To wfh because I’m pregnant and have morning sickness.

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We are meant to work in the office 3 days per week.

I’m 8 weeks pregnant and really struggling in the mornings to get ready and commute to work. I get waves of nausea and have vomited a few times.

AIBU to say I can’t come in until the next trimester when hopefully I’ll feel a bit better? I can do my role fine from home and we WFH fully during the pandemic so I don’t ‘need’ to be in, it’s just their rule.

Hope all goes well with your pregnancy and that the morning sickness ends soon.

I think you do need to talk to your manager, and if your journey in is not too long, would coming in a couple of afternoons a week be an option? A reasonable adjustment as it could be called.

I’d honestly just tell your manager. I told my manager when I was 6 weeks because I had an ectopic pregnancy scare and I was glad I did. They’ll know how to look after you better if they understand your condition. I get that it’s early in the pregnancy but for the sake of your well-being just tell them.

Just ask, the worst they can say is no and then you deal with it. I wouldn't frame it as being "the rest of the trimester", but when you start to feel better. It's not like a magic switch goes at 3 months - you might feel better sooner or it might last a bit longer.

You tell your manager and you take pregnancy related sickness. This does not count as normal sickness absence.
hope you feel better soon and congratulations on your pregnancy

Had hg for 9 months of 2 pregnancies and was signed off for the whole 9 months, work were phenomenal, even visited me in hospital. I think they're more understanding to pregancy related sickness.
Tell them, protect yourself.
And congrats x

I'm nearly 11 weeks and have a similar WFH set up, in that we're supposed to do 2 days in the office each week but job can absolutely be done from home and all my team are based in another location anyway

I told my manager a couple of weeks ago, because I was really struggling going into the office and didn't want to my colleagues to realise I was pregnant as I'd recently had a miscarriage so was quite anxious about the pregnancy. She told to me to take it week by week and WFH if I felt I needed to, which I have done since but symptoms are starting to ease is planning to try and go back next week

So I'd suggest speaking with work and taking their advice, they'll probably be understanding. But just making the decision yourself not to go in for a month may not go down well

I’m currently 7 months pregnant and have been WFH since 6 weeks! I just asked my manager if I could stay home and agreed to travel to face to face meetings. It’s been the best option for me as my morning sickness was awful and now I have a 98th percentile baby so staying comfy is very difficult. Best thing I did was just ask my manager how we could work together to facilitate me staying in work rather than taking pregnancy related sick. Employers would rather give you accommodations than have you off sick even if it is pregnancy related sick!

I agree .Before wfh was invented we just had to get on with it .Pregnancy isn't an illness .

I'm guessing those saying "just crack on with it" either didn't throw up continuously or are just sour grapes that lives can now be made easier.
It has echoes of "in my day maternity leave didn't exist, you either went back to work or quit"

I was given permission to wfh until I felt better. Talk to your manager, very few are unreasonable and I found the work support really helpful. I then went into work (more than I needed to really) once I felt better :)

I wouldn't listen to those who say but before WFH was a thing, you had no choice. You did have a choice, you could go in or be on sick leave, related to pregnancy.

Times do change and we evolve with those changes, sick leave at my place has improved massively as people are willing to work from home while ill but would not have come into the office. Productivity on those days maybe down slightly but from an employer perspective, it's better than nothing and helps keep within service.

In your circumstances, I would advise the employer of the pregnancy and advise you don't feel well enough to come into the office but happy to give it a try working from home or the alternative would be to go on sick.

I had HG during my pregnancies and if I could have worked from home, I would have definitely asked.

I had almost constant nausea beyond the first trimester - it finally stopped towards the middle of the second! This was in the days before WFH was so acceptable, so my presence was expected. It was awful, I used to come home, lie on the sofa, cry and eat ice lollies, but I ended up needing it through only taking half a day's sick leave.

Thankfully, for some, WFH is possible. I would be honest, speak to your manager and HR and not write myself off for the whole first trimester but WFH as and when needed. Some days are more bearable than others.

Your employer may legally have to suck it up, but that doesn't mean relationships won't be soured.

