Something in the Water?

So, I work for a small agency providing vocational and case management supports to adults with disabilities. Actually, my “agency” is one department of a larger private non-profit company that includes a school for students with special needs, a day care, and audiology, speech and language, occupational therapy, and tutoring services. My department consists of nineteen staff; the overall agency employs more like 200. Of these 200, the vast majority is women – a fairly typical phenomenon of any “human services” environment. My point, you ask? Take a gander at this photo:

All seven of those women work for my 200-employee agency. It’s just an odd coincidence that three of them work for my 19-employee department. And just my darned good luck that two of them work directly for me. One is due August 10^th, the other August 20^th. Oh sure, we typically begin serving a dozen or so new clients every July… and we’re due for a licensing visit in July… and an accreditation visit in September. Why would I need all of my direct-care staff for that? I could learn to hate the Family Medical Leave Act, were it not for the fact that my private non-profit employees are far-too underpaid to consider taking off the entire twelve weeks for which they are eligible under FMLA.

Oh, and those seven ladies present for that picture? There were two others who weren’t able to attend the shower that day (well, one was there but had not yet disclosed her “condition”.) That’s right: nine pregos at the same time. Makes you wonder what’s in the private non-profit water, doesn’t it? Or maybe if there was some mass failure of birth control. I'm not going to suggest any wartime/power outage/holiday baby boomer event is responsible, as their due dates range from early May to September.

Whatever the reason for the flood of fertility in my place of employment, I feel confident that The Boy will remain an only child. While the odds might be against such a high percentage of concurrently pregnant women, I don’t think anything on the scale of an immaculate conception is indicated.

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