Telling the boss

At the end it was actually quite easy. Our meeting was at 10am. I was
a little nervous, but I was quite sure he’d be pleased for me. And
after my experience yesterday I had a strong suspicion that he already
knew anyway.

10 minutes late he was ready for me. We went into a meeting room and
he started off like always:

“So, how is Tara?”

I forgot all the scripts I had prepared and said: “Tara is well. But
there is something she needs to tell you.”

He started smiling and said: “You might be a little late for that. I
think I already know. And I’m really pleased for you.”

I was clearly relieved. He came over to give me a hug and congratulate
me. He was very laid back about it. He said that he didn’t have a
clue, but one of my colleagues (one I see about once a month!!!) did
ask him last week if he wouldn’t have noticed a difference about me
yet recently. She didn’t tell him what, just told him to open his
eyes. Then he started noticing my little bulge, that I constantly eat
and once or twice he would have noticed me touching my stomach. So he
put one and one together and came up rightly with three.

I was pleased I was prepared though as he asked the usual questions
like ‘When is the baby due?’, ‘Do you already know how long you’ll
still be here?’, ‘Do you have any thoughts about maternity leave yet?’
‘When are you ready to tell the others?’

I agreed that we wait till Monday to tell the others as I should have
my test results then and he agreed. He just asked if he can tell the
colleague who tipped him off before and I agreed.

We talked about how we’ll handle it with the project and maternity
cover and we seem pretty much on the same page. He probably will bring
a consultant on a flexible 6 – 12 month contract in to cover for me
and manage the implementation stage of the project.

He didn’t doubt for one second that I’d still push the project as hard
as before. I tried to reassure him and he just waved me off and said
‘Tara, I know you are more than committed to your work. That’ll never
be in question.’

I’m very pleased how well this went and I am pleased that he is happy
for me even though it does create issues for the team. The only thing
he asked is if I’d be prepared to be available per phone or come in
one day per week if I take the whole of December off on holiday and I
said that wouldn’t be a problem and I’m sure we can come to some kind
of arrangement.

I’m pleased it is out in the open now and I’ll be even more pleased
when I told the others on Monday (assuming the test results are okay).

Tip of the day: Don’t try to hide it longer than the first trimester.
They are likely to already guess anyway.