Women of child bearing age are in the workforce in record numbers. They also change jobs from time to time. Some women are bound to find they are pregnant shortly after changing jobs. The worries of telling an employer you are pregnant are magnified many times when the job is new.
If you find you are pregnant just after starting the job, you may wonder when you should tell your boss. The protocol here isn’t much different than if you had been with the company for some time. The decision of when to tell the boss is up to the individual woman.
Some women prefer to wait until after the first trimester before telling their employers that they are pregnant. By this time, the danger of miscarriage has passed and you have had some time to consider the future and make some preliminary decisions about your work situation. If your job poses a potential hazard to the baby, you may want to tell sooner, rather than later.
Don’t share the news with anyone else at work until you have told the boss. This is the professional thing to do and it will help avoid the boss hearing the news from a third party. When you speak to the boss, it’s a good idea to have a general plan for your leave and be ready to discuss it.
Be honest with your boss and tell her that you found out you were pregnant(a day, a week, two weeks) after you started the job. If you already knew you were pregnant, you may want to leave the time frame out of the conversation. Legally, you can’t be fired for being pregnant. However, you can be fired for performance, so be sure your effort is consistent.
When you are planning your maternity leave, keep in mind that you may not have certain protections with a new job. For example, the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993 allows for unpaid leave of up to twelve weeks. However, there is a requirement that you must have been employed for at least 12 months and have worked at least 1250 hours during that time.
If you just discovered you are pregnant, you won’t meet these requirements. Therefore, you will have to fund your own leave with your savings. In addition, the employer is not required to hold your job. However, many will hold the job, especially if you have proven to be a valuable addition to the staff.
Related Articles:
Sharing News of Your Pregnancy
Investigating Maternity Leave Options