The Work Thread

mamab723

Interested in how you ladies are doing at work as we approach our due dates! I have absolutely NO inspiration or motivation to do anything work related & DH doesn't seem to understand my constant sulking at the thought of work. Baby has completely taken over. Am I the only one completely over work at this point? I feel like it's too early to feel like this lol.

sammierose464

Um...we've actually been talking about this a lot in some of the other threads like symptoms and randoms. 

cjx95

Also the wtf threads have lots of ladies talking about work, feel free to lurk around more and check them out.

jennybean80

I’m off work. And bored out of my damn mind. They keep posting about being short on shifts on our work FB page, and I want soooo bad to be able to go in 

cdepperschmidt

Teacher life. I’m on Summer Break for another week and a half. Then I have to go back from 34-40 weeks pending babies arrival. Last time I worked up to the Friday before my DD and DS was 5 days late.

Also, I think having a work thread is cool. We’ve been venting about it all of over the place, why not keep it in one place.

nikimelon

I am so over the commuting. I love my coworkers so that's the highlight of my day, but I seriously just keep thinking about all the things I need to do at home and it gets hard to really care about work. Plus, I'm not super busy at work, so that leads to a lot of procrastinating on the stuff I should actually be doing. 

Hoping to switch to working remote once October hits, which would mean only like 8 more weeks of actually coming into the office. The countdown is on!

lolo_0924

I was so bored at work the last few weeks and all of the sudden I have multiple assignments with ridiculous deadlines... I’ll be doing a lot from home this week (even with my baby shower being on Sunday)... I keep telling myself only 8 (ish) more weeks! 

mommy2ane

Teacher life here! I start back on Monday (officially) and went in yesterday to bring things to my room and start but I had the kids so I didn’t get nearly as much done. We’re also having insane fires right now here in California so my district closed us down due to air quality (even though we have no students yet) and my PD was cancelled so I can’t even go in to do anything today, which sucks. So I’m planning on taking the kids to daycare tomorrow so I can go in for a couple of hours then grab them to go home and get us ready for an afternoon wedding in San Diego. Never mind... we’re still closed tomorrow. 

I’m hoping that I can work until it’s time to be induced. I've made it to 36 weeks at work with A and 34 weeks with E. So I’m hoping to go to at least 36. We’ll see!

babyptobe

We’re slow this time of year so it’s brutal. I want to sleep at my desk in the worst way! I’m counting down the weeks until maternity leave!

jwebbbber45678

Also a teacher! I did summer school, now currently enjoying my short break. I will be back to work August 27 and work until the baby falls out! It's going to be terrible because my classroom has no air conditioning and only one window opens. Which fires do you live near mommy2ane? I'm in San Diego and we've been spared fires thus far but the heat is crazy! It's been scary reading about those fires up north, rain would be nice but that ain't happening anytime soon!

mommy2ane

@jweber4747 we’re near the Holy Fire in Riverside County. It’s a not too close that we have to worry about it but the smoke in the area is getting bad. They’ve cancelled schools all around me and encouraged all staff to stay home. For us, they’ve totally closed our campuses so I can’t even go in to get prepped. 

HoosOnFirst

I’m totally on board with a work thread!

My boss keeps adding shit to my plate no matter how much I try to be forthcoming about what my capacity is. This is my second leave and I feel like the first time he was much more reasonable. Half the time I dont respond to his nonsense and just hope he forgets because wtf man.

knottie56adf3d4d4cfac69

I had a full-on melt down over work. I am a speech therapist and decided to work the summer school program bc I don't get paid maternity leave when I go out in Oct....between the heat, the kids, the meetings, and the curve balls being thrown at me by my boss...i lost it. Full on lost it! I now get to have a couple of weeks before school starts, but I am dreading September!

BabyRobbinsAdventure

Another teacher. Except I’m at a year round school, so “summer break” was back in June, and started my 2018-2019 class this week.
I plan on working until the end since my next “break” actually starts the day I go for my c section.
The heat hovering right below 100 and the smoke from the Cali fires is killing me. Taught my students how to check the AQI on the computer so we know what days we can go out to recess, and the days we do it’s absolutely terrible since I’m out there with them for my duty.

chyvie

When I return to work on Monday, after my week off, I only have 7 weeks before I go on my Mat leave. It's the only thing that is keeping me going. I'm so over work. I haven't got a new project since I announced I was pregnant. Projects take 6-12 months so I figure they just don't want to have to deal with the hand off when I leave. It means I'm just assisting other people and doing task work which is super boring but also kind of good because I'm less stressed. With all I had going on these last months i guess it was a blessing. 

Mylitta

This is me... all day every day. Sigh

elothair

Ugh. I still have 10 weeks to go - planning on working until the 19th (due the 28th) and it seems so far away still! I worked up until the end with my other two with no issue but am already regretting making that choice this time around. But I’d rather have my mat leave with baby than before baby comes so going to suck it up and get through it - I really hope we hire a replacement soon though so I can start training them!!!

