An Australian woman has expressed her frustration after her colleague’s ‘pregnancy’ doubled her workload – and there’s one infuriating detail she can’t ignore.
According to the woman’s revealation, her co-worker keeps saying ‘I can’t do this because I’m pregnant’, ‘I can’t fly on a plane because I’m pregnant’, and ‘You wouldn’t understand because you’re not pregnant’ as excuses each week.
However, the colleague isn’t physically pregnant – she is using a surrogate.
‘I have four children,’ the anonymous woman said. ‘I finally had enough today and told her she couldn’t be serious and needed to get it through her brain if she was every going to be capable of raising the child instead of living in a fantasy world.’
‘You are not pregnant!’ the woman said to her colleague. ‘Your surrogate is pregnant.’
But her ‘outburst’ caused a scene and led to the company’s human resources department getting involved.
‘Now I have to meet with HR because this made her cry and I need to be more considerate of her pregnancy hormones,’ the woman revealed on Facebook.
While she understood her colleague wanted the attention of having a child, she claimed it shouldn’t impact her ability to do her job.
‘[My colleague] wants to weasel out of work by saying she’s pregnant, but no more. I am being lumped with her work load and mine when she’s capable of doing the work.’
Many commenters sympathised with the difficult situation.
‘I’d be p*ssed if I had to do double the work because someone is having a child,’ a woman said. ‘She isn’t physically pregnant and saying she cannot do her work because her surrogate is pregnant is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.’
‘I’m with you. She’s not pregnant. She’s having a baby (which is valid and exciting) but she’s not physically pregnant and it’s weird to insinuate she is,’ another said.
But others slammed the woman for not being considerate.
‘She has a surrogate for a reason and I assume it’s because she can’t carry the baby herself. I think you should be more sensitive to what she is going through. She could be really anxious about it all and feel like work is her only safe space,’ one said.
‘Not your place,’ another said. ‘There is a professional pathway you should have followed. It’s very nasty to rub it in that she isn’t the one carrying the child.’
‘That’s actually a really horrible thing to say to someone. Questioning her ability to raise a child and calling it a ‘fantasy world’. I understand it’s annoying but there are many ways you can go about it – not being a monster is just the start,’ one wrote.
A few claimed the woman should address her issues with the company.
‘You sound very unpleasant and it’s not her fault you work has increased, it’s your manager’s fault,’ a woman said.
‘I would be so firm on the fact that I am not doing any of her workload whatsoever – what an absolute joke,’ another added.
