I’m Pregnant

Going Back to Work

Welcome back everyone (i.e. mom and Josh)! I’m glad you both (I mean all) decided to join me again! Going back to work after having a baby is an interesting time that played with my emotions 100 times more than I thought that it would. There are quite a few side stories that are involved in my going back to work story. Due to that, this will be a 3 part continuing post: I’m Pregnant, I’m a Mom, I’m an employee…I mean mom…I mean – how does this work? The first couple of weeks in the process of going back to work were some of the most emotionally interesting weeks of my career. Stay tuned

Part 1: I’m Pregnant.

I found out I was pregnant on December 2, 2013. Once Josh and I had gotten over the initial shock and excitement of “holy [crap] we are having a baby” my mind went straight to “holy [crap] I’m going to have to tell my work at some point that I am pregnant.”

Why was I so nervous? This was supposed to be one of the most exciting times in my life and part of it was foreshadowed by my fear of telling work. My boss was a very understanding guy, he had 3 kids of his own, and my coworkers had kids, yet I had built up this intrinsic fear of divulging my new secret. My biggest fear was that once I told them I was pregnant, they would think I was going to slack off or do any less of a job. I was nervous to tell my clients and my candidates I was going to be out of commission for a couple of months and risking the fact that they might use a competitor. Another reason I was nervous was because we had just come off of a couple bad months and I needed to make sure I had a few good months of “wins” so they knew our performance was market related and not because I was pregnant. Luckily we had growth in January and February or else my belly growth would have given me away by March. I didn’t tell my work until I was 16 weeks along (thank heavens flowy shirts are in) but it was finally dooms day: the day of confession.

About a week after I spilled the beans. Clearly couldn’t hide it anymore.

I was SO nervous to tell my boss. I requested a meeting, we walked in, I sat him down, looked him square in the eyes, and just blurted it out. There was no eloquence or even the luxury of small talk before I dove into it; just a straight “I’m pregnant.” And, much to my surprise, he was extremely supportive. I wanted to make sure he knew I was going to be coming back to work and he listened to my rehearsed case sincerely. I thought I had said all of the right things and I sure was convinced I was coming back and that I had deduced the perfect re-entrance plan. Once I finally let him get a word in, he said “I’ve been a manager for a lot of years and people always have a plan, but we will figure it out after you have the baby. I’m not saying you won’t come back but things change once you have a baby.” I assured him that I would be back even before my allotted maternity leave was over. I wanted to work out every detail and figure out my schedule – I could work two days from home, or have flex hours or this, or that. He would have none of it until after the baby came. I like to plan. I like to have everything in order and he was making this very difficult for me. The only concrete thing he left me with was that if for some reason after I had my baby and was deciding not to come back, I had to promise to let him know as soon as possible so he could start to find a replacement. Again, I told him that wouldn’t be an issue and that I was going to be back, but I could tell he still wasn’t fully convinced and wouldn’t be until I was back in my seat.

How did telling your work go (whether you were planning on coming back or not)? Did you work it up in your head like I did? Was your work supportive? Let me hear your story!

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