Communication Privacy Management and Pregnancy Loss in Interpersonal Workplace Communication

Abstract

Pregnancy loss occurs in roughly one in five pregnancies in the United States. However, though previous research notes both the importance of communication about pregnancy loss and the importance of interpersonal relationships at work, scholars have not yet examined women’s communication about pregnancy loss in the workplace. Drawing on Communication Privacy Management theory, this study sought to understand how some women negotiate communication about pregnancy loss at work and how their colleagues’ responses affect their disclosures. I interviewed 15 women who were working at least 30 hours a week while they experienced a pregnancy loss. This study reveals how colleagues’ reactions to women’s loss experiences, shaped by social and organizational taboos on loss, affect some women’s privacy management. In addition, the workplace context shapes the privacy boundaries women are able to construct around their pregnancy loss and the social support they receive after their loss.

Keywords:

• Pregnancy loss; communication privacy management; boundary coordination
• interpersonal workplace communication

Notes

1 In this study, colleagues is used as an umbrella term for both coworkers and bosses/managers (people “above” the participant in the organizational hierarchy). At times when stories involve only coworkers or only bosses, those more specific terms are used.