Last year we took a look at the question of whether or not you should tell your boss about your struggles with infertility. (See post here.) It was determined (by looking at a study on the topic) that women's stress levels weren't affected by telling or not telling their boss so the decision to do so was ultimately up to the woman dealing with the problem. However, a new news report says that you just shouldn't talk about these things at work.
On a top twelve list of things that you really don't need to be telling your co-workers, medical issues made it to number two. Listed along with operations and general aches and pains, infertility was specifically highlighted as something that the people you work with really don't need to know about. It falls into that category of things that is actually really personal and doesn't need to be fodder for office gossip.
It should be pointed out that this news report comes out of Sri Lanka where the atmosphere of professional offices may differ from those here in the United States. Let's face it; we tend to get pretty personal with the people that we work with here sometimes. But the truth is that you might not want to be sharing all of your intimate details with everyone at work.
The problem really has to do with your ability to separate work and family life.Infertility issues cause a lot of emotional ups and downs for women. If you let it, work can be a respite where you can do live a professional life and not have to think about those ups and downs for a few hours out of each day. This can provide you with stability and a sense of purpose in life despite the fertility treatments that are sending your emotions into a whirl. That's something that's much harder to do if you've got co-workers asking how those treatments are going!
Question of the Day: Should you tell your co-workers about your infertility struggles?
