Hello,
I'm 12 weeks pregnant today and I started a new job back in June, which I really enjoy. I work from home full time.
I'm scared of telling my employer I'm pregnant. I have a 1-year-old as well. I started the new job because I was being made redundant during the pandemic while I was on maternity leave with my first.
The redundancy was hugely unfair, but they offered me more money, so in the end, I took the money and ran and signed a settlement agreement.
I'm very happy to be pregnant again, but I'm really worried about telling my new employer. One of the managers was already acting a bit weird when he found out I had a young child.
I would like to keep it a secret until I'm at least 20 weeks along to "collect" some positive reviews before I drop the bomb on them.
The problem is that I will have 3 pregnancy-related appointments in September.
If I continue not to tell them about my pregnancy, I will just have to say those are hospital appointments. But September is a busy period at our work and I don't want to seem like a difficult person that's in the hospital all the time, while it's busy.
If I tell them about my pregnancy now, they can't legally use those pregnancy appointments against me, but they have more time to think of other clever ways to get rid of me as I'm still in my probationary period.
What would you do in my shoes? Any advice would be greatly appreciated x