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

That’s pretty black and white. I’m speaking from the perspective of a wonderful business owner with excellent mentoring and support for all. Surprisingly, they prefer all knowledge at interview. Then perhaps they can offer job shares / short term contracts whilst the pregnant person is away / offering the job to several people. It’s called being open and mutually respectful.

So you wanted the Op to be unemployed as a result of having a baby?

Nope.

Just don't con employers into giving them a job that they know they won't be able to do for months.

Because that's what the OP has done.

She knew that she wouldn't be able to do her previous job after having a baby and legally, she could be terminated for not being able to fulfil her contract.

So applied for another job where she was supposed to be back-fill for MAT leave while knowing she was also pregnant and couldn't fulfil the role.

And she now knows she legally has the organisation over a barrel.

But now we're supposed to pretend she's a victim?

Nah.

She played it well, and she admitted she did but i'm not going to pretend she's being treated badly just because people seem a bit pissed off with her.

She 's worked in a job for 13 months, had 2 months off sick and as much AL as is allowed and in a few weeks about to go off on MAT leave for 9-12 months because as she said, she wouldn't be able to claim UC for a while because she has savings over 16k.

She's working the system perfectly.

It doesn't make her a victim or an example of how we should employ pregnant people as by the time she's come back from MAT leave she'll have been paid for likely double the time than she's actually worked.

Why am I supposed to think that's a good thing?

The amount of posters telling you that you should have told them at the interview shows that you did the right thing by not disclosing earlier.

So again, the solution is for women to not get pregnant?

or pregnant women should just resign and not have any income?

not sure what you want women to do here?

Ah, so YOU don't care if it creates problems. Got it.

If you have a loved one who is mentally or physically ill or ND, or in local authority care and had 4 care co-ordinators in a year or so because of people going on MAT leave you may think differently.

Literally every homicide or suicide inquiry or inquiry or inquiry into inappropriate care by social services or the NHS will state that changes of workers are a huge risk factor

It IS a big deal then.

And you may say 'well this doesn't apply to OP'. But it does because we're talking about legislation. And attitudes here with posters saying 'you hate women if you think it's not okay'. 'it's not a problem'.

So this isn't just about OP. It's bigger than that.

You’ve done nothing wrong OP and there’s no need for you to apologise to your new team. Just do the best job you can now that they have hired you. Don’t let yourself be made to feel guilty for a perfectly normal and valid thing.

Fwiw, I had to apply for a new job while in early pregnancy because my company went out of business. I did not disclose my pregnancy because (as you knew too!) I would not have been hired if I had. I waited until I had signed my contract and done a solid month of good work then told them. They were actually lovely about it and it ended up one of the best places I have worked. And yes, it was a small business, but I also wasn’t employed long enough to qualify for anything but Maternity Allowance from the government, so it cost them nothing but some of my time. Went back a bit earlier too (couldn’t afford to stay off!) It was more inconvenient when our boss broke his leg skiing the year after I came back. At least babies come on a pretty predictable schedule!

Bonkers attitudes on this thread! Shows why you should never disclose. Women are protected by law for good reason and your common sense told you the right thing to do.

Do you mean that you want small businesses to be able to decline to employ pregnant women without any legal repercussions? Because I cannot see what other purpose there would be to disclosing pregnancy at interview other than to give them the opportunity to decline to recruit a pregnant woman?

I am struggling to see how you are reconciling protection for women with that stance so perhaps I am missing something.

So what if it causes problems? Women have babies. Workplaces have to work around it. They manage. They always do. Is it annoying, yes I’ve been pregnant and taken mat leave. I’ve dealt with women going on mat leave. I’ve dealt with men taking shared parental leave. I’ve worked in companies with thousands of employees and those with 5. We always managed one way or another. Just as we have managed with people getting sick, taking sabbaticals or having caring responsibilities. It is not a big deal. The OP’s workplace will find a solution to this

Don't be ridiculous.

You know that's a straw man argument.

I was simply stating the challenges for employers and for employees who have to cover.

OP isn't 'wrong'. But lets not pretend that there aren't issues where people can be legitimately pissed off regardless.

OP was very open in stating she went for this job because she wouldn't have been able to continue in her previous job as a new Mum. And she has savings so she wouldn't be able to access UC straight away.

And now she's got them over a barrel legally.

It's legal but it doesn't mean people can't be pissed off by it.

In the course of my work which is NHS i've had people like OP take jobs while pregnant and not made that clear which causes problems.

Also had a colleague have 3 kids in 5 years. Twice coming back from MAT leave pregnant. Completely legal but also f-ed over the NHS and her colleagues.

