Download Your Free Maternity Leave Planner & Proposal
If you think that you’d like to work from home when you’re pregnant, it’s not too soon to make your request to do so.
In fact, I suggest this first-trimester tactic to make your work-life smoother now and well into motherhood:
Request a telecommuting arrangement as soon as possible and before you announce your pregnancy.
Why so early?
Because later, as a new mom, you’re probably going to want to work from home—with child care in place, of course—as part of your work-life management strategy.
I know this because new moms have told me for years that working from home ranks high on their wish list.
Start telecommuting now two or three days out of the five-day workweek, and you’ll have several months before your baby arrives to demonstrate the productivity pay-off of working remotely.
There will be no need to prove it as a new mother; it will simply be the way you work as a professional.
When it comes to requesting flexible work, it’s important that you don’t get personal; your new baby needs to be a non-issue. Naturally, your baby is a big deal in your life, but not part of the business case proposition you’ll pitch to your manager.
Work from Home When You’re Pregnant NOW and After Your Baby is Born
Get telecommuting approved NOW and you’ll simply be able to continue the arrangement as the established norm after your maternity leave ends.
Here are a few more good reasons to request a telecommuting arrangement ASAP:
- On the day(s) you’re hit with morning sickness, you’ll be relieved to be able to work from home.
- When your phase-back-to-work part-time plan includes doing some of your work remotely, you’ll be glad you’re already set up to do so.
- When it’s time for a feeding and your child care provider brings your baby to you to nurse at your breast instead of your having to head to the office lactation room to pump your milk, you’ll bask in the arrangement.
Don’t wait. Get your proposal to telecommute ready today and request to work from home soon.
The Fastest Way to Get Flexible Work Approved
Download one today. Done by tomorrow. Pick and click a cover to learn more.
…Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him… Deut. 30:19-20 (NIV)