I fell ‘ill’ during a work meeting which was tense so I persevered, after the meeting I found I had bled so severely, I bled through a tampon, pad and my underwear and jeans. I’d had bad cramping for days prior and assumed this was a bad period.
The pain and bleeding worsened and I ended up being referred to A&E by out of hours and it was confirmed I was miscarrying (I wasn’t aware I was pregnant). I messaged my boss shortly after leaving hospital to advise him and to let him know there was a chance I wouldn’t be at work today (Monday) as a result.
I returned to work as normal and told him I’d do what I could and see how got on. After lunch, I felt very uncomfortable given I am still actively bleeding with cramping and asked to log off early. He responded instantly to state his preference is that I work the time back but if I wanted to take a half day to cover the 1.5 hours today and take the remaining time tomorrow, I could.
Another employee I am very friendly with suffered a loss earlier this year with some differing circumstances and while I would never ever compare our situations, I have since asked if the time she was required to have off was taken from her as annual leave. She has confirmed she was given 1 week compassionate leave followed by a week taken as annual leave.
(for context, she had a missed miscarriage and developed symptoms at around 9 weeks on the same day she told our boss she was pregnant as she felt she needed to given a work commitment she wasn’t able to attend).
I have a report from the hospital as I’m on the ‘MyCare’ system for other medical visits so I have since sent this to my boss and asked him to have this on record as it almost feels as if he doesn’t believe me or is treating me differently as I didn’t know I was pregnant at the time.
I am horribly upset given what I am already dealing with, especially physically to now be shown no compassion whatsoever.
Has anyone been through similar - am I overreacting?