Can I just vent about pumping access?

[greenmulberry]

I work for a large University.

There are a number of rooms for pumping in many of the buildings on campus.

When I was pregnant, I was thrilled to find we had a nice pumping room in my building, with wireless Internet and nice chairs.

Well, come to find out they will be doing construction on the top three floors of that building, and it is closed from May 14 to July 16.

No problem, my supervisor, who is a mom herself, said I can pump in her office and she will just take her laptop elsewhere to work while I pump. Sounds like a great solution right?????

Well, our HR administrators for the department got wind of this and think she shouldn't "have" to give up her office for me to pump, and I should walk to one of the other, heavily used and far away rooms. I would have to sign up for pumping times, which doesn;t work  well for me because I have the type of job where I have to go to meetings all the time and I never know what my schedule will be.

I personally think the HR people just think pumping is gross and don't want me to do it in one of the offices. You would think from her expression that I was asking to masturbate in there.

However, luckily my supervisor is supportive, and I think she will help me work around the fact that HR is against this and we will just sneak and do it our way. I just hate the fact that they are making this stressful. If I feel stressed at all I cannot get any milk!!

I realized I should be happy I have access to ANY pumping rooms, even if they are a decent walk and I will have to squeeze in time to use them, but this is really bothering me. If me and my boss have a good arrangement, why does anyone else care what happens????

[Emmeline II]

Do they have the right to interfere in an arrangement between you and your supervisor? It seems to me that human resources people (in general) are supposed to help women with pumping arrangements not interfere with an arrangement in place between a supervisor and employee.

http://www.uiowa.edu/~fyi/issues/issues2003_v41/11072003/index.html

[greenmulberry]

Well, I even got the Director of our office on my side, so I don't think HR can meddle any more. We don't know why HR is so adamantly against me using people's offices, but this HR person was quite strong in the opinion that it was "inappropriate" for someone to leave an office for a while so I can pump.

I discussed this with my supervisor and she told me not to worry, that she will handle any problems with HR and I should just keep on using my boss's office. She said she had to pump for all of her kids and understands how stressful it can be and I shouldn't have to walk far to find a room. We do have a LOT of rooms on campus, but it is just a poor coincidence that the two closest to me are closed right now. The UI is actually very good about this, providing these rooms.

I feel much better about this and it seems like my boss has enough outside meetings that I can just pop into her office a few times a day while she is gone and get the deed done without making a big deal out it!

I was in such a panic last week I just had to come here and vent a little but it seems like it is working out.

[Ravin]

Glad to hear it's working out. I can't say I'm looking forward to the arrangment available at the school where I'm going in the fall. The space is the extremely cramped "mother's room" space in front of the restroom in the basement of the building. The chair is not comfy (I may well do something about that) and it's knees to elbows with a folding changing table, with no other table or counter surface. Since I refuse to clean my pump parts in a restroom, I'll be taking a walk out and upstairs to the rec room where there's a sink.

Currently I have to find a manager to let me in to the electrical room when I need to pump. The only down side of that arrangement is that it has no A/C vent so it's a bit warm in there, and sometimes it takes 15 minutes to find someone to let me in. I sit in a chair just like the ones in the break room, and set my stuff on a box on another chair that's in there for no apparent reason. It works, though.