When a co-worker is expecting, she may be so excited that she wants to talk about every fascinating detail of her pregnancy.
But just because the new mom-to-be is thrilled, it certainly does not mean that everyone around her may be. Some colleagues may mistakenly assume that pregnancy is the only thing on her mind to the detriment of her work responsibilities.
While no one expects it to be all business all the time, too much time spent chatting means too little time working. Others have been unable to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term, so oversharing may be inadvertently hurtful and could cultivate resentment.
To gain some insight on how to handle such a situation, Business Report turned to three local workplace professionals—Daphne Robinson Stewart, CEO of Stewart Human Resource Consulting; Ryan Lloyd, president-elect of the Greater Baton Rouge Society for Human Resource Management; and Theresa Lockwood, who works in human resources and information systems for Baton Rouge Physical Therapy-Lake—and put the following question to them for the Case Study feature from the new issue.
“When the focus on an employee’s pregnancy becomes excessive, it is often ignored because supervisors or other co-workers don’t know how to respond?”
“It is natural to want to avoid conflict, but evasion often brings about more problems,” says Stewart. “Simply put, in private businesses where there are more than 50 employees and in public agencies or elementary and secondary schools, this topic of conversation can be addressed this way: ‘Pregnancy is covered as a family medical leave-related event.’”
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