Workplace Pumping Location

[lindsaymg]

This morning I got into a conversation about our office "Mothers Room" with a coworker. My place of employment just built us a new one a few months ago after women were vocally underwhelmed (read, crazy pissed)about the facilities. So now we have this glorious space with fancy lotions and soaps, shelves to leave your pump, a fridge, two sinks,  8 stalls which can be booked in our conference room system, little desks in the stalls where you can work. It is the happiest place ever and where I go if I need silence to get something done (all 8 stalls are NEVER used all at once). The space is cute and super functional.

I started thinking our old place was probably far better than where a lot of women have to pump. It wasn't THAT bad. I think employees here are a bit entitled and have a lot of FWP.

Where do/did you pump at your office?

[spk926]

New this year is we have a pumping location in the conference room off the library. But when I had DD and next year when I'm pumping for DS I'll just pump in my classroom. I close the blinds and shut/lock my classroom door. I use a hands free pumping bra and can eat my lunch and be on my computer getting stuff done during that time.

[snowflurry]

There were several rooms in the nurse's area that we could pump in. Two rooms had beds that you could also nap in. The third room just had tables and chairs to use.

[tulips]

I pumped in my private office. I brought in a mini fridge to keep my milk in.

My office only had 10 employees and didn't have a designated pumping room, so my office was my best option. If I had had a shared office my boss and I would've came up with a different solution.

[miamigirl]

Wow! I'm jealous! We don't have a designated pumping space in my office.

I'm lucky to have my own office, so I just lock the door and pump while working. Then I put the milk in the kitchen fridge (in a black container, so people can't see what's inside). I keep the pump in the office and just take home the parts to wash.

I'm not sure what mothers who don't have a private office would do here. We had another pregnant lady last year and I know she would use a spare office to pump. But now all offices are taken, so I don't know...

[sunshine608]

I pumped in my office. I closed the blinds and then stored the milk in our normal fridge.

WE have a pumping room but it is another building on campus that is out of the way and has no classes in it. It's an upgrade from when I first got here though. I know my co-workers without offices use it, but I still will occasionally hear a student pumping in the restroom because its more convenient.

The had good intentions and were modeling from the lactation rooms at Georgia Tech which is super nice IMO ( I used it once), but nothing like what OP describes.

[pinotgrig]

I pumped on my office. My door locks, which is lucky as only a handful of the offices on our floor do.

I kept my pump parts on a ziploc and used the medela quick clean wipes. I had a cooler in my pump bag I kept my milk in.

[isabel]

I pumped in a locker room for a while. Just a small room with a single shower, sink, and bench. It was fine.

Once I got busier at work, I started pumping in a conference room near my desk that had a lock.

[steamboat185]

We have three bigger cube sized rooms. They have a chair and a tiny table and a lockable door. You can sign up using a book in the rooms. I'm not sure what else you need.

[sacattack]

We had 2 little rooms right off the main employee break area that you could go into. They had a glider in there, a table and a phone. The gilder was gross and covered in spilled milk. You could schedule these via outlook. I would call it luxious, but it wasn't terrible.

[Susie]

I shut the door and pump in my own office. I have a dorm fridge for storing milk and pump parts during the day in a ziplock bag.  My door doesn't lock, but I give surprisingly few fucks.  If someone barges in, they'll see what they see.  I have very little modesty about NIP, and it extends somewhat to pumping.

When admins at our firm have needed to pump, they use either an empty office or empty small conference room. I've always felt like that was sub-ideal, and I have asked in the past if they wanted me to talk to the administrator/other partners about turning one of the unused offices down the hall into a more comfortable semi-permanent (at least for the duration of their lactation) pumping space, but none have taken me up on it. It is a lot easier for me having a semi-permanent setup with the fridge right there. We are a small enough firm though that I can count on one hand the number of times we've had a pumping employee in the 16 years the firm has been in existence. We're not going to have a permanently dedicated pumping room.

