Working on Working
Oh ho ho, this is rich. I did not have jury duty yesterday (phew), but I am also not returning to the office until NEXT MONDAY. They tell me the delays are related to silly little things like "construction" and "toxic fumes" and, the worst of it, "spotty internet connection" (horrors!), and yet the suspicious bone in my body wonders if it's actually none of the above and instead my coworkers are taking this opportunity to search through my hard drive for all of the completely inappropriate links and photos and emails I know better than to keep on my work computer but do anyway because I'm lazy. Maybe this is the week everyone discovers I'm a closet blogger. How embarrassing.
And maybe I'm just being paranoid, but part of me also suspects that some of my coworkers are talking shit behind my back about staying home so many days, even though it's none of my doing. Why would I think that? Because, well, there's been some in-front-of-my-face shit-talking in the last few months, specifically as pregnancy has rendered me less able to do things like carry boxes of books and hoist a new jug onto the watercooler. You can read much more about that drama, however, not here and now but in the months to come over at *fanfare* my new weekly column on Work It, Mom! (I'll be posting on Wednesdays, and although there's a small possibility that my first article will go up today, it's not there yet, but I'm nevertheless telling you about it now because, well, it's Wednesday (right? I've kind of lost track), and also because I JUST CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER! WIM is an awesome site and I'm honored to join such a gracious and talented team and write for the least-trolly parenting site out there.)
The column is called "Working (on) Motherhood" (v. deep and multilayered and intellectual, non?), and in pouncing on this great opportunity I realize that I have essentially committed myself to breaking the well-known blogging rule Thou Shalt Not Blog about Work. In fact, in blogging here about my writing job there in which I blog about my office job...I'm probably set to be smited (smote? smitten?) by the Blog Gods any moment now. Good thing I'm wearing this tinfoil helmet. (What? Working from home means lots of spare time to do crafts with the kids cats. So far it's mostly been sewing stuff for the baby while the felines observe from a safe distance, but I'm starting to run out of ideas, and I fear that desperation is leading me down a dark path that ends with fingerpainting. I'll let you know how that works out.)
In the meantime, I'm going to leave you with a link (an inappropriate link that you should not click on if you're using your work computer!) that Simon came across completely randomly and innocently, I swear. If you're offended by half-naked girls gyrating in front of a webcam, THIS IS NOT THE CLIP FOR YOU. (I'm not kidding; it's a clip of a half-naked girl gyrating in front of a webcam.) The cool part is what's going on in the background, and it's so cool that even those of you with sensitive dispositions might want to click on the link and then just cover up the left side of the viewer with your hand or something. Ready? Okay! (A G-rated version can be seen here if you missed it the first time.)
I feel you about the shit-talking. My boss has graciously allowed me to work from home lo, these several months since I returned from maternity leave. I do this WAH stuff two days a week, and I am exactly as useful from home as I am from my office because my work is web-based. Does that stop people from being snarky? Apparently not, because I have Spies Who Tell Me Things. Hello? I didn't even ASK to work from home, although I love it. And also, none of the shit-talkers even have kids at home. W. T. F.
Hooray! You're finally going live!
(I just checked, and no post yet, but I check every day.)
As for your office, maybe they are renovating your space to be ergonomically correct for a pregnant lady? No?
Gratz on the column. Look forward to following that-thar over thurr.
Actually, it really pisses me off that my boss doesn't give people without kids work at home privileges even though there's nothing in our WAH provisions that one must have spawned in order to get that benefit. Why is that a WTF?
Just like my other single/unmarried/childless co-worker and I cover the office over Thanksgiving & Christmas year after year after year (we how split it-I take one or the other) because we don't have "families" i.e. our own children. He is an orphan, admittedly, but I am not. Or how, omg, it's a capital crime for us to ask for leave when there's a school break on because parents get first dibs on whatever random week in jan/feb/april their kids are off wahwahwah.
I actually really support working parents and flexibility and accomodation but it's just that-accomodation. Some people treat it like an entitlement and they're generally the ones that get all the commentary. I have yet to figure out why all I need to do to not have to work on Christmas Eve is get knocked up. OTOH, I do get title of Chief Counsel for a day.
Awesome about the new column! I can't wait!
I'm of the opinion that everyone should be given the opportunity to work at home to prove that they can do so effectively. It's not for everyone, so if your productivity suffers, then you go back to the office, simple as that. I don't know why the subject of kids even needs to enter the picture.
Anyhoo, I just recently broke the pregnancy news here at work (earlier than I wanted and with MUCH MORE PUBLIC WEEPING than expected), and it's been kind of rough. Problem being I took a new position a week before I found out I was pregnant, and let's just say the first trimester isn't the best time to make a flawless impression on your new boss. And I didn't. Sigh.
Me quitting my full-time job in May seemed really scary then, but working part-time now has given me more time to spend with the kids. I'm pretty sure that years from now, I'm not going to wish I would have worked more. Financially, things are tight but we are afloat. And "Daddy" is one of the most important jobs I'll ever have.
For the record, I'm with Monkey on this one. Luckily, my company is good about allowing everyone the chance to work from home, kids or no kids (and at my company it's mostly no kids). I think that for the most part my coworkers are just being snarky to be snarky, and I think they're mostly kidding. I just wish they'd realize that it's kind of a sensitive topic, and when I already feel a little guilty about my "special privileges" (i.e., not carrying boxes of books), the comments kind of sting.
The whole equal-opportunity thing reminds me of something I did in high school, though. In Utah, students are allowed one free period each day for "religious study," in which they go off-campus (i.e., across the parking lot) to a Mormon church building and have a class. I didn't think it was fair that Mormon kids got that free period and no one else did (especially since so many of them spent that time at Burger King), so I told the school I'd be taking MY free period in the chemistry lab with my awesome chemistry teacher, and we spent the time hanging out, telling jokes, and catching up on homework for my AP classes. Take THAT, The Man!
Although, Leah, you're an editor so shittalking the not picking up books/water gallon business is ridiculous. You are still performing your core duties and opting out of the ones that would be physically uncomfortable/dangerous for you for a limited time period. I'm not some childhating ogre who would ever ever snark talk someone for that, and frankly, I haven't shittalked any of my co-workers for getting their WAH privileges because it's a) ineffective (they don't make the decision) and b) I like them and I want them to have that option. But I (and other childless coworker) petitioned management, the people responsible, and were turned down for the reason I outlined (though we're all lawyers so they phrased it carefully). And that attitude is what kills me.
Hmmmm..... ALL of my former employers had absolutely NO problem whatsoever with me WAH when I was still in my heady Kid Free days. Of course, my WAH hours were limited to after 6pm and on weekends.
Hey.....wait a minute.