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Original poster

To have done a job interview at 20 weeks pregnant and not disclosed

532 replies

Kinekia · 29/05/2026 18:47

I’m 25 weeks pregnant.

My original manager knew from 6 weeks in January as HG (severe morning sickness) kicked in at 6 weeks and I ended up on the sick for 2 months. After 2 months I returned as I’d found a medication protocol that allowed
me to get back to normality. I worked in an entry level customer service role. They have dozens of staff so my pregnancy didn’t really affect the team that much.

An internal role came up within the business in March. It would essentially be a promotion. Pay rise, more responsibilities (but generally nicer hours and less front-line customer contact, which is a huge bonus), no weekends, smaller team. I applied expecting nothing to come of it. I surprisingly got invited for an interview in April. I was 20 weeks when I interviewed. I had pondered over whether to disclose the pregnancy at the interview. This internal department is in a different part of the building to where I worked so they don’t know me at all. And my line manager at the time confirmed they wouldn’t tell them about the pregnancy and that it was up to me when I disclose. This job role that had come up was something I’ve desired to get into ever since joining the company, and I really wanted to give it my best shot, so I decided not to disclose, as was my legal right.

I interviewed at 20 weeks in April and felt I hid the bump well. We clicked really well at interview and they really liked me. They asked about pre-booked holidays etc. they then asked “Is there anything else we need to know about?” and I cheerfully said “no”. I felt awful about this at the time but on the other hand, as I said, I wanted them to review me as a candidate fairly without just being seen as “the pregnant candidate”.

Middle of May I got offered the role and accepted. The call where they offered the role was very rushed as they were snowed under, and I didn’t get chance to disclose the pregnancy as she said “Right I’ll be in touch when I’ve got a start date I need to go now, take care!” and abruptly hung up.

The next day (my final day before 17 days of annual leave) I messaged the new manager asking if she had time for a call and she never replied. I wanted to disclose the pregnancy then. I then went on the pre-booked
holiday and still didn’t have a start date.

Came back from my holiday and returned to work 26th May after the bank holiday and went to sit in my usual part of the office and got pulled away by my new manager, taken to their department and told I’m starting straight away. By this point I’m 25 weeks so I had to tell them. It was all quite rushed and they’ve been off with me ever since. Nobody has said anything but they aren’t friendly with me like they have been prior and at one point I was asked why I hadn’t disclosed at interview. They exclude me from friendly chat and I have to ask them what they want me to be doing with my time and my training.

I do feel awful for inconveniencing them but I don’t think I did anything wrong by not disclosing at interview. I had intended to tell them earlier than when I did but I just never got the right moment. I thought we’d have a time to sit down together and go through contracts etc and I would’ve mentioned it then but this never happened.

I have seen there is another woman on the team who is pregnant and due to go on leave so I suspect they had intended me to take over from her and that is why they are pissed off. They hadn’t told me this at interview though. Ironically I’m actually due before this other woman so I can see why they are fuming but legally I’ve not done anything wrong. It does prove that if I’d have disclosed at interview they probably would’ve not hired me and would’ve made up a non-pregnancy related reason to justify it.

Am I am awful employee? I’m concerned that my relationship with my managers will never recover from this and it’s a shame as I really have a huge interest in this role and have every intention of going back full-time after mat leave.

OP posts:
Gwenna · 30/05/2026 18:59

Monzo1ss · 30/05/2026 01:59

To be honest I think you’ve handled the pregnancy disclosure in an immature way.

