Feeling Stuck: Can I Find a New Project Before Maternity Leave Starts?

I am currently working in a XXX team where work conditions have turned negative ever since I started questioning the leadership. I am not someone who slaves around. I receive the instructions and then apply my brains and proceed. Now, the scenario is quite humiliating and stressful for me as everyone who is a "yes man" is together, and I am left alone with plenty of work. I was planning to take release for the last 2-3 weeks but kept procrastinating.

Last week, I found out about my 10-week pregnancy while on sick leave, and I had to inform my immediate supervisor about it. In the same week, I had a major scuffle with someone in the leadership over a silly reason. Even my immediate supervisor felt I was right, but he is too spineless to stand up for me. I dropped him an email asking for a release. He is based out of India. He called me and tried convincing me. After realizing that I had made up my mind to quit, he started playing the pregnancy card and suggested I cite this as the reason for release. I was so shocked; I found out about my pregnancy only on Wednesday, and I asked for release on Friday. How could I think so strategically in such a short span to get a release to avoid any project?

Anyway, my query is if I get a release from this team in June or July, will some other project consider me given the fact I will be on maternity leave soon? I have accumulated around 80+ days of EL and SL. I am happy to spend these leaves if I have to remain on the bench from June/July onwards if no project is available. This is my 8th year in XXX, and I am a consistent A band-er. The expected delivery date is mid-December 2019.

Sorry for pouring out all the details. I am so stressed.

I am currently working in a TCS team where work conditions have turned negative ever since I started questioning the leadership. I am not someone who slavishly follows orders. I receive the instructions and then apply my brains and then proceed. Now the scenario is quite humiliating and stressful for me as everyone who is a "yes man" is together, and I am left alone with plenty of work. I was planning to take release since the last 2-3 weeks but kept procrastinating.

Reply to Work Conditions

Whatever capacity we work in, come what may, we need to adjust according to the wishes of the boss. The concept of "Freedom of Expression" does not exist in corporate India. "Do not insult a crocodile while your foot is still in the water," says the African proverb. Think for a while that you are doing some business on your own. To satisfy the customers, you have to bend backward. If you don't do that, your customers will start choosing your competitors. Look at the famous political party from India. Though they had won a clear majority on their own, yet one of the coalition partners kept on needling them for the last five years. They bore with the insults from their junior partners and formed an alliance in the subsequent parliamentary elections. Now it is a win-win situation for both. Nevertheless, the lesson is that the bigger party never showed the "big daddy" approach. Be it personal or professional, compromise is the way of life, and one has to be accommodative.

Query on Project Release and Maternity Leave

Anyway, my query is if I get a release from this team in June or July, will some other project consider me given the fact I will be on maternity leave soon? I have accumulated around 80+ days of EL and SL. I am happy to spend these leaves if I have to remain on the bench from June/July onwards if no project is available.

Reply to Maternity Leave Query

You have completed 10 weeks of your pregnancy. Therefore, your first trimester will be over soon. Pull on with the second trimester while on the bench. In the third trimester, avail of your sick and earned leave. When it completes and just before the pregnancy, let your maternity leave begin. In either case, when the actual leave begins is a different matter but submit the leave application well in advance. This helps employers in manpower planning. Your query is whether you will be considered for any other project pending your maternity. This is an internal matter of your company, and we the members of this forum, who are outsiders, cannot comment on it. It depends on the internal requirements.

Notice for Pregnancy

Hopefully, your salary is above Rs. 25,000/- per month, and you are a non-ESI employee. In that case, I recommend you inform your HR department about the pregnancy by putting up an application. Attach a medical certificate from a certified gynecologist to the application. Mention in the application what is your expected date of delivery. All the best and take care of your health!

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar

Thank you very much for replying. I agree on the compromise part. That's how I have been surviving, like others, until now.

Do you think my manager is justified in suggesting that the reason for me asking for release should be pregnancy? That's what he wants me to convey to HR.

Dear friend, this is the reply to your second post. The manager could be telling you to quit the project on the grounds of pregnancy so that the real issues or discord in his team do not come to the fore. He prefers keeping it under the carpet. You may tell the manager that even if you project the reason for quitting the project as pregnancy, HR could still investigate further to uncover the real reasons. Pregnancy is neither a disease nor an incapacity of any kind. Your company is far bigger, and pregnant women have worked on projects until the commencement of their maternity leave.

Whether to succumb to the pressure of the manager or not depends on the internal dynamics of your company. You know your company's culture best. There are merits and demerits in saying yes and no. As far as the question of fairness on the part of the manager is concerned, let me tell you that people give priority to protecting their interests. Yes, the truth is supreme and it has to be upheld at all times. But that does not always happen. Temporary concerns sometimes override values. Take the case of the recently-held parliamentary elections. Generally, campaigning should be restricted to the governance of the last five years. Far from doing that, the past Prime Ministers who died decades ago were also criticized. Was it justified? The criticism of the dead Prime Ministers shows that the world is not fair even to the dead.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar