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Originally Posted by Drolefille
I don't know, that is a month's notice, which means she's 7.5-8 months pregnant.. and you didn't know?
I kind of feel like a month is pretty good notice, even if the holidays make things more difficult. And it's not like there's some obligation to announce pregnancy, it's just common socially. YMMV.
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I know it sounds completely ridiculous that we didn't know but that was the most shocked I've ever been in my life. She's a heavier woman to begin with and...yeah I still really don't know how it's possible we didn't figure it out.
You're right that she had no obligation to announce she was pregnant, and if a month is a pretty standard amount of heads-up, that's good to know. It was the first time I've worked with someone who took maternity leave and it seemed like short notice to me, but maybe that's the norm.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DrPhil
I believe the protocol is based on HR and the specific policies and procedures for the organization.
I know women who were hired and signed a highly paid contract without telling the company that they were pregnant (or told certain people without making a company-wide statement). They got hired and months after their start date, they contractually became eligible for maternity leave. They took the maternity leave which pissed some people off because they were "newbies" but they hadn't violated company policies or anything. Everything worked out because they were extremely productive and really carried their weight when their maternity leave ended.
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I think you might have hit the nail on the head with why I still feel like this hasn't been handled considerately. Since she's returned, she still takes off once or twice per week with very short notice (as in, a mass email like 5 minutes after she's supposed to be at work announcing she won't be in, or an email over the lunch hour saying she won't return for the afternoon) to take care of her newborn. I really want to be understanding about the fact that newborns are a ton of work and things can come up unexpectedly, but I just have a bad taste in my mouth about the way things have been handled.