[carrieq]

I work in retail pharmacy in a larger retail store so I have no office. My choices are the bathroom in our pharmacy or a fitting room

[sierramist03]

I work in a hospital and we don't have a designated room. I wish we did. I'm currently using an office in the lab. It's not my office and I hate being like please get out so I can pump. I only pump on my breaks though. Then I have to carry my milk to the breakroom to fridge which is embarrassing. I try to be discrete as possible but everyone knows what I'm doing.

[mlt]

We have a big office of about 900 people. There are two different pumping rooms and women can reserve time on a shared/cloud based Excel spreadsheet. The rooms are really nice - they have an L shaped desk with a hospital grade pump (you just plug your own tubes in), a fridge, and a sink. The only bad thing is that they are crowded. At any given time in the building there are 20 or so women pumping, some three times a day. If anyone runs even a minute or two over the whole day can get backed up. The whole day is always booked solid by 9 am.

[ebeth]

In the server room. which is mostly OK, better than some have it. But it is air conditioned year round to keep the server from overheating so it's a bit chilly. This reminds me I need to bring a blanket to work whenever we're back in business post snowzilla.

[silverjm]

We have 5 small private rooms, each with a chair, table, lamp, and a small sink(soap and paper towels provided). They are reserved through our conference room system and are constantly booked solid.

[moopoint17]

My old office had 3 mothers rooms set up in the medical office. There was a chair, table, paper towel dispenser, mirror and a hospital grade pump in every room. There was a sink and fridge just outside.

My current office has the mothers room in the security office. There's a table, chair, mini fridge, paper towel dispenser and anti-bacterial dispense in the room. No sink. I believe there's another room that has a similar setup somewhere in the building but I never used it.

[Poppy]

We have a very small office so I pumped in a (lockable) storage room. I think they would have been accommodating if I made any requests but I didn't really need anything and I did not relish the idea of having any more conversations about it with my boss than I needed to.

[ssmjlm]

Initially I was using an empty office. Then we moved buildings and there weren't any empty offices.

After a fight with my leadership, I was allowed to use our small conference room. Then people threw a fit b/c I had it booked 3x a day.

And I work for the feds, but no one had needed pump space in years and no one has needed it since I stopped pumping. I guess it just wasn't a priority for them.

[Ashley&Scott]

I pumped in a supply closet on a folding chair. 

My office is small, this was the closest option & the least disruptive to my coworkers. I probably could have requested our break room that has a sink, but then I would have been disrupting anyone who wanted to get a snack or water/coffee while I was pumping. 

[Alyssa]

We have a couple "Maternity Rooms" that have a seat, sink, magazines and a mini fridge. There are no windows and it's one single room, so you have to wait if someone is in there. Not many people use it, every time I walk past, it's not in use.

[Deleted]

In our old office we had a dedicated room with 3 'stalls' each with a table and recliner, fridge and sink with shelves to store things. It was stocked with water and kept clean.

I quit pumping before we moved offices, but here there are 4 'wellness rooms' which have a chair, sink, table, and small fridge but you have to share with everyone who might need a 'wellness room'. It's apparently a PITA.

[Deleted]

With J I was able to use an empty office. I could take my laptop in. Close and lock the door and have a nice place to pump. On the rare occasion someone needed the office I just pumped in my manager's office.

With the girls that office wasn't available as someone had moved in. We had also started a new nursing mothers program so they set up a designated space with a mini fridge. However, this designated space was just a tiny, windowless "conference room" in the basement. It was cold, dark, dirty and couldn't accomodate more than one person. It also did not have any actual method/way to schedule it's use and there were at least 3 of us pumping at the time. I ended up using my manager's office or my car anytime I was there and had to pump.

