What are your pump room rules?

shannm

After six months of sharing a room nicely with another person, someone has joined the crew and decided to make a sign up sheet.  (Of course this was done without consulting anyone else and I had to find it at the room this morning.  No one was in the room and I didn't even check the new signup and then I had a crazed person outside the room pounding on the door trying to get in.  FWIW, I am never in there for more than 15 minutes MAX.  Oh and the person literally works in the same room as me, about 20 feet away and could have easily talked to me before hand....)

Anyway, it looks like they want to have a signup for each day rather than a blanket schedule.  Fine.  But frankly, a schedule for me is a big PITA because my activity each day is so variable.  And I just squeeze in a ten minute pump when I can.  I will try to schedule it but I want to know what to expect when I miss my time slot or have to squeeze time in elsewhere.

So my question to you is what are your schedule rules?  If someone has a 1/2 hour block, and no one is in the room 15 minutes in, is it fair game?  Or do you wait till the 30 is up and then go in?  Do you set time limits?

So I will play nice (sigh) but I want to get your advice in terms of the best way to set it up. 

aglenn

We signed up for regular times on an Excel spreadsheet.  If I missed my regular time I would usually try to find someplace else to pump (big office, only one small one-person room to use...it was kind of a hassle).  Honestly, that happened so much that for baby #2 I didn't even bother signing up for the "wellness room" at all and am just pumping wherever.  I am sitting in one of our touchdown rooms pumping right now.   

If there are only a few of you it might be easier to agree on ground rules up front?

Jen748

Our pump room is the bathroom.  So only rule is to go for the open stall.

jnealet

We had a blanket schedule of 30 minute slots.  Any time not taken was a free for all - so if you missed your "turn" then you could use the room when no one was scheduled in there.  There was sometimes an overlap but it always worked.  And there were 4 of us using the room at the peak.

Personally, I think that scheduling daily is too much.   Just tell the other person to put in the times she wants and you'll schedule around her.

jennyelf

The room I use has dividers so that 3 people can use it at once and there's a common space where the fridge and cubbies are. It seems to just work w/o any scheduling. Normally if more than 3 people need to use the room at once, one is almost done as the 4th comes in, so the 4th just waits or comes back later. But this is rare and we've all managed to space ourselves out.

cecilyandgautam

Ours is a big room, with enough chairs & desks for up to 6 ladies to pump at a time. If a 7th mom came in, she could either wait til one of us was done or head to the health unit and pump there. 

There are no sign up sheets and I would hate having one, because like you - things change throughout the day with a hectic work schedule. I'd write a nice note to the ladies of the pump room and leave it in there saying "Hey, Does the sign up sheet work for everyone? It's not ideal for me so could we brainstorm alternatives? Could we discuss over coffee? Thanks!"

No one single mother should be setting the rules for the pump room. HR should be the one doing that when necessary.

ChicagoWeded2007

I only share the room with one other mom right now, but we feel comfortable pumping at the same time. So, no problems there.

 

But I don't think that one person should be able to unilaterally set up the rules for your pumping room.  Plus, I don't think it's possible to schedule it that way with things that come up during the day. 

shannm

Jen748:

Our pump room is the bathroom.  So only rule is to go for the open stall.

LOL, yeah, that is what I did when I was pumping for my son. 

shannm

Thanks everyone for sharing.  I was trying not to be that crazy "I was here first" person.  I spoke with the other women and they also are not thrilled with the set schedule so I will reach out to the "scheduler" and clarify the set up.  As it stands now, her schedule has her exclusively reserving the room for a total of two hours during an eight hour stretch.  Just seems like a really aggressive move into a situation that has been working just fine on a first come first serve basis for more than six months.

cltk12

We have one room on each floor (total of 4 rooms). Thet are first come, first served. There are clocks outside the room where you say when you will be done. Ive been pumping 2 times a day for 6 weeks and only 2 times someone has been in the room and I had to try a different floor and only once when I tried all rooms and they were full (that day I had a mtg during my normal pump time and pumped an hour later).