How did you tell your boss?

[CPB]

Good morning. I'm 12 weeks pregnant and I think I need to tell my boss soon. I don't intend to return to work after our baby is born since I'd rather work from home. How did you tell your boss?

Thanks, CPB in St. Louis

[miranda]

Well, I'm very lucky in that I work for a small law firm and have a good relationship with my boss, so I just asked if I could speak with him and told him that I am expecting a baby in July. I think I was about 12 weeks along when I told him. He congratulated me and told me that he feels I'm an asset to his business and that the frim was open to any kind of schedule that I want after the baby, whether it was not working at all or changing my hours, etc. I wrote up a proposal with what would work for me and it was accepted. I imagine that other ladies out there might not have had as easy an experience with it as I did, as I said I'm very lucky.

HTH!

[mama2m&m]

I took mine to lunch to pop the surprise. He was fine with it and was flexible as well which surprise me since it was my second absence. Apparently during the first they discovered I was actually an asset LOL.

Depending on you work environment you may or may not want to tell them now that you're leaving, but be sure to give them plenty of notice to rehire and train. We had one woman go out on maternity leave and just never showed back up. Never called, we had to track her down. Nothing wrong with staying home but it pays to be up front. I'm glad you'll have the opportunity and congrats on your pg!

[boobear]

I work in a male dominated, fast paced company. For me, it makes sense to wait. I'm 17 weeks now and will wait until I can't hide it any longer. I'm hoping to be a SAHM this time around.

It helped me that my manager (who moved up a level during my pregnancy) and his wife had a baby 3 mos before I did, he could relate. Before I left I was able to propse a different work load/schedule that fit a need and got it (I lucked out).

There's no policy that requires a preg woman to inform her manager/company at a certain time. Watch out for yourself first, you have the health benefits & income now, with a baby on the way your priorities will definitely shift. Nice that you can stay home after! :)

Weigh it out, what's your boss's attitude toward you, family, babies, maternity leave, stress at work, etc.. some of us are luckier than others in the workplace.

[panda]

This has definitely been on my mind. Ack. My boss is very friendly, and I work with great people, and I still dread telling them. I'm going on vacation next week, and intend to tell them when I get back -- I'll be 13 weeks.

I'm leaning towards quitting after the babe is born. DH doesn't want me to tell them. According to him, I should give my 2 weeks notice 2 weeks before I'd return from maternity leave. They don't have paid leave here, but I could use my accrued sick time (I'll have almost 5 weeks).

I don't know if I'll have the guts to do that, though. I agree that I don't want to say I'm leaving until much closer to the birth, since I want to be able to change my mind. Who knows, DH could lose his job, or maybe I'll just decide to keep working.

I hope, though, that I can tell everyone here at work that I'm pregnant, and somehow put off talking about my plans for post-baby employment. Does anyone think this is realistic? I'm not showing at all yet, but my fatigue might be giving me away. This is a small community, too, so I think if I wait much longer they'll hear it from someone (the HR director is my cousin :D . She knows, but she's keeping it quiet!).

[CeraMae]

I'm suddenly thrust into that situation also as I'm 34 weeks and my job situation has changed. I work for the state and they are doing layoffs, so to keep my job I'd have to be demoted. Simultaneously, my dh got a huge promotion and I look at it as a sign that I need to stay home and not him.
NEway everyone has made a huge deal this whole time about how much they love me and never want me to leave, and up until now I hadn't intended. I have to break into everyone that things have changed and I'll only be here another month. They all know about the layoffs but think I'm taking the demotion . . .

I just know I could never go on leave and then not come back. If I didn't like my job or the people, I would. What sucks is that by doing this I'll be "resigning" and losing my shot at unemployment (which would be a nice cushion :) ) But I feel wrong not saying anything. I am still trying to find a way to ask them to still lay me off so that I can collect unemployment, but feel wrong even asking that! Does anyone agree??

[boobear]

CeraMae, if you're comfortable enough to let your boss know you'd like to be layed off it might make his job easier. Good luck.

I've been forced to change jobs at work. I need the health care coverage & maternity leave $$ so I'm still holding off telling anyone. I'm glad I waited.. I'm not happy to take on a new job and then announce I'm pregnant but I have to put my family first.

I'll probably offer to work from home a bit while on maternity leave (again). If anything people will appreciate that I offered and I can use my past performance during maternity leave to help justify and avoid lots of negative reactions.

In 5-10 years will I really care much of what is going on today at work?.. ;)