To ask you all of your working whilst pregnant/nasty boss horror stories

[Awhiteelephantintheroom]

I was telling a friend today about my experience at work when pregnant with DC1 and thought it'd be interesting to hear others' stories.

This was quite a few years ago; women did have maternity rights but not quite to the extent that they do now. Delights from my boss included:

Clearing out my desk whilst I was off sick for 3 days, giving my work to colleagues and upon my return being told I was to do filing in the filing room with the office junior. When I queried this my boss said no job was beneath me and if I didn't like it I could eff off elsewhere.

Accusing me of making all sorts of mistakes when they weren't my doing. Again, attempts to defend myself were met with "Fuck off and find another job"

Excluding me from team meetings.

Telling my colleagues that they were not to have a leaving collection for me; as a result many bought me presents and brought them round to my house once I was on maternity leave as they were told they weren't allowed to give me the presents on work property. Other team members had been given collections in the months before I left, for getting married, retirement etc and it hadn't been a problem.

I really wish I had taken my boss to court now, I was young and naive in those days and was a bit scared to do it really. Karma did bite though as a few months after I left, he was made redundant and as far as I know was unable to find a job of a similar level afterwards.

My boss kept pulling me up for failing to meet targets on number if toilet breaks despite knowing full well that i had very bad morning sickness and had been advised by doctor to be off sick but would have had a disciplinary if I'd been off. My other manager also threatened me with early maternity leave if I wasn't fit for the job again because I had too many toilet breaks to throw up. I was about 9 weeks at this point so no way she could have forced me to start my maternity that early.

It would have served them right if you had thrown up into a waste paper bin by your desk, and gone straight back to work, Sarah! 'But I don't want to fail to meet the toilet break targets, Oh Mighty Boss - don't worry, I'll empty it at lunchtime.' evil

I was working 70hrs a week for £102.17 as a groom when I got pregnant with DS (now15).
I was quite willing to carry on doing the job, but my employer fired me. Apparently, regardless of the fact that I worked hard and did anything asked of me, I was of no use to my employer in 'that condition'!
I was young at the time, and my Mum called my boss and told her that she couldnt sack me for bring pregnant. If she couldnt find any other reason to fire me, we would take her to a tribunal.
Boss lady said "no" she was sacking me because I was pregnant.
So I took her to an industrian tribunal and wiped the floor with her!

I can't believe how some employers feel they can treat people like this....really shocked at some stories and good on those of you who got out/took them to task.

My boss and colleagues are doing more niggly things:

We moved office and on my return from holiday I found myself with a chair that was about 20 years old and had no padding and the back kept falling back...I asked for 4 weeks for another one...not new just better. They knew I was pregnant too at this stange and I suffer from sciatica (made worse by some of the things expected in my job) so come the afternoons I could hardly sit! I finally got one after much fighting.

Part of my job is banking and can sometimes involve a lot of heavy coins, my immediate boss said to me in a private meeting that I shouldn't lift anything (I was thinking she's being nice) and take "anyone" to help me. Unfortunately she didn't make this clear to my other colleagues as some of whom seem to be getting pissed off at me asking (possibly only the 3rd time I've asked and I'm now 20 weeks pregant) to help with really heavy things. Part of me feels it's not their fault as they haven't been told and they have their jobs to do but I will never understand how anyone could refuse to help someone with something heavy, pregnant or not, but especially someone who is pregnant.

One colleague in particular refused me someone to help with a case full of coins (down a flight of stairs, along and across a street and into the bank to unload) saying I'd need to ask permission first from the dept boss who was at that time totally tied up and I couldn't ask her!

This particular colleague, who when she was pregnant, only 3 years ago, used to make me, and I mean make not ask, to get her lunch and give me 75p worth of 5p's to buy her a roll...I had to pull money from my own bank to subsidise her lunch and I was also made to pick up a letter or sheet (single sheet) of paper for her as it would of been too heavy for her! Our previous CE on her return to work was unfair to her and she fought for an apology which she got...I wonder why she thinks it's ok to be unfair to me?! All other pregnant women in the office were treated very well.

These are just some of the many things being done to me right now...annoyingly some things are done in a way that makes it hard to complain too. A risk assessment has and will never be done on my job I'm sure.

I sometimes wonder how I put up with being made to subsidise my horrible colleagues lunch....I finally blew up and have never been asked again. She didn't even have the decency to be embarrassed!

