Every employer is different. Some companies allow for long, extended leaves. Others prohibit them.

But the federal Family and Medical Leave Act does make some guarantees for people looking to add children to their families or who are tending to an illness, for instance.

For the most part, the Family and Medical Leave Act allows for 12 weeks of unpaid time off. An employee isn’t guaranteed that they’ll return to the exact job they left, but a similar one with the same pay, benefits and hours, says Mary Lou Drake, president of Drake & Associates in the Research Triangle Park area.

Not every employee qualifies.

An employee must work for an employer with 50 or more employees. If her office doesn’t have 50 employees, but the company has a total of 50 or more employees at other sites within 75 miles, she still can qualify.

But there still are other hurdles to cross.

To qualify, an employee must have worked for the company for 12 months (though not consecutively) and worked at least 1,250 hours during the preceding 12 months.

Twelve weeks are allowed within any 12-month period.

New fathers are allowed the same time off. But if a couple works for the same company and both wish to take leave, they can only take a combined total of 12 weeks, Drake said.

Employees can use accumulated sick and vacation time to help cover expenses during those 12 weeks, but not to extend the leave time, Drake said. Often companies also offer short-term disability policies, which can cover a portion of a salary for six to eight weeks.

Drake said it’s best to talk to your boss or human relations department when you begin letting the world know about your plans.

Check out www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/ for more details about the act and how it might apply to you.