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Wednesday, January 04, 2006

What's a contract got to do with it?

The stereotypes and stigmas and fears about being pregnant at work or while gainfully employed run deep. Will my boss think the quality of my work will deteriorate because I'm pregnant? Will I be passed over for a much-deserved promotion because of a pending maternity leave? Will my job somehow be conveniently eliminated during some kind of department restructuring--just as I go on maternity leave? Or just as I'm supposed to come back?

Sure all that stuff's illegal, but it happens all the time. And it's difficult, very time consuming, and expensive to prove.

Still, I thought those pregnancy anxieties would just be felt by people with real jobs. Not people with fluffy, freelance jobs who aren't expected to show up in an office in clean clothing. Not people who have jobs with incredibly flexible schedules who only work a couple of hours a week. These anxieties--I thought--would not be felt by people who can manage to fulfill their very-part-time obligations and have a baby. People like me, for example.

So how is it that I'm feeling this way? Not wanting to come out on my personal blog that I'm pregnant for fear that my employeer will read it and not want to renew my contract in March? It's so messed up.

5 comments:

  1. Congratulations! I hope your worries about pregnancy and work are unfounded in your case.

    Oh, and thanks for writing nice things about me on the mommybloggers post. That felt pretty good.

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  2. Congratulations!

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  3. Anonymous11:25 AM

    Congratulations Suzanne! So thrilled for you. I hope you don't mind but I ran something on this at Blogging Baby.

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  4. um, HELLO?!!!! w00t! that's so exciting! i'm envious. i hope you are feeling well?

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