{"id":1674,"date":"2018-07-30T03:35:18","date_gmt":"2018-07-30T03:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/?p=1674"},"modified":"2018-07-30T03:35:18","modified_gmt":"2018-07-30T03:35:18","slug":"when-to-tell-the-boss-youre-pregnant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/career\/when-to-tell-the-boss-youre-pregnant","title":{"rendered":"When to tell the boss you\u2019re pregnant"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are no hard and fast rules around when you should tell the boss you\u2019re pregnant, but the savvy approach is to plan the announcement before you start showing or friends and colleagues realise somethings up. It\u2019s important to allay any fear about how the boss might react to your need to take maternity leave and\/or how it might impact your standing within the business and opportunity for future promotion.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Relax, you\u2019re not the first female employee to have a baby and you won\u2019t be the last, even prime ministers are doing it. It\u2019s equally important to recognise that there are laws and guidelines that outline how you and your employer should handle your pregnancy. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

For starters, you needs to familiarise yourself with the company\u2019s maternity leave policy. Assuming there is one, find out how much notice you are obliged to give (your employer) before going on leave, and <\/span>when you can apply for unpaid parental leave. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Under Australian law you are entitled to 12 months unpaid parental leave.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As a general rule, pregnant women are encouraged to give their employer at least ten weeks\u2019 prior notice, particularly if they want to take any form of paid leave. There\u2019s an expectation under National Employment Standard (NES) that most parental leave arrangements, including unpaid parental leave, will commence six weeks prior to your due date. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Assuming you\u2019re planning to do this, you\u2019ll need to tell your employer about your pregnancy no later than the end of your second trimester \u2013 which is week 27.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean you have stop working at that point. Whether you work during the last weeks of your pregnancy depends on A) whether you want to, B) you\u2019re fit to continue working, C) it is safe for you to continue your normal duties, and D) your boss is comfortable for you to do so.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But remember, <\/span>as a pregnant woman you do have the right to continue working, unless there are occupational health and safety-related issues. <\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Once you decide to tell your boss you\u2019re pregnant, make sure there\u2019s sufficient time to discuss how you\u2019re both going to manage the \u2018before and after\u2019 periods. For example, are there deadlines that need to be met before you leave, who will you assign unfinished business to?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Equally important, how will you manage the return to work, will it be staged, will you resume a five-day week immediately, and what other considerations does your boss need to be mindful of? As with most things in life, the best win-win outcome for you and your boss will require an element of give and take.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

However, that doesn\u2019t grant your boss the licence to discriminate or treat you unfairly due to your pregnancy. If you feel you are being unfairly treated as a result of being pregnant, you need to familiarise yourself with your rights by visiting the<\/span> <\/span>Fairwork Ombudsman website<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are no hard and fast rules around<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,135,134,133,42,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career","category-education","category-leave","category-legal","category-on-the-job","category-work-life-balance"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1674"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1678,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1674\/revisions\/1678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.careerone.com.au\/career-advice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}