses need to be paid; LIPA, National Grid et al don’t want to hear “I can’t pay because I’m on disability,” they only want to hear that payment is on the way. Additionally, unemployment compensation is paid weekly via direct deposit while disability is paid biweekly by a paper check which is mailed. My first check was for $170 (before deductions) and I had to wait 2 weeks to get another check for $340 (before deductions). I am owed a check which is a week late and when I checked the automated system, I found out that I was only paid for three days instead of 10. I resent that a bureaucracy is messing with my money and feels justified in doing so. A person that’s collecting unemployment is encouraged to find temporary assignments and if he or she can’t secure such assignments during a given week, there’s a payment of $405 that will be arriving. Meanwhile, a person that doesn’t have medical authorization to work is basically penalized for being unable to work. This disparity doesn’t give one much encouragement to try and maintain employment with a company when getting fired would be more profitable.

It’s tough to fathom that a global economic leader places such low values on the rights of working mothers. There seems to be a higher concern for residents of countries that can’t be located on a map and I feel that’s completely disgusting.

Does anybody see something wrong with this picture?

I’ve worked on a relatively consistent basis for the past 20 years. During that time, I went to college, took a couple of stabs at grad school and found a career. I got married 2-1/2 years ago and on April 22, we welcomed a baby girl.

I work for a “small” company which has 70 employees and I’ve been there for 2 years. Great bunch of folks and the owners are very much into the staff having a “work-life” balance. I knew that my job would be protected through FMLA but I was in for a big surprise for everything else tied into my maternity leave.

I work for an engineering firm and there aren’t a lot of women my age in the company. The women that work there either done having kids or aren’t even thinking of having them so I had a tough time getting my questions answered in terms of what I stand to receive financially while on leave. When I joined the firm, I added long-term disability to my benefits package but I learned that LTD doesn’t help me with leave. I am out on short term disability and I was beyond shocked to find out that I am entitled to $170 a week which is payable every two weeks. The State of New York’s disability program grants workers to get 50% of one’s salary, up to $170 a week. Not for nothing, it’s been a long time since I’ve made $8.50 an hour (which yields $340 a week). It goes without saying that I’m pretty pissed off that I have to live on a small fraction of my weekly salary. I find it pretty messed up that a person collecting unemployment can receive up to $405 a week but the maximum for disability is $170.

What does one do in such a situation? My husband and I mentioned the possibility of my returning to work 2 months earlier than I planned. It was my intention to take 14 weeks off and I found the possibility of reducing my time off to be heartbreaking to say the least. There were times that I found myself without a job and I found the drama & BS associated with collecting unemployment to be too much and I found it to be more profitable to temp. I don’t know what brainiac determined that $170 a week is sufficient for somebody that’s unable to work to maintain some type of lifestyle. The reality is that living expenses including mortgage, utilities and food still need to be paid as well as other incidental expenses that one incurs. Also remember, that this is disability which means that one needs to provide certifications from a doctor attesting to the inability to work and the last I checked, going to see a doctors costs money.

My health insurance coverage was carried by my firm for the first 6 weeks of disability and I got a letter stating that continuing my coverage can happen via COBRA at a tidy sum of $1,100/month and some change. Oh gee, I don't even break $700 a month on disability.