Telling the boss about my pregnancy...
Hello there, working moms!
I am expecting and due in April. Although I hang out on the April '12 board, I have been lurking on this board a lot because I will be a working mom after my maternity leave (assuming all goes well with this pregnancy, so far so good!).
My question for you is about announcing my pregnancy to my boss. I am a teacher and just started up for the regular school year this week. The first few days of inservice went okay, but today I really was starting to fight fatigue, and had to leave a few larger-group meetings to throw up this morning.
Due to my symptoms, I don't think I'm going to be able to hide this much longer. I actually feel like it's causing more stress to keep this big secret! Do you ladies have any tips or advice for telling the boss?
Note: My boss is also a working mother, and has been supportive of other pregnant workers in the past. Also, I am planning to take 8 weeks of maternity leave (from the birth until the end of the school year).
Thank you for your help!
Re: Telling the boss about my pregnancy...
Congrats.
I would sit down and speak with her asap and let her know that you are pregnant and what your maternity leave plan is. As well, fill her in at the start as to what is going to be expected in terms of doctors appointments and ultrasounds/labs, etc so she knows from the start when to expect you out of the classroom.
This early on, I would probably ask her to keep it quiet until you announce it to your fellow teachers, as this is your excitng news, not hers... however, if you had to leave to throw up this morning I guarantee you that someone already thinks your pregnant.
I'm a teacher to and I've found that administrators like as much heads up as possible for this sort of thing. Since they need to find a sub (which in many jobs they don't) they want to start keeping their eye on subs now so they can choose a good one for when you're on leave. Also, if you do have to miss for appointments they can "test drive" the potential long term sub in your classroom on those days.
I agree that you should tell them not to share so that you can. Admin is generally used to confidentiality but better safe than sorry.
Also, not now but when you get closer be sure to ask what their expectations of you are in terms of the end of the year. Do they want detailed plan left? Just a basic outline? Do you need to do assessments before you leave? etc etc. Especially since you're missing a time of year with a lot of paperwork you'll want to be clear about what you need to do before you leave.
Final piece of advice, if you're in a position where important decisions happen in the closing work days (like schedules for next year etc) you may want to pop back in for some meetings during that time. I have a friend who teaches high school and she was out the end of the year and when she went back in the fall she had a terrible schedule and had to live with it all year. So keep that in mind.
I told my principal right away, plus the school nurse (in case of anything going wrong). I did ask her to keep it quiet, but because I had such bad morning sickness, many of the other teacher's figured it out.
Baby #3 is on the way! EDD 3/8/15
DD1--8/29/10
DD2--11/6/12