To email my boss instead of taking to him face to face?

[summerskittles91]

About 6 weeks pregnant and need to let my boss now soon. I suffered a MC on my 2nd day of working here, so it was a tough time, and I kind of just had to deal with it. Boss was supportive throughout. Been here about 3 months now and need to tell him asap as I've been advised by GP not to do any heavy lifting and so on.

He's an easy person to talk to, but I'm a constant worrier and suffer from anxiety so I just can't sit in front of him and think how I'm going to tell him.

AIBU to just email him? Or am I just being cowardly

He sounds great. I think you owe it to him to tell him face to face. What is it you are worrying about? That he'll be cross. That's painting him with really nasty colours. You have no idea how hurt he could be to know you think he's such a bastard.
Sorry to be a bit strong but sometimes it helps to turn the situation around.

As a boss is be pretty concerned and quite offended if one of my team couldn't tell me face to face they were expecting. It sounds like he's been supportive in the past so there's no reason to expect it to be different. Focus on that and I'm sure you'll be fine.

I'd suggest doing both - have a brief chat with him about it if you can, then follow up with an email so there's a record of you telling him.

I'd be offended. Damn phone.

Why don't you arrange a meeting with an email before hand. Just have it really simple, 'Hi, I've just found out I'm pregnant, could we meet up to have a chat tomorrow? Thanks,'

That way you get the actual telling him done in writing, but still meet up to discuss the details. You could put in some of the gp advice as well. Personally I would have no problem with one of my team doing this is it made them feel more comfortable.

Thank you for your comments. I have no worries about his reaction, I just struggle to talk about things in person, I'm not a very open person and the anxiety doesn't help in the best of situations!

I am on a 10 month fixed term contract, so will be due one month after my contact finishes (which I think they were hoping to extend) so maybe thats stressing me out a bit.

Maybe I need to just get a grip and tell him.

If I were feeling like this, I'd go with an email first and explain, e.g. "I really want to tell you face-to-face but am finding it hard to articulate at the moment, I hope you understand. I'm more than happy to have a catch up later - I just wanted to get this off my chest in a format that made sense. I'm pregnant..."

I had to tell my boss v early on in pregnancy; I asked him for a quick chat/meeting. He thought I was going to hand my notice in so was positively relieved that I was going to be around for another eight months (and was v pleased for me). I think most decent managers would be quite glad of the 'heads-up' actually, helps them plan better.

Sorry just realised I didn't really answer the question... I'd send an email saying you are in the v early stages of pregnancy and have a few GP recommendations that you can either go on to list in the email or ask for a meeting to discuss.

He's in and out of meetings today so quiet busy. I might email him and say I need a quick chat in private tomorrow.

Thanks for the advice.