Two women I know are likely to have delivered their babies by the end of the week. One of them is my former student voice clinician, and the other is the office gofer. It is the second woman I want to talk about today.
The gofer is visibly pregnant (how could I have doubted it for an instant?) and is working at the office into her last week of pregnancy. From what she says, there is no one designated to take on any of her responsibilities when she goes on leave. We're already seeing what happens when she is not in the office, as K-Cups, paper coffee cups, paper towels, etc are not being replenished in the break room. Given the way my office works, I doubt they will do much of anything to deal with her absence until she's been gone a few days.
Before leaving, she complained about how this firm brings on new hires. First, a person works for an employment agency (think of "Kelly Girls" and the like) for the first 3 months, and then another 3 months for the firm itself without benefits. (This may have changed since new management took over the firm, but I digress.) This woman's employment start date is listed as some time early this year, and her position is protected for only 6 weeks. If she desires to come back, she will not be too happy leaving her baby in care of someone else. If she desires to leave, we will have a 6 week gap until we can find a new worker to replace her.
No matter what, I have a feeling that this may be a factor in when I choose to retire....
