New recruit pregnant before job starting

[FlimFlamJimJams]

I've started a new business, it'll open to the public around April time.
It's a very small, community focused business with only 4 staff members initially.
I recruited all the staff within the last few weeks and are finalising contracts. Everyone has formal job offers, no one yet has a job contract.

The roles require training on the job resulting in a nationally recognised qualification, probably achieved within 12 months or so. The business is paying for this.

I have had meetings with everyone individually this week to go through bits and bobs, start dates etc - and at the end of a meeting with one lady yesterday, she tells me that she's 12 weeks pregnant and anticipates starting her Maternity leave around mid-July. She said she found out at 5 weeks - so she'd have known she was pregnant at interview.

I'm now stuck in a difficult position - the business is already going to struggle financially for the first few years (it's not quite a non-profit, but it's close) and I'm now facing having to extend someone's training at least 6 months past everyone else's as well as find temporary cover, which is expensive. She may well choose not to return after her maternity. I turned down other applicants who applied after her job offer was made.

I guess there isn't a AIBU, because I'm not going to do anything, but I feel really deceived and a bit stressed about the whole thing.
I know everyone is entitled to get pregnant etc. But I wasn't anticipating someone going on ML before they'd even qualified, or finished their probation.

Agree it’s v annoying.

Presumably because she’s already pregnant before starting the employment OP won’t be required to offer mat pay? That’s probably the saving grace here.

Find someone else. I know small companies that have had to close because of maternity leave

@girlmom21

And, to be fair, she's told OP before she's signed a contract, knowing OP could withdraw the offer. So she's not exactly done anything wrong.

She’s 18 and probably doesn’t realise the offer isn’t formal until a contract is signed

@girlmom21

To be fair I do agree women TTC or who know they're pregnant shouldn't apply for jobs with clear time-sensitive training programmes or anything else that would mean they can't actually do the job. We wouldn't apply for heavy lifting manual jobs in early pregnancy, would we?

OP, you say she knew at the point of interview but I'm guessing, as she was only 5 weeks then, she didn't know when she applied?

No she was 10 weeks and had known since 5 weeks

Well, with a new business, it is always difficult. Just as changing jobs while you are pregnant. It is reasonable to set the probation period for 6 months or maybe have a fixed term contract.

A few people mentioning how she could return after Maternity and be an incredible asset to the business.

The odds of her returning to work full time after her Maternity are quite low statistically, I've just been looking it up.

www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/2019/10/22/how-womens-employment-changes-after-having-a-child

Fewer than one-in-five of all new mothers, and 29 per cent of first-time mothers, return to full-time work in the first three years after maternity leave.

7 per cent of women leave employment completely in the five years following childbirth, compared to four per cent of men

Not because I hate women, or that I'm a money-grabbing loon - but because this is going to put 3 other jobs at risk as well as my own.

Hope you don't live to regret that decision.

You won't have to pay her SMP but just the cost of any cover.

Yes - unless you have a lot of resource available in the early years Op, I would be wary of employing her. Explain the training costs and timeline and see if she can suggest a solution. But most likely she will want to work 2-3 days a week when she returns. That’s pretty standard!

You see the double standard? Business's are ok to act this way, but women are not? I don't see any women mentioned in the thread acting outside the law, and they definitely don't have to consider their bosses feelings.

There's a slight difference though in that businesses are paying for the employee to provide a service, and employees are selling their time/skills to do said service. There's no double standard because they're not the same thing.

Put it into another scenario. Let's say you're planning to build a house and it will take 2 years to complete the project. You get several quotes from builders A, B, C, and D, and go for B. They seemed like the best out of the 4 but there wasn't much in it.

6 months in to the job Builder B informs you they are going off for a year and won't be available to work until they return, but they will most likely return. You won't have to pay them anything during their time off, and while you could simply terminate the contract it is difficult and you open yourself up to the possibility of legal action if you do. If you want to keep the job on track you are free to find another builder to take over in the interim and so have to get in Builder A, spend time, money and effort, bringing them up to speed and then again when B returns and you have to hand it over to them again.

If you'd known that B was going to be unavailable for a year in advance then the chances are you wouldn't have went with them in the first place. If builder B said they'd bd off because they were pregnant would that suddenly change your mind and you'd be happy to accommodate all the additional issues?

With my hard business head on, you may be subject to a discrimination case - but if you do nothing you'll have no business from the sounds of it. At the same time as there is a right to certain maternity rights, there is no right for individuals' circumstances to collapse a business.

I'd document the circumstances, say that the individual has frustrated the contract because of the viability of the contract, check with legal, and then dismiss. Choose an HR legal person who deals with small businesses rather than large corporations. The FSB may have advice.

You've been given a hard time, unfairly, on this thread OP. You sound like a good person and it's a very difficult situation. Personally, I think it's bad form to go for a job at a small start up company knowing you're pregnant and not saying anything. I'd think differently if it was a big organisation or well established business. I would personally do what's right for your company in this situation. What country are you in, out of interest?

