When are you telling work?

Hi All,

I was just wondering what the latest date I could tell work I am pregnant. I mean is there some legal timeline we need to follow? I was thinking of leaving it till at least 14 weeks. I don't want them treating me different or giving someone else all the good jobs, as they think I will be leaving.

How did you all go about telling your bosses?

thanks:)
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There is a legal date you need to tell work by, I cannot remember what it is but think it is a lot later than 14 wks so you would be fine.
I am telling my boss tomorrow (at 13 weeks) but I have a great relationship with them and a good employer and I want to give them a lot of notice...
I think it is up to the individual and what you feel best about, you could even wait a little longer than 14 weeks if that would be better (I think at my work I have to tell 10 wks before taking leave - would be a bit bizarre if they didnt notice by then but that seems to be the rule)

Thanks for that. I have a good relationship as well, but just know they will be sad that I will be off for a while, so feel bad telling them. So I will be right if it is around 14 weeks - great

I told my boss when I was about 12 or 13 weeks.
I think the rule in NSW is that you should give them 10 weeks notice of your intention to take maternity leave.

Hi,

I'm in Vic, and according to the Mat Leave policy my work has, I have to give them a minimum of 10 weeks notice of intention to take Mat leave - so the same as NSW from the sounds of it. If you work for a big enough company, they probably have some kind of leave policy document on an internal intranet or bulletin board that you could sneak a look at.

As for the actual telling process - I planned on telling my boss when I was around 18 weeks (for a whole lot of reasons), but ended up having to tell him at around 16 weeks, because someone I trusted, & whom I had told at around 14 weeks, couldn't keep their mouth shut. SO I had to tell my boss before he found out second hand.

I told my boss at 13.5 weeks. I told HR first to make sure I knew all the policies etc but that was the same day. I just sent my boss an email asking to have a catch up and when she called me in I said I just wanted to let you know that I am pregnant. She was quite good about it. I hadn't told anyone else as I know how short our grapevine can be. I decided to tell at that point as I was feeling pretty shocking still with morning sickness and was ready to tell my friends at work.

Good luck. You'll be fine, I think we all worry about them overlooking us etc and I haven't had too much of a problem with that so far, if anything I have been working with them to get the handover ready.

I am going to try to hide my bump for as long as possible but that is for personal reasons more than anything. I want to try to get to at least 15 weeks before telling my boss, 19 weeks would be great.

I have a really good relationship with my manager and I work for the government so I think I could tell them a lot earlier if the bump got too big.

Spring

I think SA has the same 10 week rule. Our organisation's maternity policy states that they would prefer to know straight away (especially for people who work with residents - I'm in aged care) so that those whose jobs need to be changed a bit for safety reasons can have the changes put in place for their safety ASAP. (I work in the head office so my duties wouldn't need to change). Everyone at my work knows that I'm TTC so any time I've been off sick I get all the questions when I get back 'are you pregnant yet?'

Have also heard that you are not required to tell them until 10 weeks before you intend to leave - although, one would imagine that they would know before that.
Me - have a close relationship with my boss and his wife (boss owns business, wife does bookwork). My boss was the second person i told, within an hour of finding out, and his wfe the 3rd.

I have a great boss - so i told him as s oon as i knew (only for safety reasons) but didnt tell everyone else until i was about 11 weeks.

After my husband, my boss and my co-workers were the first to know. Because I work in a vet clinic I had to tell them all for safety reasons (plus I have a good relationship with them and would have told them anyways)

I think that at least one person should know at work so that if you happen to balck out or anything like that someone knows you are pregnant therefore treatment may be different..

i had to tell my boss pretty much straight away, because of the job i am in (with a weight loss org). but unless your job puts you at high risk, or there are other factors / conditins which may effect employment (such as i am supposed to maintain a certain weight - obviously not possible while pregnant); you are only legally required to inform your employer 10 weeks before you intend taking maternity leave. although i think it may get a bit obvious by then anyway. get intouch with your HR department and find out you rights and obligations.

I ended telling work when I was 10wks ... which was earlier than I had intended (since I'd only been working there for 6 wks at that stage), but my bump was starting to show and I didn't want to get any awkward questions.
As it turns out, they were absolutely fabulous about it, even though it must have been quite inconvenient, and my team leader ended up telling me that she was also pregnant (due a few days before me).

Work knew that we were doing IVF. So as soon as i knew, so did they, they were hanging out for the results all day with me (they are all males btw). I couldnt have hidden the ms and also the amount that i have started to eat to keep the sickness away. Unfortunately things have changed now, but i am just trying to hang out until my mat leave starts.

Check out what your employers rules are on this matter. Mine asks for a minimum of 10 weeks notice in writing. If I'm lucky enough to get to 12 weeks (which seems unlikely right now) I will tell them then.

My company is notoriously slow at employing people so I want to ensure I give them plenty of time to get someone to replace me for the few months that I intend to take off. Ten weeks would not be enough for time for them to recruit & train a temporary person.... and I don't want to come back to chaos. Sounds ridiculous but they still haven't replaced me from my previous position that I left 5 months ago. Believe it or not this is a large company.

I told work very early, at 5 weeks because I was so sick. I thought I was doing the right thing just in case I had to take time off - I'm never sick. Even though we have a great team, my supervisors panicked and starting asking lots of questions over subsequent weeks about how much maternity leave I planned to take, would I be coming back to work part time, saying I would be difficult to replace and it was an awkward time of year - and that our yearly plans would be impacted. Keep in mind that I haven't even had my first scan yet and I'm now 13 weeks. I felt stressed and like I was creating a personnel problem.

I was also told that a senior supervisor would need to be told now and this actually happened although I didn't find out for weeks later. I was personally hurt because I have friends that I hadn't told at that stage. At first I thought I was overreacting, but a colleague of mine talked to me about the comments that had been made, and felt so strongly about it that she said that if I didn't say something, she would.

Although it was horrible making an issue out of it, the comments and questions have now stopped. I put my issue in writing so there was no room for error or misunderstanding.

This is my first pregnancy and I would never tell my employer this early again, I'd wait to at least 4 or 5 months. My organisation is primarily made of women in the health sector, has family friendly policies and this kind of reaction was *incredibly unexpected* which is why I would urge some caution unless you feel absolutely certain about how your work will react.

I certainly don't think the reaction was deliberate, but my supervisors just clearly didn't understand the pressure they were placing on me. Having not experienced pregnancy themselves I can of course understand this, but I couldn' t let the comments continue.

I'm glad to hear that many others have had more positive experiences though. ;-)

Thanks for all your advice everyone. I have decided to tell them after Easter. think I will be around 14 weeks then, but I will play it by ear as my boss is very up and down in her moods and 2 people have already left this year and there are only 10 of us. They know I have been trying, and they may even be onto me as I haven't be feeling great, but haven't told them. Only had one sick day, unfortunately it was an important day I missed. I know they will be happy for me......will let you all know how I go.