My team is only 6 women (5 who do my job and one office manager) and all the other ladies I work with are nearing retirement and having lots of health issues lately so I’m really worried how they’ll manage without me for a year while a newbie tries to fill my shoes (it’s a very niche role with lots of moving parts so it takes quite a while to really get up to speed on everything). I have visions of working with baby strapped to me!

drb2424

 Im up for a work thread too.  I mentioned this elsewhere but for some reason I thought it would be a great idea to switch jobs 3 months before maternity leave   Not so sure what I was thinking!!! I am a nurse in a clinic and had been on the adult medicine floor for the last 2.5 years and there was an opening for the same position on our peds floor so I am moving there full time when I come back from leave.  Currently I am working half days on each floor and have to train my new colleague on Peds who will cover me while I am out on leave.  We also just hired my replacement on the adult floor and she doesn't start until 9/24... I am supposed to train her as well but who knows how far I will go this time.  Also at 37 weeks how great will I really be at training some one?? I keep saying I chose this, I did this to myself. Sorry for the long rant

jengibre_zorro

My last work trip is next week, and thought of waddling onto a plane makes me want to barf.  This is our busy season, so things won't slow down until pretty much October.  I will work up until baby comes, but i have a weird premonition this baby will come before it's due date (which is pretty much a guarantee it will be 2 weeks late...)

rc-cola

Also working up until my due date although my last trial is going to be Sept 5, and then just office work and supervising after that. Of course our new class of baby lawyers starts in late September—and people want to know what the plan is but so far there isn’t one yet...

quiltandknit

Working up til my due date here also. Although starting next week I have to split my time between two offices. Not excited about that and wasn’t asked when this decision was made. Fortunately I have a built-in expiration date!

bntfroggie

I'm cruising on TheBump and Facebook, so you can assume I'm super productive.

Anyways I will work up until I go into labor or I'm inducted in 10 wks.  Either way only 10wks left and I'm taking two extra months unpaid with the baby so I'm pretty excited about that.  I go back to work March 1st from whenever my maternity leave starts.

pajamstagrams

I'm planning to work up until the end as well. Hopefully, since they call our work environment "agile" (*eyeroll* ) that means this actually means agile working as in "work from home". My goal is to see if I can work from home the last week, and just come in as necessary. No clue if that will work, I'll have to ask my new boss that is official Sept 1.

nugget2ehf

I'm real over having to do things for work, when all my brain wants to do is focus on baby stuff. I plan to work til the end, but also think it'd be nice to have a few days before the baby comes. It would almost be nice to have a firm end date. Because I wouldn't want to take off the week before my due date and then her end up being 2 weeks late or something. I'm not good with unscheduled things. But also really want to go with the flow.

dellusion

I'm trying to train my boss on my job and delegate as much as I can to my direct reports starting this month so I can help with questions while i'm still here.  Still haven't talked to HR about being pregnant and going on leave, but to be fair, they request no one contact them until 34 weeks.  Determined that the earliest I can have baby and still get through the holidays on FMLA is Oct 8th, but my OB just told me today she wants to induce on the 5th (39wks).  Hoping I can just go late and enjoy the holidays without worrying about coming in before New Years.  My motivation level is low overall.  I still need to write reviews for everyone on my team and determine raises in the next few weeks so my boss can use that while i'm gone (reviews are generally written mid to late Oct and given in December so i'll be out for all of it). 

nasalot188

6 weeks to go...6 weeks to go...

They keep trying to convince me to stay an extra week, but I really don't want to. Sticking to my guns.

HoosOnFirst

I actually had a good meeting with my boss where he acknowledged he’s been forgetting how close my leave is as he’s preoccupied with some very stressful issues at work. Encouraged me to remind him more, push him on things I need from him and not feel bad about it.

Also I made a ton of progress on my leave plan document for my team today so it felt like a win.

cagncoo12

Working till the end for me! It’s going to be hard, I know once October hits all I will want to do is lay around and eat spice cake and pie. Hopefully these next 10 weeks fly by! 

BrittanyCupcakes

I'm working from home twice a week, starting today. I must admit I didn't get a whole lot done today, but I probably wouldn't have gotten much done anyways at the office, there just isn't a lot to be done. The higher ups are all taking vacations over the next week, and we rushed to get a lot done yesterday before the owner left for his. 

shortstack930

I'm working until the end also. I thought it would be easier this pregnancy since I work part time (worked full time last pregnancy) but working third shift while pregnant is no joke. I am so done at this point.

sunnyknightsarah

I’m working until my due date as well. 8 weeks and 5 days to go! 

