Delaying the pregnancy announcement at work

[vespersonicca]

Hi! I'm interested in hearing about your experiences of revealing your pregnancy to your workplace. I work in daycare and will eventually need to say something but am more concerned about covering up the doctor appts (which are all during our business hours) until I'm ready to say...

What about morning sickness? Mine hasn't started (and hopefully never will!!) but how can you hide nausea and vomiting in such a close environment as a kindergarten???

 

[mrsraggle]

How far gone are you?

I only had one doc appointment before 12 weeks so I just took an hour out of work for that. And I had annual leave for the day of the scan.

I told my boss at 8 weeks that I was pg because I was very sick with MS and had a few days off work/couldn't handle morning meetings. She didn't say anything to anyone until I was ready to announce at 13 weeks.

I didn't hide my nausea very well as it was so bad - but just sipped water/drinks all day and had ginger biscuits to hand!

 

[vespersonicca]

I just got the positive test and this is the beginning of week 5 so I should have at least a few days of feeling reasonably well. I guess my boss will be the first to know, especially if I have bad MS.

I just don't really want all the imagining the next year without me to start so soon. All those "oh yeah, but you won't be here" comments will undoubtedly hurt a little. I'll have one appt. in January and then the first ultrasound. Shouldn't be too many appts but considering I rarely ever have them it might seem suspicious. At the moment I'm thinking to say after I reach the 2 trimester.

 

[aliss]

I told my boss at 4 weeks (when I found out) and the rest of the girls knew at 6 weeks. I know that is very soon but it also depends on what line of work you are in. I am a 911 operator/police dispatcher and sometimes had to throw up at my desk as I simply can't get up and walk out during a robbery! LOL! Really, it is what you feel comfortable with.

 

[belladonna]

I told my boss pretty much straight away so I didn't have any problems getting time off for appointments etc and I told her that I didn't want anyone to know yet, but she still told everyone

But yesterday a couple of collegues were chatting and they said 'when the new person starts' and I said 'What new person?' and they told me that they were to replace me when I left! WTF! I said I am coming back you know! And later in the afternoon they were interviewing bloody school leavers! I don't 'officially' on ML until two weeks before my EDD so to do interviews now seems a little premature. I'm starting to think about finding a new job after ML as my job could easily be covered by others in the office and they way they have done this hurts a bit.

 

[kaylynn040485]

I think u will actually find telling your boss sooner works better for u, u wont need to worry about appointments and it shouldnt come out of your annual leave and if u request that no one else is told then he/she has to follow your wishes until your ready for everyone to know. I told my boss fairly early just because he is a bit of a pain and i worried he would realise i was preg and try get rid of me and once u inform them then cannot do this. Hope it all goes well for u Kx

 

[vespersonicca]

I told my boss pretty much straight away so I didn't have any problems getting time off for appointments etc and I told her that I didn't want anyone to know yet, but she still told everyone

But yesterday a couple of collegues were chatting and they said 'when the new person starts' and I said 'What new person?' and they told me that they were to replace me when I left! WTF! I said I am coming back you know! And later in the afternoon they were interviewing bloody school leavers! I don't 'officially' on ML until two weeks before my EDD so to do interviews now seems a little premature. I'm starting to think about finding a new job after ML as my job could easily be covered by others in the office and they way they have done this hurts a bit.

Yeah! Exactly what I fear. Working in a kindergarten is like having a home away from home. I don't wanna hear about my "replacement" before I have to. Really sucks that your boss didn't respect your wishes. I'd be PISSED off! I don't think that would happen at my work thankfully.

 

[vespersonicca]

I told my boss fairly early just because he is a bit of a pain and i worried he would realise i was preg and try get rid of me and once u inform them then cannot do this. Hope it all goes well for u Kx

I should check out what the laws say here in Finland about that. I don't have a permanent work contract. It just gets renewed every year at the moment. My maternity leave will start about half way through my month vacation in July. I will get the last half of the vacation as extra salary since I've already earned the vacation days but the second half is legally maternity leave. My contract will officially end in June. I wonder if my employer is even obligated to pay the maternity leave... it probably wouldn't make sense for her to renew my contract but then can she do that just because I'm pregnant and the timing for the school year is bad?

 

[vespersonicca]

I can definitely say that I'm VERY worried about hiding anything now. My MS has started and with a vengence. I walk around and start gagging for no reason...sometime until I vomit. Anything or nothing at all can set it off! I'm pretty worried about throwing up all over the floor at the supermarket or, worse yet, while I'm serving the kindergarten lunch!

 

[Windmills]

I only just told work this week I'm not on a permanant contract either- infact, I'm 5 weeks into a 12 month fixed contract x

 

[Mrs Doddy]

I told the manager straight away as I wanted any time off sick to be noted as pregnancy related so it wouldn't be put on my record as normal sick - also appointments would mean that I needed time off - I didn't want to lie to them

Also it got me out of doing some tasks.

If you work with children then you don't want to be picking them up so I do think that you should tell at least the manager for health and safety reasons.

I am of the mind that it is better to tell someone, say for example that you had an accident at work - it would be important that you do not receive medicines that you can't have when you are pregnant