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How Weird is This? (Work/Baby Related)

5 upper level people here (ranging from director to VP level) are meeting to talk about what they are going to do about my work when I am on maternity leave, which won't be for roughly 6 months. I am not invited to this meeting, nor do I officially even know about it.

4 of these people have pretty much no clue about what I do. I include my own boss in that, as you'll recall from my post a few weeks ago, he is pretty much a total tool.

I am seriously confused about what they think they are going to accomplish at this meeting, particularly with no input from me. When I told them I was pregnant, I also told them I would put together a plan for what would happen with my work when I am out.

Re: How Weird is This? (Work/Baby Related)

  • Whoa whoa whoa! Hold the phone. Did I miss an announcement? Congratulations!!!!!!!

    Anyway, that meeting does seem a little bizarre without you there. 

  • Maybe their meeting is focused on a larger issue - a larger-scale reshuffling of work assignments? - and your leave is a small portion of that conversation?  (Or maybe I'm just paranoid, because we have a lot of change going on in my department and a lot of meetings that involve work reassignment that don't include the people who do the work.)

    It seems weird, but that would seem par for the course for my current organization.

    imageimageimage
  • I'd take it as a backhanded compliment. You're so integral they need to start strategizing 6 months ahead to cover the workload. And ditto PP - it may be about HR issues more generally, where it wouldn't be appropriate to have you there.
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker Pregnancy Ticker
  • imageDCtoLowcountry:
    I'd take it as a backhanded compliment. You're so integral they need to start strategizing 6 months ahead to cover the workload. And ditto PP - it may be about HR issues more generally, where it wouldn't be appropriate to have you there.

    I am the only person who does what I do internally, and we are also in the middle of a big project that will be in the implementation phase when I am out.

    I found out about the meeting, though, from the one person who will be there who knows what I do. She was confused I wouldn't be there, and read me the meeting request, which came from my boss and said, "[His boss] wanted me to call this meeting to talk about what we will do about cep's work when she is on maternity leave in July."

  • imageMrsPhilDunphy:

    Whoa whoa whoa! Hold the phone. Did I miss an announcement? Congratulations!!!!!!!

    Thanks! I'm not an an announcement kind of girl, so I just stuck a ticker in my signature earlier this week.

  • I think it depends on your organization.  Mine is pretty open about stuff, so this type of meeting wouldn't make me paranoid, but it would bug me.  FWIW, I spoke with the various people I worked with about my responsibilities and who would cover for me and then I wrote up a plan (for both my maternity leaves).

    Congrats!

  • It's a little weird but it depends on your company. I sat down with my boss to go over some issues with my maternity leave a while before I sent out my official maternity leave plan just so they wouldn't totally be taken by surprise a couple months before I was leaving. I found out later that my exec. dir. and dep. exec. dir. had a meeting shortly after that to discuss my maternity leave without me. They wanted to discuss mostly what they were going to allow me to do as far as returning to work PT and then I had requested doing two days a week from home after I returned FT... so, I didn't find that odd, but I guess if they're discussing your workload and what needs to be covered then I would think you should be in that meeting. Maybe they're just going over logistics, like are they going to hire a temp while you're gone, etc.
    Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • imagecep1976:
    imageMrsPhilDunphy:

    Whoa whoa whoa! Hold the phone. Did I miss an announcement? Congratulations!!!!!!!

    Thanks! I'm not an an announcement kind of girl, so I just stuck a ticker in my signature earlier this week.

    I failed to notice this as well... huge congrats!!

  • Congrats!! We both have little firecrackers due in July. My M/L sitch is a huge clusterf**k as well. My boss doesn't want to talk about it and is thinking of making the company all virtual in the fall. While I am out on the M/L that she doesn't want to talk about.
    Together Together, 9-23-06. Little Girl is Here! Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker
  • FWIW where I work that would not be an unusual meeting for folks to have without me.  Whether they knew what I do for a living or not.  Maybe they're talking about a plan they knew you wouldn't be thrilled about or major changes that happen to be coinciding with your leave that they don't want you to know about.

    In any case, congrats!!!

    Wife, Musician, Fed, WW-er, and Mom of three little kids - not necessarily in that order.
  • imageArtslvr:

    FWIW where I work that would not be an unusual meeting for folks to have without me.  Whether they knew what I do for a living or not.  Maybe they're talking about a plan they knew you wouldn't be thrilled about or major changes that happen to be coinciding with your leave that they don't want you to know about.

    In any case, congrats!!!

    this is what I was thinking, given your past post about your boss. It's not so much weird as perhaps a little scary to think about what they could be talking about. I feel for ya... talking about how to cover for you is one thing -- and then, yes, someone should know exactly what it is that you do (likely not your arsehole boss). But knowing that anyone is talking about you -- at all -- can be weird/scary/unsettling. Can you circle back to the person who made you aware of this meeting, and see what happened?
    Pam and John
    "What is a week-end?"
  • imagePam&John:
     this is what I was thinking, given your past post about your boss. It's not so much weird as perhaps a little scary to think about what they could be talking about. I feel for ya... talking about how to cover for you is one thing -- and then, yes, someone should know exactly what it is that you do (likely not your arsehole boss). But knowing that anyone is talking about you -- at all -- can be weird/scary/unsettling. Can you circle back to the person who made you aware of this meeting, and see what happened?

    The person who told me about the meeting loves me, and also told me if I ever get so unhappy with my boss that I'd want to leave for a new job, to let her know and she would get me moved into her division. Apparently she's tried to poach me before and been shot down. So, she will definitely fill me in afterwards, and stand up for me in that meeting as well. I feel much, much better knowing she will be in there. She's also the one who understands what I do and gets the importance of it.

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