Do you have total work apathy and kind of wish maternity leave was here already?

[jaggythistle]

I remember being a bit fed up the last few weeks when pg with DS.

This time around I have about 10 weeks work left and really can't be bothered it's awful!

Am I the only lazy fed up one? :(

miko you have my sympathies WRT your handover...my handover shouldn't be too bad as the team I am in will take up the work and unless I'm in the middle of a project when I go it shouldn't be too bad...but...my boss is being useless about discussions about my returning after mat leave (I want to come back PT and my current role only really works FT so needs some thought as to how it can be made to work, which I have previously been assured should be ok but now they seem to be stalling) and I was going to go to HR about it but the HR assistant has just left, new lady started yesterday, and then on friday the head of HR (ie the only other person in the 2-person HR team!!) announced she's leaving at the end of Feb sooo fed up about it as it means there's no-one who know's me down there to fight my corner to sort out my return and since I work in a v male dominated industry I really hope we don't get some male, non-understanding HRM replacement in...ho hum...guess it will all sort somehow but I kinda wanted to know it would all be ok before I left!!

only 21 weeks and really can't be arsed, trouble is it's our business and nothing gets done otherwise...also lots of bookings coming in for June - heaven help me!

Balkan loving your daily routine

I work in a job that involves regular contact with HR (from external companies). Good HR people are worth their weight in gold but, unfortunately, I only come across a handful of those. The majority are not so good (although, probably overworked in many cases) and drive me bonkers!
As I manage a caseload, my roles needs covering by a full-time person. A colleague in my team is on mat leave just now, so we have someone in covering her. However, for geography/experience reasons, a permanent colleague of mine is going to take over my job, and the temp will then take over hers (once other colleague from mat leave returns). Works out quite well. Handover will be quite smooth, and my boss has suggested that all new cases in my patch go to her 2 starting 2 weeks before I finish up!! result! (sorry, didn't mean that to sound so smug!) Have a fair amount of work to do in preparation though, as I have some additional duties in my patch which my colleagues don't (as I've been here the longest and extra stuff has a habit of finding me ).

Not sure about MS Blue Could be a combination of things: getting bigger so becoming more tired anyway, maybe not sleeping as well as before (I know I don't) your digestion kick-starting in the morning, the thought of going to work etc. But, HEARTBURN!! Aaaargh, it's the bain of my life! I have been sick a lot, as sometimes no amount of Gaviscon, milk or lovehearts works. I even woke myself up one night barfing up a mouthful of acid! Bending down is not advisable (although that gets me out of unloading the dishwasher and wiping the skirtings. Luckily I have a helfpul tolerant pain in the asstypical teenage DD who will do this for me after trying to find any excuse not to--)

Saw omeprazole (sp?) mentioned on another thread but am a bit of a worrier when it comes to taking medication (am already under consultant care due to the medication I take for asthma not having been around for long enough for them to say for sure it is safe - but I get extra growth scans, so get to see toots a few extra times ) Really don't want to add in anything else, but will mention the heartburn to midwife when I se her at 28week check next week.

It's so lovely and sunny and crisp here today. Must have day dreamed half the morning away already, along with watching the 'sack of ferrets' like movement of my bump!

Blue - I think it can come back - by IME more manageable. I'm very susceptible to 'sugar crash' when pregnant - which feels much the same. My only fix is to snack steadily through the day (let's face it - the waistline's shot to pieces anyhow)

Just got a below average bonus for last year's work - maybe I should be grateful for any bonus but I'm looking around my colleagues and can't believe that there are really more than half of them who did a better job than me. I moved heaven and earth during the summer to get a couple of no-notice projects in on time, and despite only moving to a new role in October someone just emailed me to ask if I could share my "vast" knowledge! I know I've not put in a below average performance this year - there have been times when I've coasted in my job but this last year was not it - and strongly suspecting that this is to do with me about to go off on maternity leave - a) because they think I won't care and b) because my boss has never much liked me, but as a late 40s woman without children who was surprised I could work through IVF because "she had been told it was very invasive and painful" I suspect there's a bit of envy there.

There's not much I can do about it, and wouldn't anyway - we're talking a couple of hundred quid between the best and worst performers, and moaning about how it's dished out will just reflect badly on me. And I'm glad to have a secure job, and they're holding it open for me for a year after maternity leave so I've got very good conditions there and should really just keep my head down and smile through gritted teeth for the remaining 7 weeks and 2 and a half days until I can get out. Then I'll always have the option to look about for other jobs while I'm off. But it's just so disheartening to work like a crazy person all year and then see no recognition of it at all.

It makes me miss my old job where it was much less secure but there was a lot less office politics. But then that's in a declining industry (a whole bunch of my friends from a different company got made redundant this week, and out of 4 sites where I've worked in the past, 3 are gone and the other one has about half as many people as it used to). You used to be able to pick up junior research posts in universities really easily, but that option's gone as well because all the people who got made redundant took all of those posts! And I hated working in academia anyway...

