Everyone at my work is being offered an opportunity for a year's secondment, as part of a pilot programme for what will eventually be the standard way of working for my whole company. I quite like saying yes to all the opportunities I'm offered, and if I'm part of this pilot then I'll be able to have a real impact on how the programme eventually rolls out to everyone else, which I would really love to be able to do.
They want confirmation of who is interested at the beginning of June, will pick a team at the end of June, train them up in July, and set them off to work in August. Me and DH will be TTC starting from June/July.
Is it cruel to the people organising the pilot, to be TTC during? Even if I did get pregnant straight away, I would still be able to work most of the secondment period. The likelihood is of course that it will take at least a few months to conceive, in which case I'd be able to work the whole thing. I don't want to turn down opportunities because of the possibility that I'll be pregnant, and then not be pregnant after all, and have to watch my colleagues being the trailblazers instead of me.
I do appreciate though, that if you were the line manager for this new programme, a person joining and then getting pregnant straight away would be incredibly frustrating. I also don't want to build up a name for myself as someone who can't complete the work they've committed themselves to. And this programme will eventually roll out to everyone anyway, so I would only be missing out for a year or two, and then I'll be forcibly joining in anyway.
So basically, AIBU to consider this? Would I be being totally unprofessional to sign up for a job and then get pregnant? If you're a manager, what would you think of a person that did that?