Being pregnant doesn’t have to be a career barrier, if you try to give the right signals. For example instead of telling them a month later about the pregnancy in the way you did, (which you admit may have come across badly) you could have also been more proactive. Eg added on that you want to achieve X before maternity leave and Y when you return. Ie work with them to agree a reasonable plan of action especially as it’s a new role.

at the moment they’re probably thinking there’s limited value in investing in your training and onboarding if you’re going to be on a long term absence soon and therefore embedded in post for over a year. Pregnant or not, it’s a valid thing for your manager to worry about - because you might have been hired specifically to backfill team capacity. You said in regards to your previous role, that you going on maternity leave was irrelevant because it doesn’t affect the old team that much, dozens of staff etc. But you can’t judge your new team by your old team’s resourcing and standards especially as you have more responsibilities in the new role and it’s a smaller team. You basically treated the new team, as if they were your old team. Whereas for me I would have taken the approach of trying to build rapport with my new boss and building trust etc. when you work in entry level roles, you’re used to work being backfilled easy - but the more responsibility you have, the more you need to consider handovers for absences, continuity etc.

This is great advice 👍

Gwenna · 30/05/2026 19:01

Zov · 30/05/2026 10:01

@dancehysterical22 · Today 05:17

The fact you actively, cheerfully said ‘no’ , rather than just not mentioning it would rub me up the wrong way as an employer and I’d feel I’d be unable to trust you.

This ^ is the thing for me. The OP said in the interview that she had NOTHING else to disclose, even though she is well into a pregnancy. That would really make me see that person differently if I were the employer.

If this is a new contract in the new job, the OP could well find herself being dumped by the company 2 years after starting, because an employer can get rid of anyone they like if they have been there for less than 2 years.

The OP could kick off and say 'they've done this because I went off pregnant within a few weeks of starting the job,' and she can try and take them to a tribunal, but as soon as it emerges that she lied at her interview and didn't disclose that she was pregnant, (and I don't even think 'by omission,' she said there was nothing else to disclose that might affect the role,) I doubt that the tribunal will take her side. And she will have to prove that the employer is getting rid of her because of what she did. They could just say her work isn't quite up to scratch, and it's just not working out.

Look I think it's great that pregnant women have all these new rights, and I want to see women protected, but I think the law stating that a woman doesn't have to disclose that she is pregnant to a prospective employer is just ridiculous. It may be 'legal' but it is ridiculous. I'm entitled to think that. And according to many comments on here, and the poll result, plenty of other posters think so too.

How could you ever trust that person again? As some posters have said, it will make employers think very seriously about employing women of childbearing age. So the more that things like this happen, the worse things are going to get for younger women in the workplace. Can the 'you do what you want OP, you're ENTITLED to, it's the LAW' posters actually not get that?

All this said though (as I said earlier,) I have never known anyone do this in real life. Apply for a job whilst pregnant and not disclose the pregnancy. Only ever read about it on here.

My thoughts too. The law is there to be interpreted in good faith. We’re still human beings who operate on trust and common sense. The sad thing is I think she could have been honest and they still would have appointed her. It’s the honesty that’s the issue.

PinkTonic · 30/05/2026 19:02

blueshoes · 29/05/2026 20:17

You are right legally but you have blotted your own copybook even before you started. This is not something your manager will forget. Good luck with your pregnancy and your new role if you intend to come back.

I reckon you will be fine as you have a thick skin.

Show quote history

So you don’t think women should have this right?
And that applies to all the posters saying well it’s legal but…
Honestly if your thinking was allowed to prevail, women still wouldn’t be able to have a career and children. It’s shocking.
A few years ago my daughter interviewed for a job and was pretty sure it was in the bag, as you tend to be when it is. She got introduced to the CEO who glanced at her hand and saw her rings and the tone immediately changed and she got turned down with some half arsed excuse. She changed her job last year and almost immediately had IVF and kept her pregnancy secret until she’d had her probation confirmed, and good on her. It’s a disgrace what women are still putting up with and I can’t believe the number on here condoning it.

Gwenna · 30/05/2026 19:04

BIossomtoes · 30/05/2026 11:02

Well it sets back some women’s rights but it’s good news for older women. I worked as a contractor for around a decade. When I was up against a woman of child bearing age in the selection process I got the contract 100% of the time. I’m not arrogant enough to believe that my skills were vastly superior (although length and depth of experience might have been). I strongly believe I was seen as more reliable and less likely to have childcare issues. I most definitely wasn’t going to get pregnant.

