Kittie, I agree with you, and I *am* a mother first and foremost. I've never had a job yet that stands between me and my children. However, being a single parent, I have had many jobs that stood between me (and my children) and starvation. There must be a happy medium here. Any new job I get, I make it clear from the very start that my children's welfare come first. If it snows, I will leave or stay home, whatever the case may be. If the day care calls and tells me one of the girls are sick, I leave. Although I have had some try to fight me, I feel so strongly about it, and I do my job so well, that they let me "get away with it." To allow me to focus at work, I had to bring pictures of my children to work with me. I have my oldest daughter's artwork up all over my office now, so all our clients can see it. My current boss was a single parent mother when her children were young, so she's very understanding. However, lose your focus, get jumped. She expects work while you're here. Well, at least most of the time, anyway.  

I have to disagree that your boss doesn't care if you're a new mother or not. I was once in your shoes, except I, like every other new mother in the company, almost lost my job after maternity leave. It wasn't because I wasn't focused, they had already taken my desk, my phone extension and my clients away from me and given them to another woman and wouldn't give them back to me, so I had nothing really to focus on. (I had been busted down from #1 CSR to order entry/file clerk.) I began to notice that every woman who was coming back after maternity leave were offered lay offs. I was told at first that I had taken too long on my maternity leave and that I had to be let go. I pulled out a calendar and counted the days off for the HR guy. I was 4 days early. Then, he tried to convince me to take a lay off so I could be with the baby and draw unemployment. I refused and it made him angry, and that's when I found out that I was only a CSR in name only.  A few weeks after I got back, when I was being treated like a dog by the very women I trained, I started saying things like "discrimination" and "lawsuit". I was quickly offered a more lucrative position in the company. I kept that position for 3 more years before I left to come here. I can't help wondering, what would have happened had I not fought back and had all my ducks in a row? Definately, stop all personal calls unless it is an emergency. If you find that you miss Aaron during the day, frame a portrait of him and put it on your desk. It helps a lot. All of these things will help you to focus and with the cessation of the personal calls about Aaron, you'll find that you can focus much easier for longer periods of time. But, as was stated earlier, document everything! Don't let them catch you by surprise.
Good Luck and Blessings,
LilithD

What a bunch of wonderful ideas.  
ozbound, I must say I like your idea the best. It seems to me to be the most fair and personalized.
I have an account with American Greetings which I use for the birthday cards, and everyone loves them. It's my own personal account.
Again, thank you all for the great ideas! I better get cracking, I have one coming up next week.

I'm in charge of whipping up something original and personal for each employee's birthday throughout the year. The problem is, I'm only budgeted for $7/person. What on earth can I do with that? Any suggestions would be mighty appreciated at this point.
TIA
Marjorie

Thanks for the wonderful ideas! Yes, its's that monthly drudge to the gas chamber, I mean conference room for poisoned cake and dull conversation.  

I very much love your ideas! I was trying to figure out how to make each one individual with just a little bit of money and time, but the number of people change from month to month. As for the riminders, I already have all birthdays in my calendar for reminders. Our next birthday falls on the 26th. Plenty of time. Again, Thanks!!!!!      

 

Thanks to everyone for the wonderful ideas. Yes, we have a small "office" of 35 people. (Actually we are a small TV station.) I think we have decided to do a cake with the name of every person having a birthday that month and maybe some little trinkets. I greatly appreciate the ideas!

 

So this is where everyone has disappeared to?   Thanks for the suggestions. Believe it or not, GE, that sounds like it would be right up our alley! We're a different, fun-loving bunch and it sounds like fun! It sure gives me more ideas along those lines. HMMM....games, balloons with little notes and funny sayings for the birthday people....or little gifts in them...hmmmm, balloons filled with M&M's ...   Thanks again to both of you and good to see you again.

 

Hello, everyone. I just 'discovered' this site and thought I'd get some suggestions from you, if I may. I have just been handed the responsibility of planning/executing the monthly Birthday Party. So far, we haven't had this month's and time's growing short. Previously, we would have 2 dozen cupcakes with monthly themes on them, candles for the birthday people, and music for one hour. I want to do something different, but I have a limit of $25 per month to stick to. Any inexpensive ways that you may know of/have tried regarding this subject? any suggestions would be greatly appreciated and thank you in advance.

www.hrnext.com/content/su...?subs_id=1

I noticed we hadn't heard back from you and wondered how it was going with your 'situation'?  

Congrats! I knew you could do it!  

You have a very positive attitude and attitude is everything!! I wish you all the luck in the world. And take care of that ankle! With good feelings and positive attitude, not to mention all the good vibes we have all sent your way, it should heal faster than the doctor thinks it will.   Go get 'em, Tiger!

 

I believe that I can do most of the things described above. The only problem? I was never given the chance. I was turned away because I had worked at Burger King and Hills, instead of in an actual "Adminstrative" or "secretarial" position. No one would give me a chance. So, I went back to school and got my one-year certificate in Data Entry. (I didn't really need these classes, since I already knew all of it, but I had to take them so I had something on paper to prove that I knew it) But, in this area, the only Data Entry jobs pay $6/hr, if you're really lucky, through a temp service. With two small children to support by myself, I can't make ends meet with that. So, I broke into customer service. With this and Data Entry and many of the computer classes I took, I was finally given a break! I am now 34 yerars old and am just now beginning my career as an AA. How many others out there have the knowledge and know-how, but just aren't given the chance because they have no experience as that particular job title? I'll bet there are more than a few of us.

We don't get money, we get the chance to win a day off with pay, or a gift certificate to the mall, or some such. We used to get certificates for $50 towards a christmas tree, but not this year. Oh, and we each get a tin of butter cookies. The last company I worked for gave us 1% of our annual salary as a christmas bonus.