Pregnant, does this sound like they will get rid of me

[Teekkssh]

NC as could be outing. I work in the legal sector and when there’s not much work there is basically as witch hunt.

My colleagues seem to put time down for things that quite clearly haven’t taken that long (two hours to write to court and inform them the firm is on the record, for example).

I’ve had a couple of meetings recently where I’ve been told, informally, that I’m not doing enough and need to put down my time. But there isn’t always enough to put down!! I know I need to just play the game, probably, and bulk out the days, but now worried it’s too late.

I work for a large firm and I’m pregnant at the moment. I feel like they are on the cusp of taking steps to get rid of me.

I am struggling to sleep and eat with worry. I’m worried when I come back, if I even lastthat long, I will be given notice after maternity.

Have you informed them you’re pregnant? I would have thought a legal firm would be very wary of making you redundant whilst pregnant. After mat leave however they might be difficult but don’t think that now. Have there been complaints about your work or just billings? Sounds to me like they just need billable hours to increase, looks bad for the stats!

@SlowHorses yes I have. No quality of work issues I don’t think, just comments about not making much effort to go in the office etc (we’ve had no pay rise and it’s expensive!).

Its all been informal but I am now really scared about what they would do after maternity.

If you want fact rather than opinion, get this moved to Employment Matters.

How long have you worked there?

I think you should be whistleblowing and reporting to SRA. They are defrauding clients. Disgusting

How long have you worked there?

When I had my first child I made it clear I wanted to return to my secretarial job after maternity leave. Not even 6 weeks had passed when firm contacted me to ask when I was returning. I said I hadn’t thought about returning so soon and asked why. They said they wanted me in to cover receptionist who was going on mat leave soon. I said when I go back would want my job, not receptionist job. They said my job is no longer available, either take the receptionist job or be made redundant. I took redundancy, but had to return for 2 months to a job that didn’t exist. Unfortunately there wasn’t a lot I could do about it, but after that I did get a good job with the hours I wanted. Logging hours is hard, where I worked at an Accountancy firm, you really didn’t want to spend too long chatting to clients on the phone, as they would be charged. Every minute had to be accounted for, 7.5 hours a day and questions were asked all the time if you didn’t log this amount of time.

@Mindymomo I thought it was a legal obligation to hold your job for at least 6 months under maternity law. After 6 months they are permitted to give you an equivalent role - this is what happened to me and it is hard to argue that your "equivalent role" is not really equivalent.

@Teekkssh do you have any friends who are employment lawyers that can advise? I would be cautious about not going into the office if you are expected to as that is the sort of thing that could be used as evidence of you not pulling your weight. You say it's expensive and you haven't had a pay rise but presumably pre pandemic, you would go in? If you're concerned, you need to be seen to be playing the game.

You’re wrong. They can restructure. No company is legally required to hold jobs open if they aren’t needed. But there are lots of factors so the OP needs to give more info.

Loads of HR professionals (like me) and Employment Lawyers over on Employment Issues………

I’m talking about a good few years ago when the rules were probably different. It was over 6 months that I went back to work my notice,

Been the rule for at least 15 if not 20 years. (But only applies if the role still exists.)