To have done a job interview at 20 weeks pregnant and not disclosed

You were absolutely within you'r rights not to tell them during the interview process. They wouldn't have offered it to you.

But I understand that they are annoyed by the inconvenience.

Just don't be an arse when you go back and it will be water under the bridge.

My colleague was offered the job next to me the day before she started her maternity leave. It's the civil service so they do that. Then they had to readvertise for the ML cover so i was on my own fir months and now she's coming back she won't come in on the normal office days and she can't work the usual hours so I'll never be able to leave early (flexible hours only available for her, not me, due to her nursery issues). I'm cheesed off with her already although everything she's done is legally correct.

Agree - this massively pisses me off, but the alternative is worse.

I don’t think you did anything wrong OP. Not for an internal promotion. Presumably your company know you are pregnant, but your HR team clearly didn’t let them know (quite rightly) that an internal candidate was pregnant. Is it a pain for the manager of the team? Yes. But the alternative would have been for them to discriminate against you, and that’s just the law that they have to work within, same as any other business.

I’d go to the manager, say, I know the team might be p’d off that I didn’t disclose the pregnancy, but I didn’t want to put anyone in the position of subconsciously discriminating against me. You obviously thought I’d be a good fit for the role, I’ll work my socks off over these next few months, and you can expect the same after my mat leave. And point out that you’re getting the sense that people are being off with you about being pregnant and say you hope this can draw a line under. Then, if things don’t improve follow your complaints procedure.

Self-pity from small business owners who are unwilling to comply with equality law is very unattractive

You protected yourself from discrimination. Don't feel bad. It is annoying for them but they will get through it and when you've been back from mat leave for a bit it'll be forgotten (and other staff will have come and gone). I feel this would be more of a grey area if we were talking about a small business but as it is far from that I feel you protected yourself and the big corporation will cope.

The problem is that they will find ways to punish you for it. Workplace discrimination is rarely outright and usually takes the form of being sabotaged/picked on in some way

No you absolutely do not need to disclose that. Pregnancy is a protected characteristic and no one needs to know - same way as you wouldn't disclose having adhd, a prosthetic leg or back problem

No you did nothing wrong. Women should not be penalised and miss out on opportunities because they are pregnant

But they should be honest. Answering a question that was related to availability with a no was not honest.

I am all for womens rights, but actions like this put employers off women as employees and do us no favours in the long run.

I’m astounded at some of the responses on here. You have done absolutely nothing wrong! It’s not great for the company, but that’s not your fault AT ALL. Who asked you why you had not disclosed at interview? That is the bit that is probably discrimination. If the person who asked you was one of the interviewers, it is implying that you SHOULD have disclosed at interview. If it is someone who wasn’t on the interview panel, how do they know that you didn’t disclose it? Honestly, you have absolutely done the right thing for you and your family. You were clearly the right person to do the job and hopefully they’ll come to realise that in the future.

What are pregnant women who need a job actually supposed to do, then? Purposefully sabotage their own interviews for the benefit of a corporation?

Yeah I agree. If there's any implications they wouldn't have hired you because of it they know they're breaking employment law. So they have to accept it.

But you already had the job though so there was nothing for you to lose by telling them. Whether you told them at 12 or 20 weeks made very little difference I suspect.

the Op almost certainly wouldn’t have got the job had she disclosed it when she interviewed.

You did nothing wrong and there was no obligation to, legally or morally to tell them.

I hire and manage staff and yes it would cause a massive inconvenience and I wouldn’t deny that. But it’s also not for you to worry about that, that’s the job of line managers. You have every right not to disclose.

covering pregnancy and maternity is just part and parcel of working life and needs to be taken in everyone’s stride.

That is somewhat different. They should have greater capacity to accommodate a variety of situations than a small business. We can cope with an outbreak of measles for a week or 10 days, but 10 months of maternity leave would break everything. Hence, we would give another perfectly plausible reason that you weren't hired for the office manager job. For clarity, I was a sole trader but my OH has a small business. So two different situations.

This is discrimination. You have no obligation to disclose prwgnancy at interview. It has to be done by 25 weeks to qualify for material pay if other criteria is met. You have done nothing wrong - it is on them. I think we all have exactly like this and it makes me sad!

It’s difficult because it’s not good to lie but if you’d told the truth I doubt they would have appointed you. Everyone knows that. Sì you were in a no win situation.

Haven't RTFT but OP I dont think I could have done what you did 🙈 I applied for a job in my mat leave with DD1 and got it, found out I was pregnant with DD2 whilst still in my mat leave and arranged an appointment to speak to my manager soon after my 12 week scan to inform them as I felt that was the least I could do. Doesn't matter if I was obliged to or not, I just thought of it as common courtesy.

this
and ultimately they can’t discriminate because you’re pregnant
the issue you’ve now got is that you lied to them which is never good
if speak to the new manager and apologise and say you didn’t want it to affect your chances, I would also engage in the 10 KIT days and make an effort to keep in touch with the team

I agree with this and I think you were right not to disclose before you had the job. Discriminating againt someone in the grounds of pregnancy and maternity is illegal so by not telling them you kindly prevented them from doing something illegal. Which is sounds like they absolutely would have done if you had told them and indeed they are doing now.

Oh, sorry I didn't realise. I didn't realise you were answering a particular poster and their points.

I'm sorry to hear that.

And?

I agree.