Yesterday I had lunch with my boss out where my new office is going to be. I move in couple of weeks to the land of suburbia from downtown. The commute is about the same but I won't be able to walk to stores or restaurants like I do now. The biggest drawback is that the building looks like Ikea threw up on it (ultra modern with pops of orange) and every cube has half walls. Being a loud talker I am not going to be welcomed in my area!
I decided in advance that this would be the perfect time to tell my boss that I will be taking advantage of the vaunted BigFinance benefits and taking 12 weeks off in the Spring. At 15 weeks I probably could have told him a couple of weeks ago but I really wanted to do it in person so I could judge his reaction.
In preparation I met with one of my mentors - the only other woman in my program who has had a child while at BigFinance. Her advice was great and primarily consisted of not letting my boss make an ass out of himself. It can be hard for men to know how to react when a woman tells them they are pregnant. Usually they want to make sure we'll be coming back but it's not easy to ask that question tactfully.
So I met with Boss over lunch and 5 minutes into our meal I told him that Jeremy and I are expecting our first. I was very impressed with his reaction. He didn't even bat an eyelash and congratulated me. Boss also said how great it was that the new BigFinance policy was going to give me 12 weeks paid. I told him I was definitely coming back but that didn't even appear to be a question in his eyes which was great. It seriously couldn't have gone better, and he paid for lunch!
Now I feel like I can tell everyone else at work. I've told a few people but really wanted to wait and tell Boss before broadcasting it broadly. Tomorrow I have a half day community service event with a bunch of other people from my program. It's my first community service event post-grad school and I'm looking forward to it. I'm sure I'll blog all about it...
Did anyone have a particularly good or bad experience when you told your boss or co-workers about a pregnancy?
Hey, It's Okay
6 hours ago
2 comments:
You should ask people for their stories. I had my boss make an idiot of himself going on and on about puking in my office (no issue there for me), if I knew how long I'd be out, etc. Then I had another partner ask me if I knew who the father was (or something like that). A friend had a partner (again male, duh) tell her he knew when women were pregnant because of their boobs. Classy.
well, it was wierd when i told my boss i was pregnant. mostly because i wasn't.
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