🤣 Every cloud Blossomtoes!

Gwenna · 30/05/2026 19:09

CanSeeClearlyNowTheRainHasGone · 29/05/2026 22:01

you need to make a formal complaint

That's really going to make sure she never get promoted.

First she screws them over (it may be legal but it ain't nice) then formally complains that they're not being super friendly to her.

I imagine timing was so that pregnant lady could have a handover period with the new hire. With the lag of hiring they're never going to make that work now and they can't go back to the other candidates to make a quick appointment.

I'd be pissed if I was the hiring manager.

Show quote history

I think this is where it will impact her long term. It’s a matter of trust, reputation and character. Unless she can repair it somehow. Being all pollyanna about the law isn’t going to change human social and professional reality. Honesty is always the best policy.

SparklyLeader · 30/05/2026 19:09

Here is what AI says about British law and pregnancy:

Under British law, you are not legally required to tell your employer immediately. You must formally notify them by the 15th week before your baby's due date (around 25 weeks of pregnancy).

Additionally, according to AI:

Under British law, employers are legally prohibited from discriminating against employees or job applicants on the grounds of pregnancy. While employers may ask to ensure a safe work environment, asking probing or irrelevant questions regarding your family planning or pregnancy can be viewed as discriminatory.

At 20 weeks you had no obligation to tell them. Their open ended question, nothing more to tell them, likely illegal.

Find an employment law attorney who has a specialty in pregnancy and women's issues. A consultation is worth it. They will probably remove you once you are on time off for the baby. Get a legal opinion now, asap.

Gwenna · 30/05/2026 19:14

PepsiBook · 30/05/2026 18:06

You did nothing wrong.
If you told them you were pregnant you would absolutely not have got the job.

That’s what the law is for - they couldn’t have discriminated against her if she was the best candidate. Being honest would have been the best course of action.

justteanbiscuits · 30/05/2026 19:14

I once spent 18 months securing funding for a role in health services that was a trial of a new type of role and would be used in a paper, and one that would be hugely beneficial to the patients. The role was only funded for 12 months, but if it was a success funding would hopefully be provided long term.

None of the candidates blew out socks off, but one spoke really passionately about why the role was important to her, so we decided take a chance even though her experience wasn't quite what we wanted.

Being NHS it took three months to sort it all out. On her first day she told us she would be leaving for 12 months maternity leave in 6 weeks.

Yes. Perfectly legal and she was 100% within her rights. But I was gutted as it was 18 months work down the drain and meant we couldn't prove the benefit of the role to secure additional funding. And at the end of the day, it was the patients who suffered.

carchi · 30/05/2026 19:16

Fortysevenpl · 29/05/2026 19:10

Of course they did - because they specifically asked about holidays booked, clearly indicating that they wanted to know if there were absence periods coming. Maternity leave is just that. Whilst you might not have done anything wrong legally, you have fucked them over - they hired you because they needed an employee to work soon, that’s kind of the point of hiring.

They aren’t being friendly to you. Seeing as you are obsessed with legalities, do they have a legal obligation to make chit chat with you? No. would you make chit chat with someone who deceived you? You hid the bump deliberately and you said there was nothing else for them to be aware of so I would say thats
deception , even if legally you’ve done nothing wrong.

Show quote history

Exactly this. While in legal terms you have done nothing wrong. Yes they have to look after you and treat you the same as other employees but they legally don't have to be your friend and include you in anything other than work related situations.

Isittimeformynapyet · 30/05/2026 19:24

Kinekia · 29/05/2026 19:07

The way I justified it was that they don’t need to know until they’ve offered me the job. I wanted to be considered on an even keel to other candidates. Being 20 weeks pregnant would’ve affected their decision. Sure, they can’t legally alter their decision based that but it’s easy to come up with any old bollocks on a rejection email isn’t it?