I have my biggest work event of the year this Wednesday and am trying to stay calm since I’m usually stressed and preoccupied the days leading up to it. I am an employee engagement rep and I host engagement and morale events for my organization’s 6000 employees across 27+ states. We have 2400 of those employees in our CO location so I am executing a summer appreciation BBQ on Wed and expect a turnout of about 1850 people. I adore my job but it’s also a lot of detail, high visibility (aka everyone knows if you screw up), and I don’t have a staff - it’s just me so it’s a lot of work. 

I have my mid-year performance review with the VP the next day so this event quite literally will set the tone for that review. And I want to talk to him about potentially going part time after maternity leave so I want this event to go perfectly to start the convo off on a positive note. I’m looking forward to things slowing down after the beginning of September but the next 3-4 weeks are going to be crazyyy. 

tropical1982

I get to work from home starting 2 weeks before my due date, that still leave me 8 weeks at work.  My job will be done by a colleague from China who is coming to the US on temp assignment.  She's supposed to arrive the 24th, I need to make sure all my work procedures are up to date.  All I want to do is take a nap!

sammierose464

@sarahzett that sounds awesome and crazy stressful at the same time!! I'm sure everything will go great! good luck!!

My current plan is to work until he comes, although I'm going to talk to my dr about seeing if I can be written to work from home 2-3 days a week. I'm having really rough days in the office lately. I need to make it through Sept 15 as that's the kick off for Open Enrollment and I'll feel much better if I can get that far. 

vjmc421

I’m back from summer break, too. Staff started last Monday, students today. I’ll work until the baby comes. I decided to go part time this year, so that helps with the exhaustion. I about died last week when I had to do full days for staff development 

krgriffin26

I will continue to work until baby arrives. I did with my first too. I worked a full 40 hours until arrival. She came on a Sunday so I was at work the whole day Friday before. Each day I just made sure that if it was the time that the office would know where things are. This time the same. I leave notes on stacks and notes in files. I am a legal assistant for small firm. Unless I have to go on bed rest or get induced, work is where you will find me! 

lauryndb

First time mom. Due date 10/26. Husband got a new job in July so we moved. I just started a new job as a pre k teacher (previously kindergarten teacher) and I’m trying to find the policies for my new county as far as maternity leave. Oh and we close on a house next week. I’ve definitey hit exhaustion. But super excited to meet baby girl. 

sunnyknightsarah

Update - I had my mid year career review and let my newish boss (he took over 3 months ago) know I was not able to come back full time but would love to hear his thoughts on part time (which is not something my company really likes doing). I was absolutely shocked he was on board!!! He said he loves me, loves my my work, and he wants to retain my talent in whatever way I am comfortable. He was incredibly supportive and also said if I have the baby and then decide I don’t want to return to work after all, he understands that as well and to just keep talking to him and communicating. I fully expected this to go a different way (he’s known for being a hardass and unaccomodating) so I am so pumped!! 

HoosOnFirst

My boss just asked me to do a software implementation before my leave. For real.

nikimelon

Work has been the least of my worries....up until now.

I'll be 32 weeks tomorrow and there's still no real plan in place on how to support my team while I'm gone. I'm a top performer in my team of 4, and when my manager was on maternity leave I stepped in to fill that role to keep everyone on track while she was gone. She's been back for 6 months but is still not focused or engaged with us again and now my closest coworker (the next most experienced) is starting to worry about having to shoulder everything once I'm gone since my manager is pretty much checked out mentally.

Top it off with the fact that at the beginning of the summer my manager mentioned to me that our intern may stay on through the fall (which would be great because she could help with tasks for the whole team), but never followed through to put in the extension so the intern is now 2 weeks away from leaving and has not yet received any word or paperwork about staying on as a consultant. 

Finally, even though the intern at this point is preparing to not be here in the fall, my manager approached me yesterday to say that the intern can just sit at my desk while I'm gone and I can just clear it off before I leave. It's not that big of a deal, but as someone who is already feeling kind of vulnerable professionally about being gone for 3 months, the idea of having to "clear my desk" and have someone else take over my area is causing me a bit of anxiety. Like, I think I'll have an emotional reaction to removing my name tag off my cube. I've politely suggested the intern (if she'll even be here) sit at an empty desk that is only 2 spots away from mine, so she's still close to the other teammates if she needs support/has questions, in the offshoot chance she actually stays and is here while I'm still here. That way it's not awkward and I don't have to feel like I'm being pushed out.

Whew. Anyway, trivial stuff for sure compared to what some of you are going through but I just needed a place to rant a bit. I guess it's inevitable stuff like this rises to the surface once you get to the final weeks!

sammierose464

It's frustrating when you can't rely on your manager and the stress is pushed to the rest of the team. It's not fair to any of you. I can understand the anxiety about your desk as well. I'd have no issue with someone using mine, but wouldn't want to move my stuff 

jandmnumber1

I am so done with work! I can’t even bend over to tie my work boots up now. Ugh the struggle!!