She wasn't wrong in doing what she wanted but also, none of her colleagues were wrong in being pissed off.

I don't think that's a very good idea. It will just make it sound like you think she's being discriminatory and would have wanted the opportunity to discriminate against you/had deliberately asked an inappropriate question at interview.

I would be surprised if that achieved anything positive. It will just make you sound defensive and put her back up and make her feel accused/defensive. You don't need to justify yourself or apologise.

Just focus on doing a good job and building relationships in your new team. There have been lots of idiotic posts on this thread, don't make the real life situation worse for yourself by internalising or acting upon people's online bravado and idiocy.

This is a big company your first manager knew about your pregnancy, HR were involved then when you took sickness leave. You applied for the job got it can’t you see that you should be focusing on doing the job now. If I was your interviewer and you raised this by informal chat (apologising) I would be finding the whole thing strange and would be wondering why you are doing this now when you are employed in the job, you are complaining their demour has changed when they knew about your pregnancy this is because they thought they employed a long term staff member not someone who would be going on maternity shortly. Nothing you have said says they are discriminating against you so sorry if I’m missing the issue here.

I think this is the real issue for a lot of people - that pregnancy could impact An Employer, which is somehow much worse than discrimination against pregnant women in the workplace. It's pretty worrying.

Taking issue with her not answering a question that would have been illegal if it was interpreted as referring to pregnancy makes zero sense.

So, to be clear, your issue isn't whether op told them she was pregnant at interview or accepting promotion whilst pregnant - your issue is with any employed woman getting pregnant at all?

You want to go back to employers being free to sack women and deny promotion and job opportunities for being pregnant?

I haven’t ted full thread but it was an internal job so same HR team which knew about your pregnancy so ……

Totally agree!
OP you should have given an honest answer when they asked if there is anything else they need to know. I’m not surprised they’re pissed off tbh.

Your old manager is right you had no responsibility to let them know about the pregnancy and you were sadly right to hide it, as even if you’d been perfect for the role they’d probably not have hired you. This will be an inconvenience to them for up to a year of mat leave perhaps but you could be a perfect employee for decades after that.

Also, does anyone expect men to declare that their wives are pregnant in interviews??

But why are you doing that? I don’t get your reasoning you applied got the job without disclosing your pregnancy the person who interviewed you surely knows now your in the job what are you wanting from this. You have the job so do it don’t bother with chats and HR unless you are wanting to escalate the situation.

Doesn’t sound like you own the business you hired her for, or there was any financial impact upon you……

Only one solution for it - women go back to the home- no work for you if you are of child bearing age.

This

I hired a woman who was 36 weeks pregnant. She didn’t disclose her pregnancy during the interview process and I thought good for her. We hired a temp to cover her maternity leave. The employee is back now and is excellent at her job and the right decision was made.

i feel very strongly about protecting all employees in the workplace and treating them fairly; and in accordance with the law.

You don't see any problem at all in what you've done?

You'll work for what 10 weeks now? Before going on MAT leave?

Would you think it was worth training up someone in a new role for a few weeks, knowing they'll then be off for months?

And that in the time they're working, they'll need time off for maternity related appointments or they might have complications from the pregnancy and just need more time off sick/ Or just go off sick entirely.

Then someone has to fill your role while you're off. Which is usually a bit of a half-bodge job because nobody wants to get really into a role that they're only covering and there may be reasons why it's not possible to do so depending on the area of work.

And then when they come back they'll usually come back part-time and/or need adjustment time because going back to work after months off is a huge adjustment, especially when it's to have a baby.

You think you'll be raring to go and all will be fine but lots of Mums think that and come back having had a huge change of heart about working, sad and guilty about leaving their baby. Their priorities have changed and they don't see work the same way. Or they don't have an 'easy' baby and are knackered, not getting enough sleep, and aren't working up to par.

And most employers are, and should be sympathetic about that but it still puts strain on the rest of the organisation.

Then there's all the other things that also put strain on an organisation employing parents. Can't come in today because baby is ill/childcare has let us down which can't be questioned legally but also shouldn't be as employers should be adjusting for parents but still, can cause problems for an organisation.

And then there's the women who very rightly and legally, put growing their families before their employment so come back from MAT leave pregnant or plan to get pregnant with their next baby in a year or so so they have a small gap and although I completely support women in doing that, it does cause difficulties for the organisation.

This is the issue. Yes, the law definitely needs to protect women. However, small businesses could be fatally affected by this kind of behaviour. It’s just not ok. It’s easy to view it from an employees view. But it needs to be viewed from everyone’s perspective. I get OPs company is massive so perhaps that’s a bit less bad.