Today should be my last day here at work. I am supposed to continue working from home for a while at least although a decision will need to be made at some point as to how long before my due date I will stop working and how long after the baby is born I will be off on disability. It has all been very vague up to this point. I am unsure of what the actual maternity policy is (due in large part to the fact that this company has never had a pregnant employee so they have never had to ask their disability insurer how it is covered under their plan.) Everyone in my Family (both sides) wants to know what is up and as I tell them I am aware that I don�t have the complete story so I continue to reinforce that I�m not sure but this is what I understand. No matter how many times I say it I�m sure there will be some �but you saids� when (if) it doesn�t go along as I have explained it so far.

Just got some bad news. Seems the Disability benefit for maternity at my company is less than pitiful at ~ 25% of my normal pay so I can not take advantage of the full 6-12 weeks available under the terms of the insurance. My employer is concerned that I won�t be disciplined enough to work from home. Now mind you when the calls get slow I do write a sentence or two for inclusion in my daily posts but I am here available for calls so it�s no worse that chatting a little with a co-worker when you are busy. I have a tendency to work from home on my days off and at night unsolicited so I think I will be fine but since no one in the history of the company has ever worked from home there is a lot of concern. I would think that it would be in their best interest to accommodate me since no one here can cover my job so the longer I work the better.

If it weren�t for the weekend requirement I would go back to waiting. The money isn�t as good and the benefits suck (unless I could convince them to make me full time which is a possibility) but at least I am appreciated. Here it seems as though I am continually being insulted with the suggestion that I am going to sit around and do nothing. Have you ever noticed that men can sit around and do nothing at the drop of a hat? Women on the other hand have a tendency to work constantly, unable to relax when there is work to be done. Yet men are the ones most likely to be allowed to work from home. How strange is that?

I have to explain the economics of the two income family to him every time we have this discussion. It�s as though he thinks that I can just decide to stay home regardless of financial considerations. Maybe he was lucky enough to land a sweet job that paid enough to allow his wife to stay home but most Americans are not so lucky. One way or the other I must bring in a paycheck. The more difficult they make this the more I want to just take only of those �work from home� data inputting jobs. They pay like piecework so no one is concerned if you are working 100% of the time. I�m sick to death of the what will you do if the phone isn�t ringing question. I will do the little chores I do every day to fill those spaces. Why do they insist on acting as though they are paying to you build wigets. I�m a professional troubleshooter with two degrees; I have worked since I was 15 years old and I resent being treated as though I were some child just entering the workforce. There are people here who have no respect for what I do (they have even claimed there is no need for my position) but no one can do what I do and the few who can handle part of my job don�t want to be bothered (it�s too much interruption of their day). I�m afraid if I develop complications and need to be off for any length of time I will be replaced. I wish I could have found something at a bigger company before I got pregnant. It�s the small size of the place that is really working against me. In a larger company it would not have been such a big issue.

They want me to train the young receptionist to do my job (not going to happen she sweet but she�s not a troubleshooter). I don�t know why folks don�t realize that troubleshooting is not a learned skill it�s a way of thinking and it is unique. Some folks are problem solvers and some folks aren�t. I don't get to start from home this week, maybe next week.

Well I have a problem to solve right now so I�m going to get to working on it.

Life goes on dochaknow!

I wish you Peace

~alison~

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