Not to sound arrogant but I could tell they liked me during the interview, their body language and just generally how chatty they were sort of told me that I had it in the bag. I didn’t want to just throw a bomb on it all

Edited
Show quote history

I wanted to be considered on an even keel to other candidates

To be "on an even keel" means to be steady, balanced, and progressing smoothly without any sudden changes or disruptions. It's not a synonym for equally.

Bookbears · 30/05/2026 19:32

Legally you’ve don’t nothing wrong.

However, you will be perceived as untrustworthy which is nothing to do with you being pregnant but everything about the delay in telling them and not being honest. My friend started at a new company 6 months pregnant, she was upfront about it and they still hired her because they thought she was the right person for the job. I’ve never known anyone that has behaved in the way you have to have a lot of success in the same company as word will get round you caused them problems and weren’t honest.

Thechaseison71 · 30/05/2026 20:22

Kinekia · 30/05/2026 16:38

Are you saying I should lose my accrued annual leave which I am entitled
to because I was off sick? I hope you never go into government

Show quote history

Wow do you imagine stuff all the time?

No one said you should lose your AL

But id be checking how much time someone's off sick before employing them. 2 months of sick and 3 weeks on AL means you couldn't have actually been present much in the past few months

Example you was off from 6 weeks to14/15 weeks then maybe work 8/10 weeks max before off on annual leave

Baabaapurplesheep · 30/05/2026 21:05

If they wanted someone to cover the other persons maternity leave they should have disclosed that!

RunnerMummy18 · 30/05/2026 21:14

I did the exact same thing, I was also 20 weeks pregnant at the time. I told them once my contract was signed. But I knew it was the perfect job for me, 5 years on I’m still in the role, had a promotion and a really high performer and it’s long been forgotten despite knowing it was a pain finding my mat leave cover. I also work for a huge global company and survived 3 rounds of redundancies and restructuring.

I know some people will say it’s untrustworthy but if the team are ‘off’ with you now, that tells me they’re the type of people who potentially may subconsciously have discriminated if they knew - because that’s exactly what they’re doing now. In life, you do really have to put yourself first when it comes to jobs, careers, income etc.

well done for not discriminating against yourself, you did the right thing x

NotAnotherMNUsername · 30/05/2026 21:19

Who would have thought a department with a vacancy to fill is unhappy when the new candidate discloses, after being offered the job, they will be sauntering off on maternity leave in a couple of months? How dare they!!

RedRock41 · 30/05/2026 21:23

Call Maternity Action on Monday. As soon as you disclose your pregnancy under the Equality Act (2010) you’re in your protected period. If people didn’t have children there would be no workers or tax payers in the future. You have done nothing wrong OP and them being ‘off’ is potentially unlawful. Write a timeline to date and keep a diary going forward. Contemporaneous notes can be accepted as evidence.

wheredidallthejobsgo · 30/05/2026 21:31

justteanbiscuits · 30/05/2026 19:14

I once spent 18 months securing funding for a role in health services that was a trial of a new type of role and would be used in a paper, and one that would be hugely beneficial to the patients. The role was only funded for 12 months, but if it was a success funding would hopefully be provided long term.

None of the candidates blew out socks off, but one spoke really passionately about why the role was important to her, so we decided take a chance even though her experience wasn't quite what we wanted.

Being NHS it took three months to sort it all out. On her first day she told us she would be leaving for 12 months maternity leave in 6 weeks.

Yes. Perfectly legal and she was 100% within her rights. But I was gutted as it was 18 months work down the drain and meant we couldn't prove the benefit of the role to secure additional funding. And at the end of the day, it was the patients who suffered.