Ach boo I've been back and forward on this dilemma about a million times. When I was working at the old place I had recurrent miscarriage and every year or so I'd get pregnant and then there would be a "reorganisation" at work and I'd be waiting to see if either the job or the pregnancy was going to persist. I managed to get into this job (secure, totally different industry, reasonable wages even though I was starting from zero) and I felt like I'd hit the jackpot. OK so it was hard to adjust, and my boss took a near-instant dislike to me, but I worked hard and was professional and started to get good at the job and made friends and became someone that people could rely on to do stuff well. And up went my self esteem, and then I did IVF and it worked, miracle of miracles, and I've spent the last 6 months basically working away and hoping all will be well, getting the house ready for the kids etc. Wouldn't say I was massively fulfilled with my job, but I was proud of doing it well anyway, and was basically in a place that wasn't exactly ecstatic, but things were looking up after all the bereavements in the past few years (my dad also died in 2010). And then this pitiful bonus comes in and makes me question every decision for the past 5 years all over again...

Tell me it's not worth worrying about. Tell me 7 and a half weeks will fly past and then it's all going to be mucking about with the small people, giving their teddy bears funny voices and going to the seaside on weekdays when everyone else is at work... I need a change of scene like you can't imagine.

So far I have spent the afternoon eating Mini Creme Eggs and typing up a list of what to pack in my hospital bag(s) by trailing through old MN posts!

Buonasera in 7.5 weeks, the bonus issue will be as far from your mind as, say, running a marathon in the sahara is now

I can empathise. There is a core of suck-asses in my work who get the better bonuses and it's all about how you embellish the facts, and how much your boss buys into embellishing them with/for you. To my detriment, I refuse to embelish what I see as simply doing my job very well. I have come to know (through my fabulously informative secret sources aka friends in various offices) that many people don't actually perform well in their normal day to day jobs, but take on other projects which interest them, then embellish their contribution to that, conveniently ignoring that fact that much of the rest of their job actually goes undone, or is done very poorly indeed. For some reason, senior management seem oblivious to this. I suppose they don't have time to check on every little aspect of everyones jobs, so take the appraisals, and the person self-assessment of their work, at face value. It also helps if you don't question management - which I do... frequently!

Sounds like you've been through a lot to get to where you are now. Congratulations! This is a temporary knock which you will put in perspective once you get over the initial anger and unfairness of it.

Are you having twins??

Missgiraffe, that's exactly what I needed to hear, and it sounds like we're in similar situations! My old boss once said he wanted to give me a bonus but he didn't know what to say it was for because unlike most of my colleagues I just turned up and did everything well. I miss him.

I remember rocking up in my first job and noticing that among the 30 somethings there seemed to be only shiny annoying teachers' pets and cynical embittered types who appeared to be keeping the place afloat. If I've got to choose, I'd rather be the second than the first... I wonder what to teach my kids about this stuff though? I think my own philosophy is that a good job done is like love, you know it when you see it, and while it pays to be aware that appearing shiny can help you get pay rises it's nothing to do with the intrinsic satisfaction of work, which is about knowing you did a good job to the best of your abilities without screwing anyone over, then coming home and living your life with the people you love and having a laugh. Yeah that sounds like the sort of thing.

It is twins! We put back two embryos - I've got a chromosomal abnormality so we didn't get many good embryos, and it seemed a shame to freeze another one when I had room for two...

"Knowing you did a good job to the best of your abilities without screwing anyone over"

Absolutely. I have a couple of colleagues who will say/do anything in team meetings to appear to agree with management and to appear to be the dogs bollocks. But, in actual fact, they have no intention of following through with it. And, it is never questioned at a later date! Also, their lack of action in that particular area usually creates a problem for someone else but they don't care. Grrrrr.

Twins! Amazing!! How far along will you be when you stop? I'm stopping at 37weeks, taking a few weeks annual leave first just to have some time to relax and gather my thoughts! My DD will be 16 in June, so it has been some time since I did the PG/Baby thing !

Today I threw in a little bit of excitement: decided to go to another site (where we have storage facility) just for the sake of it, snoozed uninterrupted in the store for almost 2 hours, then caught the company's mini bus back to the office. Must think of something else for tomorrow.

4 weeks, 4 days and counting...can't flippin wait

3 get ups to go!!!

Much sympathy re: bonuses. I was off with HG and my performance management was failed in my absence. I know I did a good job last year - but I'm not showy. Unfortunately my line manager is one of those 'new to management, eager to show the bosses I can be a hard arse even when it's not accurate or necessary' types.

Still - I finish at the end of this week for a year - so have decided not to give a monkeys!!!

...bring on the apathy...

Buona (and spanner) - what a bummer.

With your personal hat on - it obviously doesn't matter a monkey's arse - but with your professional hat on, I'd make it clear that you feel slighted. Do you have a mentor figure that you can bounce this off?

blue & missg many thanks for the bd wishes, I had a lovely w/end and was thoroughly spoilt. we even had glorious sunshine in deepest Devon, so very pleased we braved the drive, no snow and even a spot of sunbathing in deckchairs on the balcony.
Insomnia & heartburn have brought me posting early - and knowing that I've got a full on day back in the office tomorrow, had today off too. Although my heartburn doesn't sound as severe as others, I'm starting to consider the omeprazole too and will be enquiring on next check. It's mainly nightime though and I'm thinking I might need to retreat to the spare room again and sleeping sitting upright. blue I would get yourself checked for PE again soon, a friend's showed up with extended sickness and generally feeling under the weather, finally with sharp pain under the ribs/ top bump. waiting over on the AN has just gone through similar so please follow it up.
buona how annoying re. the bonus and I agree with footprints that it's worth pursuing, general feedback etc etc but it will pale into insignificance once your babies are here, because of that I suppose now is the time to mention it though and then draw a line under it.
3 sleeps, hopefully 2 by the time you read this spanner whoo hooo.
balkan wishing you luck in finding a new hidey hole for napping tomorrow, I hope to be able to do the same.
For team lazy arse, we seem to be having mixed success.

It was cold in my office this morning, plugged in a wee heater. Now it's positively tropical and I am drifting off to sleep. Wish my phone would stop ringing and disturbing my slumber though.

Morning all!

oltob so glad you had a lovely birthday! I have MW app next Thursday so will raise it then, definitely feeling sicky and 'not right' again this morning so there's every chance there could be a blood pressure issue, though it's been perfect at every check so far...but will see! I was lurking on the AN thread last night so will pop over and say hello...that's the May one isn't it?

for hardly any sleeps left for those of you nearing the end of work before mat leave!!

missg I daren't switch the heater on by my desk for that very reason!! I will fall asleep if I do!

But...have Friday off so that means just 1.5days of work looking as though I'm working left to do this week!! I actually have quite a lot to do, which is a shame but maybe being busy will help the days pass

Just wanted to say thanks for the support, you guys. It made me feel tons better :)

Missgiraffe, I'm going off at 34 weeks (start of April) unless I can get myself signed off sick earlier than that... and must say, the prospects of that are looking pretty decent as every runner's injury (shin splints, plantar fasciitis, basically broken and sore knees) has come back to haunt me now that I'm so heavy! The morning limp to the train station is taking longer and longer...

I found a new trick for 'work avoidal' yesterday...which was to spend the whole afternoon at the hospital sat in triage waiting to chat to a MW!! I gave them a ring after doing a bit of research about how I'd been feeling and they said I should pop in and get checked out...it was v v busy but I did get seen eventually and they are happy that my blood pressure is ok, no protein in urine and had a good feel around bump, checked baby's heartbeat etc and all is well! So fears of PE suitably calmed and in fact they said my BP might even be slightly on the low side which would explain my wooziness at times. So then had a restful evening watching a DVD and told my boss I wouldn't be in until 10am this morning so that I could have a mini lie in! Feeling a lot better today and have the day off tomorrow - woohoo!! so really need to crack on and get some more work done!!

Hope you are all well!

Brilliant news blue have a great w/end & missg - i got used to long w/ends it seems unfair to have to work today.

Blue - glad to hear that all is OK.

I'm on a half day today and then a half day on Monday, so can get rid of two squares from my 'countdown chart' for the price of one, as it were!

I've also just had a two hour meeting cancelled and am so happy, I can't bear sitting in long meetings these days, it's so embarrassing having to sneak out to the loo every 20 minutes!

BlueCrane, that's good news. Happy day off today!

I also took annual leave today and feel like I've won the lottery! I can even go swimming at noon rather than drag myself to the swimming pool at 7am, knowing I have to swim in a rush, then get back to the flat, eat something and then go to work.

Strange how apathy seems to have disappeared today...

balkan that sounds very active, there goes my image of a snoozy scot. have a great day off - and you mikocat.

I meanwhile have done very good work this morning, no surfing whatsoever and I have to go to a meeting this afternoon - in the snow...

A medal should be winging it's way to me as we speak - failing that I'll settle for a flapjack.

Baby brain definitely kicked in!! Just emailed mumsnet registration instead of my husband!!

I'm counting down the days- literally- with an iPhone app.
I can't be bothered with work at the moment. It hurts my eyes to think..

Lovely pregnancy hormones and work stress reduced me to tears this morning which is always a good start to a Monday! DH and I have had a long chat and decided that I should bring my mat leave starting date forward by a couple of weeks...so now aiming for end of April which is nice!! But just wish my bosses would realise that I'm not super woman and can't do crazy hours, deal with them not actually communicating about what they want doing or what the priorities are and that booking a meeting from 12-2 with no lunch being provided does not work when you are pregnant...grrrr!!

Hope everyone else is well today!