Spreading the News

Telling your boss that you are pregnant

To do before you tell your boss

Research your employer’s parental leave policy and know your rights. Reading your company manual, but be careful about talking to someone in human resources or your union. You want your boss to find out from you not the grapevine. Find out about maternity leave, leave with pay, and how your benefits work.

Research your employer’s health plan and find out what costs are covered for pregnancy.

Talk to your doctor or practitioner. They may have an opinion about how much time you should take off from work before and after depending on your health.

Think about what kind of maternity leave you might like to have. Do you think you’d like to have a couple months off after the baby or come back to work as soon as possible? Can you work from home? It’s hard to know everything now, but having an idea will help the conversation with your boss.

Look at your finances and know your options here.

Do not tell co-workers, vendors, etc. before telling your boss. This can create distrust which is not what you need before taking maternity leave.

When going to talk to your boss

• Make an appointment so you have uninterrupted time to tell him or her the news and discuss how your maternity leave will go.
• • when your last day will be (usually 2 weeks before delivery)
  • when you will come back
  • what open projects you have and how they could get done
• Talk about your future plans for working with the company. Some employers are more comfortable with maternity leave if they value you and feel like you are committed to your job.
• Be flexible within reason. They do have a business to run. If you are going to be out for 6 months, you might have someone sitting at your desk for a little while.

When should you tell your boss?

Consider

• Many women like to wait until after the first trimester before they telling the boss to rule out the possibility of miscarriage.
• However, a miscarriage could result in a few days off from work. If your boss is already knows, he may be understanding.
• If you don’t want to endure all the unsolicited birth stories from co-workers, ask your employer to keep your news to herself as long as she can.
• If your pregnancy symptoms are strong enough to be obvious, you may need to tell your boss sooner than you think. For instance if you are so tired you need a nap every day or your morning sickness has you running every couple of hours, people will notice. You may find your co-workers will try to be more accommodating, which can make your first trimester much more pleasant.
• If your job involves exposure to chemicals or any task that might be dangerous to your baby, you need to tell your boss immediately and take steps to protect yourself.
• If you think your boss will not be positive, if you can wait until after a performance review or the completion of a project to tell him or her.
• If you manage to keep your pregnancy to yourself through the first trimester, definitely alert your boss by the second trimester. You need to give him or her time to think about arrangements for your leave.

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