And that was in the NHS, literally the biggest employer in the UK. But people seem to think it’s ok to do that if it’s a “big” company……

wheredidallthejobsgo · 30/05/2026 21:33

RedRock41 · 30/05/2026 21:23

Call Maternity Action on Monday. As soon as you disclose your pregnancy under the Equality Act (2010) you’re in your protected period. If people didn’t have children there would be no workers or tax payers in the future. You have done nothing wrong OP and them being ‘off’ is potentially unlawful. Write a timeline to date and keep a diary going forward. Contemporaneous notes can be accepted as evidence.

Call them for what? She got the job. Is she really going to ring them and say….i got the job but they aren’t chatting much to me??
This is terrible advice.

justteanbiscuits · 30/05/2026 21:36

wheredidallthejobsgo · 30/05/2026 21:31

And that was in the NHS, literally the biggest employer in the UK. But people seem to think it’s ok to do that if it’s a “big” company……

Show quote history

I fully supported her right to do it. It was a promotion for her which led to higher maternity pay. Everyone has to do what ever it takes IMO.

But I was also within my rights to be disappointed that she didn't let us know she was pregnant till her first day so we didn't have time to put any mitigations in place. There was three months between her accepting the post and starting it. The post was only for one year, it wasn't permanent.

Rpop · 30/05/2026 21:52

BatshitIsTheOnlyExplanation · 29/05/2026 19:00

they then asked “Is there anything else we need to know about?” and I cheerfully said “no”

This part is the problem.

This. Because it is not truthful.

Original poster
Kinekia · 30/05/2026 21:56

Thechaseison71 · 30/05/2026 20:22

Wow do you imagine stuff all the time?

No one said you should lose your AL

But id be checking how much time someone's off sick before employing them. 2 months of sick and 3 weeks on AL means you couldn't have actually been present much in the past few months

Example you was off from 6 weeks to14/15 weeks then maybe work 8/10 weeks max before off on annual leave

Show quote history

It also means I’ve barely got any annual leave left now that I’ve started the new role in the smaller department though so that goes in their favour. AL is really not relevant at all, and because my previous department had hundreds of employees all for the same role they weren’t stingy about when you can use your AL.

OP posts:
Lollipop81 · 30/05/2026 22:13

No you didn’t do anything wrong. As you have already said you don’t think they would have given you the job otherwise, which of course by law they aren’t allowed to do. I wonder if people would be so outraged if a man hadn’t disclosed his partner was expecting a baby at the interview?

RedRock41 · 30/05/2026 22:42

wheredidallthejobsgo · 30/05/2026 21:33

Call them for what? She got the job. Is she really going to ring them and say….i got the job but they aren’t chatting much to me??
This is terrible advice.

Show quote history

It’s actually very good advice. Treating people detrimentally for disclosing they are pregnant is potentially unlawful. OP has a right to find out what they should and shouldn’t be doing. Creating an intimidating and/or hostile is prohibited conduct. It can be very costly to employers so hope they knock it on the head. OP Maternity Action helpline and website are excellent.

Isinglass20 · 30/05/2026 22:57

IMO the failure to declare relevant facts which affect the business, that is, they will need to recruit someone else to cover mat leave for two employees with greater costs to the business which management will have to account for to senior management, will be viewed as misrepresentation, no matter what employment law says.

The needs of the business take priority, particularly if it is an American owned enterprise.

I wouldn’t bank on a long career in your new position……

August1980 · 30/05/2026 22:58

Op, I had a role for a business manager a few years ago. I was clear with HR and recruiters I needed someone in April (ad went out in Dec as it would have taken that long to recruit) found the candidate - male. Asked the same question. Made the formal interview mid jan with a view to starting 01 April. He accepted the verbal offer on the Friday, I instructed HR to sort the details. On Monday morning I opened my inbox to an email from him thanking me for the opportunity (large global corporate that we all know/use) saying he has handed in his registration and will be working his notice to join us in April however he had x and x and x booked etc so effectively he could only join end of June! I had a piece of work that needed doing hence the timelines… relationship never felt right. I had to get a contractor I , he started in July and he was gone by the end of the year…I should never have hired him. You seem very hot on your rights but cold on your morals.