Question about half-assing at work while pregnant

[Anonymous]

I'm 11 weeks pregnant. I hate my job and do not plan to return after my maternity leave, but my family relies on my benefits and I also get a generous maternity leave that I want to take.

I'm also semi slacking. I work at a large company with an insane performance management cycle. The next "test" will be at mid-year this June. (I will miss EOY reviews since I'll be out.)

Should I tell them I'm pregnant sooner rather than later so I can keep coasting? Is this logic even correct (that nothing bad would happen to me if they know I'm pregnant)? Or is it better to hide it as long as I can and lead them to believe I'm all in?

FWIW I'm not slacking enough to get fired, but the reviews are annoying -- i'll have to get 360 degree feedback from coworkers and am not sure it would be necessarily glowing reviews. I'd probably skate by with an average rating, which would be fine, but a small fear is that I'd get a below average and be put on an improvement plan.

If I tell them I'm pregnant, could I potentially avoid that risk? Will it let me just slide under the radar?

[Anonymous]

Just to be clear, you are asking if you can use your pregnancy to somehow be exempted from a regularly-occurring performance review? Is this a serious question?

[Anonymous]

You’re fine. Pregnancy is tough.

[Anonymous]

Keep up the work until the review cycle is over in June, at a minimum. I mean that's like 3-6 weeks from now.

[Anonymous]

Your 360 peer reviews aren’t going to be good, and you sort of already know that. So, take the actions to protect yourself until you get to maternity leave. You may or may not be spared from harsh criticism but you will likely be spared from termination until you go on leave. If I were you I’d use words to make up for the slacking behavior. Start talking up how you love x project or display enthusiasm for boss’ lamo idea or end meetings with boss by giving them the sense that you loooooove the job. You slack. Your words say something different. It will confuse them for 27 weeks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep up the work until the review cycle is over in June, at a minimum. I mean that's like 3-6 weeks from now.

+1 I'm also 11 weeks pregnant and the fatigue is real, but if you have a hard deadline of review next month then you can tough it out until then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your 360 peer reviews aren’t going to be good, and you sort of already know that. So, take the actions to protect yourself until you get to maternity leave. You may or may not be spared from harsh criticism but you will likely be spared from termination until you go on leave. If I were you I’d use words to make up for the slacking behavior. Start talking up how you love x project or display enthusiasm for boss’ lamo idea or end meetings with boss by giving them the sense that you loooooove the job. You slack. Your words say something different. It will confuse them for 27 weeks.

[Anonymous]

You suck for going on mat leave knowing you're going to quit. Just quit.

[Anonymous]

You’re not demonstrating much integrity here - I am not sure what advice you feel entitled too. You’ve put in below average effort in a job you hate, and now you want help evading accountability. Pregnancy has nothing to do with it since you already hated your job and were already slacking. Right?

[Anonymous]

I fully support you op. I don't know the best way through but I hope you can slack and take your full maternity leave!

Pregnancy is rough. If it were up to me you'd get leave as soon as you were pregnant. My wife is a hard worker but couldn't make it through a day due to pregnancy fatigue

[Anonymous]

So you're trying to use your pregnancy as an excuse to be a sub-par employee, but think they won't fire you because of said pregnancy?

If they have proof of your incompetence prior to this, and during your review, they can still fire you for cause. Pregnancy doesn't protect you from your own work ethic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm 11 weeks pregnant. I hate my job and do not plan to return after my maternity leave, but my family relies on my benefits and I also get a generous maternity leave that I want to take.

I'm also semi slacking. I work at a large company with an insane performance management cycle. The next "test" will be at mid-year this June. (I will miss EOY reviews since I'll be out.)

Should I tell them I'm pregnant sooner rather than later so I can keep coasting? Is this logic even correct (that nothing bad would happen to me if they know I'm pregnant)? Or is it better to hide it as long as I can and lead them to believe I'm all in?

FWIW I'm not slacking enough to get fired, but the reviews are annoying -- i'll have to get 360 degree feedback from coworkers and am not sure it would be necessarily glowing reviews. I'd probably skate by with an average rating, which would be fine, but a small fear is that I'd get a below average and be put on an improvement plan.

If I tell them I'm pregnant, could I potentially avoid that risk? Will it let me just slide under the radar?

Very very very bad logic. Especially if your family relies on your benefits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to be clear, you are asking if you can use your pregnancy to somehow be exempted from a regularly-occurring performance review? Is this a serious question?

Yes and on top of that idiocy, she seems to think that being pregnant is some kind of magic force field that will protect her from getting fired for not working.

[Anonymous]

Congratulations on your pregnancy, OP!

Is this first trimester talk?I wonder if you’ll feel differently in a few weeks and get a bit of pep back.

I was in a similar position so long ago, when our maternity leave was the sick leave we had saved up. I was not into my job and did not plan to return. Though I did not think of myself as slacking - I did my work and didn’t seem to be working any less than anyone else.

If your attitude does not improve just be sure to keep it under wraps.

I think we all have different ways of interpreting the meaning of your ‘slacking’ so maybe you can clarify whether you are simply not putting in a lot of effort vs actually missing deadlines and not doing your work

[Anonymous]

Um, your problem is not that you are pregnant.