[mlt]

Jan 25, 2016 12:42:18 GMT -5 @starry said:

Jan 25, 2016 11:57:22 GMT -5 mlt said:

We have a big office of about 900 people. There are two different pumping rooms and women can reserve time on a shared/cloud based Excel spreadsheet. The rooms are really nice - they have an L shaped desk with a hospital grade pump (you just plug your own tubes in), a fridge, and a sink. The only bad thing is that they are crowded. At any given time in the building there are 20 or so women pumping, some three times a day. If anyone runs even a minute or two over the whole day can get backed up. The whole day is always booked solid by 9 am.

This is crazy to me because my office is about 1200 or so and I doubt there are ever more than 5-6 people pumping. We don't do room reservations but only once in ten months of pumping were all three rooms filled.

Regional? I work with too many old men?

I'm not sure?  I work at a law firm so there are a number of female associates who have had babies in the last year and a number of people in the marketing and accounting departments too. A few partners, as well.  

[lostarz]

We have a few bathrooms with designated "lactation room" spots. The bathroom closest to me just has one room with a lock on it so if it's open when you want to go in there, great, but there are other bathrooms with multiple stalls with outlets and chairs and whatnot. In my old building (same place of employment), it was basically fend for yourself and good luck finding somewhere to pump.

[stackingtens]

In the bathroom, on a folding chair, with my stuff on the sink. So, not ideal.

But, my company is three people (two men and me) and one one of them is in the office with me during the day. Our office is a studio-so one large room with no walls. The bathroom is the only private place (other than my car or something).

Honestly, I don't mind too much because it's warm in there and I use that time as a break from work and play on my phone or something.


I will say, when I was adjunct teaching at a local MAJOR university-that was awesome. I had the pumping room in my building all to myself with a TV/radio/armchair, hospital grade pump, counter, sink, and magazines.

[linz]

My work didn't have one when I came back from ML so they took basically a utility closet and turned it into one. It worked great and luckily I was the only one pumping so I was able to leave my pump plugged in all the time. They put art on the walls, a huge rug, a leather recliner, table with lamp and radio, and fridge. My only complaint would be it was in the other building so kind of a long walk to get there but luckily my supervisor was ok with me being gone 2x a day on company time to pump. 

-and I actually left this job right as I was weaning. Current job has no room designated. But a girl in my dept is trying to get pg and they have a huge supply closet in their office so she said she planned to set up a pumping station in there. Either that or we'll see at the time if there are any empty offices. I don't plan to get pregnant for a couple years so far now am fine.

[AmyRI]

The mothers room is 0.5 mile away from my office, on the other side of the campus. It is a room located within a bathroom (sharing a vent system and there is a vent in the door to the bathroom, and you must enter the bathroom to get into the mothers room). It has a sink that has a corroding drain and the water runs brown. It has a cabinet to store your pump in if you want, and provides a surface to rest the pump, an outlet to plug in, and a fake leather upholstered chair.

It does not meet the minimum requirements by law, and I attempted reporting through the state as their website directs. Unfortunately for me, I work for the fed gov't and that means the DOL of my state has no authority, so I am at the mercy of local HR to go through OPM. HR/OPM doesn't give a flying fuck.

I am debating whether or not I want to raise hell about this now while I'm pregnant, after I return, or suck it up and be grateful for a room with a lock. After my 1st, I didn't even have that as they were a year behind in construction of this "great new infant nourishment center"!

[luckyno7]

I work in a corporate office building (approx 1,500 employees). We had 3 rooms. Two rooms had a sink. All 3 rooms had a fridge and counter. They were very nice with a comfy chair and side table. My only complaint was we used a paper calendar that you wrote your time in. I wish we had something electronic so if I couldn't pump during my time I could easily cancel and allow someone else or see when the rooms were open so if I couldn't pump at my assigned time.

Everyone always just signed up for the same time for the whole week. It's what was easy.

[pippa]

I'm lucky to have my own office with a locking door. So, I pump there and can work while I pump. Otherwise, there's no designated space. I use the office fridge and just put the milk in there.