To think that women who treat their own pregnancy as some kind of 'illness' and 'debilitating' within the work environment are a bloody PITA

[tiredemma]

Sorry- I know that I am going to get flamed for this, and will have people saying "well how do you know that they dont have an illness"....

Im beyond bored and frustrated with working with workshy oiks (who were workshy prior to conception btw) treating their own pregnancy as some kind of debilitating disease, one which renders them incapable of arriving for work on time, allows them to skulk off early at the end of a shift and even have the audacity to sit next to a ringing telephone without having the ability to answer the bloody thing in case they "cant direct it to the relevant person correctly"

I have had two children, I have worked FT through both pregnancies, I dont recall it being a reason to turn into a bone-idle miserable waste of space.

ARGH!

The OP has repeatedly stated that she knows all about the various and horrid complications of pregnancy.

However there ARE people, and I will call them shirkers, who see the mere fact of being pregnany as an excuse to take nine months of sick without suffering any of these complication.

An acquaintance of mine (thankfully not a colleague) saw her GP repeatedly to request being signed off sick because "I'm pregnant". No hyperemesis, SPD, anaemia, just a sense of entitlement to sick leave. It does happen, and it is crappy for those who are left to pick up the pieces, as I am with my childless skiving colleague. To think so does not leave one devoid of empathy for all of those people who are suffering rotten pg symptoms.

tethersend. It depends where it is...

I can see this from both sides but really, honestly,

WHY WOULD BEING PREGNANT STOP YOU FROM ANSWERING A PHONE YOU WERE SITTING NEXT TO?

sorry to shout but that is the example tiredemma has put. It isn't as though she has said her colleague will not carry heavy boxes up two flights of stairs whilst wearing her knickers on her head, is it?

well you have a problem with one pregnant person then, right?

and tbh even if I didn't feel unwell as such (well not after the first 14 weeks or so) when I was pg I felt absolutely fucking shattered a lot of the time

I still went to work but I had to slow down

Just noticed Zippy's post, which made me snort with laughter "once the baby is born and the sleepless nights kick in they will realise just what bliss pregnancy was".

What a load of crap, I would gladly take endless nights of crying and night feeds to not have to be pregnant, I feel vile. The only thing getting me through is the fact that this pregnancy will eventually end with a lovely baby and then I am NEVER doing it again!

I think I see your point - lazy people who use pregnancy as a kind of illness top trumps, like Denise off the Royle Family.

'I can't go upstairs, I'm pregnant'

I think people know the difference between a lazy bastard who is trying it on, and someone who is genuinely suffering. My poor SIL is pregnant at the moment - sometimes she looks absolutely grey with fatigue. i really feel sorry for her.

Then why can't you just complain about lazy work colleagues generally who use anything as an excuse to skive, be it pregnancy, flu or tummy upsets....

Unless you were determined to start a bun fight.....

I did notice that sentence Pawmum, but the other language used in the post is designed to get more attention.

And as I said at the end of my post, if there really is a problem, the OP should deal with it rather than just sitting about seething.

ladyintheRadiator.

have a good look down my thread and you will see that I made reference to it being in AIBU as i realised that i may be UR. where have I suggested that "I am fucking right"?

I have had 3 DC.

With my first I was sick all the way through, and spent a lot of time in the staff toilet throwing up. I onlt took one day off sick though, and that was when I had a bleed at 28 weeks and had to go into hospital for a scan.

With my second I was sick again, and I kept fainting all the time, which got a bit embarrasing. I was signed off work at about 4 months and started my maternity leave early.

With my third I felt fine and didn't have a single day off work.

So a lot can change from one pregnancy to another. You don't know how someone is feeling. But if they were a slacker beforehand there is an element of the boy who cried wolf even if they are really ill...

Well, I worked 16 hours a day throughout my pregnancy carrying metal buckets full of lava up and down a mountain, and in my spare time I did the London Marathon and Shepherding.

I worked up until 7 minutes before the baby was born, and was back up the mountain after 3 hours.

FFS Shirley, I was covering your phone for those 7 minutes.

you owe me one.

agree, ladyintheradiator.. the last sentence is key

i think tiredemma would have got a totally different response had she posted somethjing like

'AIBU to be really pissed off with my lazy cvolleague who's always been a shirker, using pregnancu as a reason to not answer the phone?'

rather than making it so generalised

I agree. My title should have referred to one lazy individual at work. Not an entire sex.

Im sorry if I have offended anyone with this thread.

I worked my arse off in my first pregnancy in a desperate attempt to maintain a good relationship with my boss. As a small business we'd just been through a hellish time with an employee who treated the whole thing like a serious illness and really did take the piss. I ended up with SPD due to lifting way more than I should have, and it was my own fault, but having been on the receiving end of my colleague's shitty attitude I didn't want tarred with that brush. So I can sympathise with both sides. I think much depends on your pre-pregnancy attitude and having a good relationship with beforehand - they're desperate to help and support me this time round.

You covered the Volcano phone Flora?

Mountains don't have phones. You're just being silly

Emma - well I applaud you for being able to work full time during both your pregnancies. You do realise that this is more luck rather than anything you have consciously chosen to do??

Everyone's body does pregnancy differently and as I type this I am off work with severe all day sickness and feeling rough as nails, along with feeling guilty that I am not doing all the normal things I should be doing

I know there are women out there who do use pregnancy as an excuse to skive off, but please, don't tar us all with the same brush and I would also be careful - you may get preg again and have the sickness from hell, in which case you will be eating your words..and then gagging on them for hours afterwards!

it's easy to post in haste when you're really cvross, and having a colleague not asnwer the phone because they're pregnant would have irritated me intensley too

OP I agree with what you intended to say in your first post

as always Lulu is the voice of sense and wisdom.

Can imagine why people are pissed off tiredemma because some people suffer massively from pregnancy and it must be upsetting to be tarred with the lzy got brush, because some (probably very few) women take the mick.

Of course I can understand why people are pissed off. They are most probably the type of people who do work bloody hard and once pregnancy hits them - pow! it knocks them for six and makes them feel hellish. I understand therefore that they dont like being treated as pariahs once they become pregnant or being labelled as lazy.

I shouldnt make a sweeping generalisation about all pregnant women, as I already stated I bled through both of my pregnancies and it wasnt an 'easy ride'.

As i already stated, my frustration lie in one individual who was lazy before pregnancy, continues to be lazy, and will most probably continue to be lazy throughout the rest of her life.

I honestly have not got some vile agenda against pregnant women, and apologise wholeheartedly if this is how it appears.