Telework during late pregnancy (federal government)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Forgot to add… Your comment of “seems like they want my water to break at work” is a bit dramatic. If you are so concerned, ask for a leave.

Not to mention that most women’s water doesn’t spontaneously break. Oftentimes the doctor does it once the woman is admitted to the hospital when her contractions are frequent enough to warrant hospital admission.

IDK, I have three kids, and my water broke spontaneously once. It is a MESS.

OP, good luck with the remainder of your pregnancy ... and I hope you have some decent time off to enjoy the baby!

[Anonymous]

If you have a complicated pregnancy it's disability not telework

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:lol, my reasonable accommodation request was denied. I was told this by my OB and not even by the person doing RA requests.

I’m giving them until Friday, and then reaching out to EEOC. Up until whatever new guidance from OPM was circulated (unofficial guidance), every pregnant woman in my agency was allowed to telework after a certain point. I’ve seen their documentation and it contained no more justifications than mine.

You do realize the doctors can write anything you want but can't lie whether it's a disability.

[Anonymous]

Someone in my family got it in November a couple months before due date! They weren’t even looking for it but Dr wrote a note saying they should telework due to large size of fetus. They were working 5 days a week in person for a federal agency.

[Anonymous]

I don’t think it matters whether OP is pregnant or not. If the doctor says she needs temporary medical telework, then she needs temporary medical telework. The reason why is not the point. Her employers aren’t doctors making health decisions.

I did go into labor at work (private sector) for my first one. For my second one, I took time off ahead of time to go into labor at home. None of this was for medical reasons. I did learn, however, that the work option was better for me. As OP says, she’s not a fan of telework. This is a medical decision, not a vacation.

[Anonymous]

I am sorry OP. I can't believe some of the corporate / DOGE shills here. It used to be normal even pre Covid for women to be easily able to telework during that last week or two (I'm a former fed who had one kid before Covid and the other during). Even if it's not medically necessary it's so much more comfortable and really not a burden on the employer or anyone else. Of course now everything is about finding reasons to deny it and you see the chorus of "well why can't you just go to the office." It's why we can't have nice things, culturally there is so much more support in many other countries especially for something that is so common-sense and costless as a solution.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Serious question what is the big deal is you go to work.

I used to have car service vouchers in my desk for limo service, we had security who was training, my company was near a hospital.

We had plenty of women over the years go into labor at work. Better than at home by your self or with kids with no one to watch.

Between heart attacks, births, accidents, even a shooting once we do it all time. We had 6,000 staff in building so almost weekly,

Heck I tripped once on curb got a estangled hernia and they got me into hospital asap at lunch time. Had HR coordinate medical benefits, security get me over there. Was not bad at all. Better than if I was home alone.

It's almost as if everyone has a different situation. . . . wtf is wrong with you?

[Anonymous]

This is going to vary greatly by agency and possibility by program/supervisor within your agency. The telework rules are getting applied inconsistently across the board.

[Anonymous]

OP here, the telework rules appear to be being applied inconsistently at my agency in part because the person responsible (who has finally responded to my emails) doesn’t understand what PWFA is, seems to have missed where it includes “telework,” and seems to have missed footnote 3 of the February 2026 EEOC/OPM guidance that says that that guidance specifically does not refer to pregnancy.

Really too bad all of our reasonable accommodation lawyers were DOGEd. What a stupid situation. I’m just really fortunate that my request was for pretty limited, intermittent telework and not like bed rest due to preeclampsia or 3 NSTs a week.

[Anonymous]

Also to the few people who claim women worked through till labor, they didn’t. The ones with zero complications did, but you can bet your butt prior to this February the ones who had randomly fainted that morning or woke up in severe SPD pain weren’t standing on a metro platform heading into work on time 30 minutes later. They were working from home that day and you didn’t notice because it didn’t impact you in the slightest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also to the few people who claim women worked through till labor, they didn’t. The ones with zero complications did, but you can bet your butt prior to this February the ones who had randomly fainted that morning or woke up in severe SPD pain weren’t standing on a metro platform heading into work on time 30 minutes later. They were working from home that day and you didn’t notice because it didn’t impact you in the slightest.

Or they were weighing whether to start their FMLA or maternity leave early and have less time with the baby after being born. Rougb tradeoffs.