Totally agree with @Abigail12345654321, @Blossomtoes and @MabelsApron

@Butchyrestingface

Not because I hate women, or that I'm a money-grabbing loon - but because this is going to put 3 other jobs at risk as well as my own.

Hope you don't live to regret that decision.

Me too.

I worked for a really small business for many years providing a big chunk of their profits. I went on mat leave number 1. My employer (female) called our external HR dept in front of me to ask if she had to let me go for appointments and if I could be docked holidays. It was lovely
I very thoughtfully came back off a 9 month mat leave pregnant again. She was delighted.
Now I've hot my own business I fully appreciate how much financial impact I had on her and that realistically claiming back my SMP through NI would have taken quite a while AND she had to pay someone to take over my clients and they wouldn't make as much out of them as I did AND then she couldnt get rid of them on my return because she needed them again in a few months! I can see it was hard and, now, I don't think my small business would survive that.

But if we don't find a solution and empower us, women are always going to suffer in the workplace. We need to get jobs and go on mat leaves. Without guilt.

I think you need advice from ACAS/Legal advice. She could sue you. Is there a probation period? Is it a condition of employment that she does the course? While I think women on maternity leave are treated unfairly, at times, I think she was quite deceitful, actually.

Something similar happened to my daughter - nothing to do with pregnancy tho.
She applied to work at EasyJet. She was accepted and references were asked for and provided. She was given a start date. She handed in her notice at her then present employer and bought herself a car.
EasyJet called her the Thursday before she was supposed to fly to Luton for her training on the Tuesday and told her they had decided not to go further with her application...
She /we did not have a leg to stand on as the period before your probation time is also a time you can be let go without reason.
Easyjet refused to provide any information as to why they were no longer interested in her. She was devastated as you can imagine. Unemployed and saddled with a debt of a newish car.
Utter Bastards.
Anyway OP - use to your advantage (as harsh as it may seem)
My mum had a small business - this would have ruined her.

This is tricky for you. But yes many women would wait till the magic12 weeks before saying anything because so many lose babies in the first trimester. In the past many women would not have known officially at 5 weeks that they were actually pregnant.
Anyway I think that if she’s good for yr post now she will be afterwards too. Re training discuss this with both her and yr training provider. Perhaps they are willing to be flexible. And if you have a clause that the employee pays for training if they don’t complete then you won’t be out of pocket, tho obvs this is logistically difficult.
Treat her like the valued employee you want her to be and you will be repaid. Treat her like a nuisance and she’ll become one.
As an older woman I m sad that so many parents have to work rather than be with their young children and that we haven’t moved forward with our paternity leave so it’s equitable.

@FlimFlamJimJams not read the whole thread, and rarely comment on MN. Just wanted to say I completely get that this has increased stress for you, but but to add a different perspective, here’s what happened with me; I discovered a week after starting a job that I was 22 weeks pregnant (long story) with DS. I was overwhelmed and overjoyed in equal measure as had thought pregnancy would not happen naturally, and was also excruciatingly aware of the bad timing for my employer. They were great. I didn’t qualify for mat pay (small company, couldn’t support me if they’d wanted to) and had a spell on maternity allowance, but the way my employers were when I broke the news and how great they were when I returned from Mat leave is one of the reasons I have remained loyal for 22 years!
The company has grown and I’m now in leadership.
This lady will likely also be wondering where her pregnancy leaves her (not in the legal sense) with her new employer- your reaction and the culture you build in your company will likely shape the rapport and loyalty you build between you.

YABU to even consider giving her this position if there’s no contract yet.
Pull out if at all possible, there’s a very big chance she won’t return anyway.

I hope this all works out for the people involved I really do.

It's been covered already but there are many reasons that the training schedule could be impacted, including other choices (such as people resigning) - yes they might pay the cost of the training itself, but that wouldn't cover the extension of the contract with the training provider either.

We have to change the mindset away from viewing pregnancy as a costly choice that employees are making to thinking of it as a possibility that needs to be planned and budgeted for, because realistically a proportion of people are going to have a family. Shutting some groups out of the workforce is bad for everyone.

This is why I chose not to tell my employers until 20 weeks with first pregnancy and 24 weeks with my second. I think it was ill-advised to tell you at 12 weeks to be honest, it's just prolonging the agony for everyone.

On a site called Mumsnet talking about how inconvenient a pregnant woman is 😏

I think there is a fairly high chance she may not return and certainly not full time. You are a small business it is different I think in larger businesses ...I’d withdraw the offer ...it’s going to be a problem for you.

I work at a small company. Someone here did that - started while pregnant but didn’t say. Worked for 3 months then went off on maternity. Had to find cover, train them up and the original lady wants to come back part time….

Anyway for women of child bearing age it’s now a black mark against them even though they may not want children for years.