New mum-to-be, need advise desperately on pregnancy announcement to boss. Help!

[Poupe]

Hi,

I just joined this forum and I really need help from my fellow mums and mum-to-be. I am 34 years old and pregnant with my first baby and us are thrilled to bits. Just finished my first trimester and want to announce my pregnancy to my boss. But, I have some concerns. I have been with the organization for 10 years but within this subsidiary for just under two years. I had a bit of a rocky start as I was transferred between the companies (within the same organization) on my request as I wanted a change of location and career stream. My previous boss and superiors were very supportive of me taking on a new role in a new area within the firm but the new boss was a bit reluctant at first. He was unsure i would make the transition well as I was not technically experienced in that area. So, since I joined I have worked my ass off to prove myself to my new boss that I can learn on the job and perform well in my new role. And, he sees it! This past year especially i have made some remarkable achievements in my performance and i am hoping for a great review. Here, is my dilemma and the points troubling me:

1. My performance review is in two weeks and i will be 15 weeks by then. I don't want my evaluation to be influenced (even subconsciously) by his knowledge of my pregnancy.
2. My boss is in a different country and visits our office once in a few months. He is flying down for 2 days for my performance review.

1. He may be back in June sometime but this is not confirmed ( by end of June i will be 24 weeks pregnant and I can't wait that long.
2. I am not showing yet, but probably will in the next few weeks, no one yet at work knows. I want to tell my boss first.
3. I also wanted to bring up a long overdue raise during my evaluation ( as I have been underpaid for a while). I am hoping for a glowing review and think it will be a great time to make that request.
4. My male boss is a bachelor and not a believer in relationships, family, etc.

So, my question to all you beautiful ladies is' What do I do?'.

1. Shall I tell my boss face-to-face when he is in town? This means tell him during or just after/the next day after my review.
2. Or shall I wait for a few weeks until the review discussion is over, my raise request is in and he can push it forward without any bias. This would mean telling him over the phone or video facetime or video conference.

EKKKK. I am freaking out about this, his reaction and the possible repercussions on my carreer and progression :(. Please advise)! Thank you soooo much
P:S: I absolutely plan to return to work after the baby.

Personally I wouldn’t tell him until you legally have to, I didn’t tell my employer officially until 20 weeks pregnant although my immediate manager knew due to extreme sickness.

Thank you MrsGrannyWeatherMax! That certainly helps :)

Agree with PP. If you don’t need any support or adjustments at work you don’t need to tell him yet.

Get the review over with, get the raise request in and processed. If he responds negatively to your pregnancy when you do tell him, make sure you get everything in writing and point out that pregnancy discrimination is against the law.

Thank you Dyrne for the great advise! That seems to be a sound plan. Thinking about the review discussion, raise request and the pregnancy announcement to line manager around the same time was stressing me out too much. Tackling one thing at a time will be easier. Shame i might have to tell him over video call or something when i am about 19-20 weeks rather than face-to-face, but oh well... fingers crossed all goes well!

Personally I'd have the review and then tell him at the end before he goes back. Get it over and done with x

Thanks Thistle. That is exactly what i did :).

All advice good. Although I'm 15 wks and no way of hiding it anymore, but many people do seem to be able to hide it until 20 weeks!

I didn't get to tell my bosses. I work in an environment where I can't really keep it to myself for too long so I had to tell my colleagues one day due to having being in a certain situation.

They then felt the need to go and tell my bosses for me! I should have told them myself earlier i suppose but it was only a week or two after finding out for myself and i wasn't ready to tell anyone.

So I do think it's sensible to wait until after your review and raise. But better to be able to tell your boss yourself!