Am I obligated to tell new clients that I am pregnant? What expectations should the client have of me regarding time off when baby arrives? I know there are specifics with the FMLA thing for employees but how does this apply to me as an independent contractor?

If there are any actual legal issues surrounding this, I can't speak to them and you'd want to double check with a lawyer to make sure but my first personal intuition is that no, you don't have any obligation at all - other than ethical, to keep your clients apprised of what's going on with you. But, that doesn't mean you *have* to tell existing or potential clients anything at all.
We told all of our clients almost as quickly as we told our families - but both are a tight knit group with us and we were excited to share the news.

I honestly don't think the client will have any preconceived expectations of how much time you'll take off - I still haven't decided how long I'll take off completely - probably two months...I mean, we're both home and I'm hoping to get back at least a few hours a week after that time.

Now, were we in Canada we'd get to recover 55-75% of our previous year's income (assuming we paid taxes) for an entire YEAR after the new baby - imagine! But alas, we're American...LOL

Depending on how soon you're due and how long you're planning to be out of office completely you may want to at least give your clients a heads up...what are your own personal thoughts and feelings on this?

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My understanding is that, by law, you do not have to because you are not their employee and they do not need to allow for your departure. However, I personally would let them know as the date gets closer. The FMLA guarantees that, as an employee, you would still have the same position, same rate of pay, etc, once you return. As a business owner, you do not need to worry about this because you are not an employee. What I would recommend is to have a few VAs lined up to take on your workload for you while you are gone and get them set up before you tell your clients (provided you have enough time, I'm not sure how far along you are). Then, when you do tell your clients that you are pregnant and will be going on leave for x amount of weeks, you can tell them that you have a trusty team of VAs ready to go when that time comes and they will still be in good hands while you are gone. Let them know that you will still be checking in now and then too...if you're like me, you'll start to get bored when your baby is sleeping and need something to do for a little while (but still make sure you sleep and take care of yourself!). Congratulations on the new addition to your family!

Hmm - I do not think you are obligated to tell your new clients, especially if it won't interfere with any way with your work. However, it may be nice or a good idea to inform them that you are pregnant and that you will be 'closed' for business (not available) for a certain length of time. And maybe let them know you can recommend them to other VAs if they want, in the meantime. Or rather! this may be a better idea! You can sub-contract the work out - so you can take over once you are ready. This way you don't lose out on new clients...you only have to devote a small amount of time to degelate the work out and make sure it gets done and correctly!

I wonder what others have to say about this? Perhaps I'm missing something? But for what it is worth - that is my personal thoughts are on it. I'm curious to what others has to say about this - Tess! You are pregnant, right?? What do you say?

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Yvonne
Office Savvy Assistant

LOL! All three of us were writing at the same time!

Tess, you said what I was trying to say, not obligated but it is ethical, I agree. And that is news to me! This about being able to take off an entire year and still recover 55% or so! Where did you find this info so I can store it for my later reference! :0)

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Yvonne
Office Savvy Assistant

Originally Posted by CYMMTJ

LOL! All three of us were writing at the same time!

LOL I noticed that too. Great minds think alike!

Hi Yvonne, you know I should clarify that, it's something that I was told by a Canadian freelancer and likely is relative to a specific Canadian province - I think it was in Quebec?? I'm sorry I don't have more info to share on that! I'd suggest checking with your local gov't agency to make sure...

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Ha ha! That is why we are all here! *winks* :0)

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Yvonne
Office Savvy Assistant

Tess,

Okay, I'll do just that sometimes this week. Thanks for mentioning though, now I know to check more info on this kind of thing since we plan to have more babies in the future! :0)

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Yvonne
Office Savvy Assistant

Like you Tess, I told my current client almost as quickly as my family! We are very excited. His initial concern was who was going to do my work while I was on leave. At first he was hesitant about me subbing it out but then agreed that as long as I'm willing to remain accountable for the quality of the work it was not an issue. I plan to sub my work out for the few weeks I'll be off anticipating that it won't be long before I grow bored and want to take it back over. I am due in 77 days, May 14th. This is number 5 for me.

My concern is scaring off potential clients. I am very good at managing my time for the most part and take pride in being professional in everything I do. Pregnancy however had such a negative tone to business owners. I think many are worried that they'll be left holding the bag with no one trained to do the job. I know that was my current clients concern until I assured him I had a great "temporary" replacement in the works for him. Then you get into issues with passwords, non-disclosure, etc. A whole can of worms on its own. I have access to a lot of proprietary information with my current client and I understood his concern with me giving that info out to others.

Thanks for the input.