Corporate women - how would you handle this??

[CasualOverthinker]

I’m interested in hearing how others would approach this, particularly anyone who’s worked in corporate.

I’ve been pushing for an expanded role for a while now - better title, better pay, and more interesting responsibilities. I’ve been in essentially the same role for a number of years and I’m definitely starting to feel a bit stagnant.

My manager and her manager are both advocating for me, which is hugely encouraging. That said, if you’ve worked in a large corporate, you’ll know that nothing is real until it’s signed off. Similar opportunities have been hinted at in the past and never actually materialised, so I’m cautiously optimistic rather than counting my chickens.

At almost exactly the same time all of this was gathering momentum, my husband and I decided to start trying for baby number two. We’re in our mid-30s and assumed it might take a while. Instead, we got incredibly lucky and I’m now just under five weeks pregnant. It’s very early days and work, understandably, has absolutely no idea.

Nothing is official with the role yet, but they’re already talking to me about travel next year, budgeting for multiple trips to Asia, and longer-term plans. Meanwhile, I’m sitting here thinking that, all being well, the only trip I really want to be taking next spring is to the maternity ward. 😁🙃

Assuming everything goes to plan, I’d intend to take around 12 months’ maternity leave.
So now I’m feeling surprisingly conflicted. On one hand, I’m actively pursuing a role that I genuinely believe I’ve earned and deserve, regardless of the timing. On the other, I feel slightly dishonest knowing that, hopefully, I’d be stepping away on maternity leave not long afterwards.

Would you:

• Keep quiet until you’re ready to announce the pregnancy and continue pursuing the opportunity?
• Tell them earlier than you otherwise would, so they can factor it into their planning?
• Or take your foot off the gas with the promotion altogether?

I’m curious how others would navigate it, both from an employee’s perspective and from a manager’s perspective. 👀

You don’t need to worry about

1. how will they manage
2. should you tell them early
3. what will happen to budgets
4. guilt of any kind
5. will you want to do this

businesses change without warning - none of this might happen next year. Keep your cool and tell them when it’s inevitable. The work trips will keep. If you go back to them post baby you think about all this at that point.

saying this as a manager who advised junior employee to hold her news until promotion came through

As a woman I would say nothing. As an employer, it’s a ball ache, and I would be slightly cheesed off if you’d continued to push for a promotion that you knew you actually couldn’t take up in the near future. But that is the employers job to manage.

This. If you wait they will need to keep the new job open during ordinary maternity leave.

You can go on trips for your KIT days! Keep schtum, you’ll be out of the office for 12 months or less. A promotion may not come around again in the same time frame if they give it to someone else.

A lot of women get morning sickness around 6 weeks (even people who have been pregnant before can find things different in second/third pregnancies) and so I'd say. Even if you manage to hide it, you're only delaying the inevitable, and if your job means plans are being put in place, it's fairer to let people know if you're not going to be able to do this.
I was offered a promotion very early in my first pregnancy, but like you, this role would have involved lots of travel and things not considered safe, so I told them straight away. I've seen people lose respect for not saying in a similar situation, particularly if it left others high and dry. Sure, nothing is guaranteed-if I hadn't been pregnant, I could have got some illness that prevented me travelling, but the difference is that I knew I was pregnant, so could have foreseen I'd have been unable to do the work.