Some people are just not nice or worth it!

I am currently 27 weeks pregnant and I am also studying full time as well as working part time. I've had this part time position ever since starting my undergraduate degree and now I am completing my masters I soon shall be rid of this job! I work in the retail field part time, I mean its been great in terms of financial support but ever since I have been pregnant it has been a nightmare.

My boss is a nightmare! During my first trimester I had the usual symptoms of being violently sick and extremely fatigue, however I could not really request time off work as I could not afford it and as it is only part time I thought I could fight through this, however, it came to a point where I was being sick at work etc and you could clearly tell I was not fit to work but was still made to work till my shift finished.

Additionally, as I go on further in my pregnancy stage, my masters is coming to an end so I do feel more flexible in terms of doing more hours at work before I go on maternity leave. So for the past few weeks I've been working 4/7 days instead of the normal 2/7 I do, which has been ok as I have stressed many times that I would not be doing any heavy lifting etc as you do in retail but would rather prefer being on tills and customer service. These requests have been met but recently, my manger would release the new rotas a week in advance and my shifts have now gone back to 2/7 days. I am not too fussed about this because there have been days where I am starting to feel exhausted etc so I'm not really complaining because I'm still getting my hours. BUT, my manger has been calling me after 9pm when I am asleep and at stupid hours in the morning like 7am when I am still in bed expecting me to come to work then and there and when I state it would be nice to have 'advance notice' even if it is the previous day in the afternoon, at least I can prepare for my shift! I am almost 7 months pregnant and I am not exactly fit as a fiddle to go up and running to work as I once used to and when I say this to him, his response is "oh you are really starting to piss me off and I am tempted to reduce your contract hours." HOW RUDE?

I honestly feel so demotivated to go to work and just cannot wait for my maternity leave to begin, I graduate in January 2020, hopefully once I graduate I can find a job and actually begin my career that I have so longed for!

At 6 months pregnant, one of my bosses asked me to conduct a face to face interview with a person who had suspected tuberculosis. They were in isolation and awaiting transfer to hospital for medical assessment.
She honestly didn't understand why i refused, and accused me of being difficult and using my pregnancy to avoid doing my job.
When i asked if she would be happy conducting the interview in the circumstances she replied no, as she didn't want to put her child at risk

I was a temp just about to be made permanent when I found out the surprise of being pregnant with twins. HG set in really early and I couldn’t keep a lid on the pregnancy... I’d wanted to wait until the dating scan at least to announce it (didn’t know it was twins then of course!).

My boss was sickly sweet, mother of 2 herself and said all the right things to me when I informed her. She said that I was a valuable member of staff, that my permanent role had been sent to HR and discussed the companies Maternity system and such.

The next morning before work I got a call from my temp agency saying that the company no longer had any need for me and I was unlikely to find another job being pregnant so they were taking me off their list...

So now I’m a SAHM and whilst I love spending time with my DC, it still hurts as I miss being able to work. Sadly my DH’s wage alone and the small amount of benefits we receive won’t cover the childcare costs so I have to wait until they’re of school age and pray I can start at the bottom again and hopefully, work my way up to a decent role 😩

Maternity benefits not system! Weird brain fart there 😂

When I became pregnant with ds1, I was working as a nurse in the Operating theatre of a private hospital. Every Friday we had an orthopaedic list, and some of the cases were done under x-ray control - so numerous x-rays would be taken during the case.

As I was pregnant, it was important that I avoided any unnecessary exposure to x-rays so, when I told the sister in charge of theatre that I was pregnant, I assumed I would not be rostered onto lists that would involve lots of x-rays. I assumed that a medical professional would understand the risks, and would assign me to the list in the other theatre, if we were going to be using x-rays during the ortho list.

That was a foolish assumption on my part. Pretty much every week I had to check Friday's ortho list, look for any x-ray cases and if there were any, remind her that I couldn't be in theatre when they were using x-rays.

Being sacked for taking half a day off sick to go for a scan following a miscarriage comes to mind as the worst one...

by a female boss no less!

@SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius do you realise this is the same thread you posted that story on 8 years ago?

For some reason @YoungMamma23 decided to resurrect a zombie thread....

Not pregnant in the process of adopting.

Colleague turns to me and says “you’re very brave taking on someone’s damaged goods”

No - I didn't, @AngeloMysterioso - what an idiot I am!!

I've no story. Shameless request for more stories - I was enjoying that!