Unless you’re planning on staying home until you don’t have morning sickness I don’t think it’s really an issue. You’ve said you’ve vomited “a few”’times? I think personally I’d suck it up and go to work. You’ve no clue how long it will last and unless you’re physically sick all throughout the day, becoming dehydrated it’s just a part of it. Also, if it gets that bad there are meds for it. I had morning sickness up and vomited right up until I gave birth. Thankfully, it went away as soon as I gave birth.

I disagree profoundly with the 'just crack on' brigade on here. Pregnancy is one time in your life when you need to prioritise your health for your own & your baby's sake. Their advice is actually potentially dangerous as I know from personal experience (all was well in the end - but I learned how risky 'cracking on regardless' can be).

The world of work has changed and organisations are (or should be) aware and sensitive to the need to accommodate pregnant women. Every woman and every pregnancy is different. If your body is telling you that you need to take it easier then please listen to it.

Op please let your manager know about your pregnancy confidentially and ask to work from home as a reasonable adjustment. They should agree to this, as the alternative is to be off sick from work and as others have pointed out you can't be disciplined or penalised for pregnancy-related sick leave.

Let your manager know you are pregnant and hopefully ye can work something out. They will want you to WFH over not working.

Those saying 'what did we do before WFH' That they "had to suck it up". If that was the case and you had to go into the office feeling very rough I'm sorry you had to do that, but what is wrong with things improving/ new ways of working making things more comfortable for pregnant women?

In two previous work places, through absolutely no fault of either own, colleagues have ended up taking off months when they were pregnant. Both of their jobs could have been done from home, they just were not well enough to travel but it was pre WFH.

As everyone has said before, definitely speak to your manager and let them know you are pregnant.

I was in my first trimester during the second lockdown, maybe even third, so I could WFH. No way could I be in the office. I had to go off camera during meetings so I could retch into the toilet at home. I had to lie on the sofa at lunch because I felt so exhausted and sick and hormonal.

When will this ever end!

@nomoremerlot well the more people act like it's ended, the less likely it is to end. I lost a pregnancy when I got covid so I'm not going through that again.

Gosh the crack on with it team/ vomit in a plastic box/ eat crackers are out in force today. They’ve obviously never had severe HG. For the record I’d tell my manager the truth and take it from there.

Exactly this. Unreasonable to blanket request the whole trimester - it doesn’t always work like that. Not unreasonable to ask to wfh but I do think it’d be a good idea to speak to your manager.

I'm exactly the same, I am 9 weeks and feel like shit everyday, so will be wfh until I feel better. And to those morons going on about being "that" pregnant woman, please do one, it's really not for you to decide how other people feel and cope 🙄

Do you expressly know it was due to Covid? I'm sorry you lost your pregnancy.

I don't wear a mask, test etc, all in line with current guidelines.

So I will continue to act as I do, thanks!

just because previously people just had to “get on with it” doesn’t mean a thing now and thankfully pregnant women are protected from this sort of retrograde nonsense. Pregnancy might not be an illness but many women are often very unwell and ill during it.
pregnancy is rightly separated from other forms of illness and those who are unable to get to work or carry out their normal duties aren’t discriminated for because of it.

This, really.

It’s not possible to (properly) do my job from home, so it wasn’t an option for me and it won’t be for lots of other people in the early stages of pregnancy but if you can be as productive from home and you think it will make a difference to you then it doesn’t hurt to ask. But in the nicest way possible it doesn’t sound like you’re suffering much worse than the ‘norm’ from morning sickness (and the norm is horrid, you have my sympathies) so I think it would be much better to put a request in to work from home for a shorter set period and then reassess, rather than assume you will need to be at home until 12 weeks.

I'm a teacher who threw up before I left in the morning, when I got to work and sometimes between lessons as well, and they threw up again when I got home before i slept until supper.

I look back and think that was insane! It was awful for me, brutal on my partner and not exactly my best teaching ever!

If you can do the job from home then tell them so they can facilitate that. Don't use up your sick leave if you can manage the work without the commute.

The "just crack on" dinosaurs should also do well to remember that that attitude went hand in hand with women being forcibly removed from the workplace once they married, let alone became pregnant.