My boss is a b*****d

[Tippytoes]

Am into my 6th week of pregnancy and have told my boss as he was expecting me to do lifting of boxes etc.

Well, he is not very happy at all - says its very inconvenient for the office and its all right the government giving women all these rights etc etc, but what about businesses? Anyway he went on and on and on and is even talking about who is going to get to replace me, even though I have said I will be coming back. He says he would NEVER employ anyone of child bearing age ever again. This is my second child and had 5 months off 5 years ago with my last one.

We had talked previously that if I had another child I would like to come back to work part-time and he said we would discuss when it happened and so didn't say no. I work with another lady who is part time (I am full at the moment) and we think we could do the work there if between us both doing part time. I twiddle my thumbs half the time at present.

He was annoyed because another member of staff left a couple of years ago after she was due to come back after maternity leave and he called her a 'bitch' for doing that to the company!!!

So I recon that now he won't let me have part time just to be awkward, but in that case I will have to come back full time and then leave as soon as I find part time work. Wonder if I will be a 'bitch' then!

What would you all do if you had to work with someone with this attitude?

Tippytoes,

I had this problem with my boss. I'm nearly 29 weeks and luckily the comments have stopped for now but he used to say stuff like 'young 'un do anyhting to get out of work, get pregnant or go travelling' and 'we don't want this mess again recruit a man'. My line manager who is female is desperate to know if I'm coming back after 6 months or not. I've said I defo am but she keeps dropping hints. Shes also said she'll ring me every week when I'm off to see if I've decided what I'm doing-ermmmm..I don't think so. I e-mailed my boss's boss and he said he would speak to him but then if I want to take it further its through the grievance procedure which to be honest I can't be arsed pursuing as I leave in 8 weeks. Although if there are any more comments I will tell HR and ask them to address it when I'm off. I would definately tell someone, he can't be allowed to get away with this. I was quite suprised that in this day and age this still goes on.

Hellmouthcusty - no he didn't call me a bitch, he was talking about another member of staff who left after her maternity leave a couple of years ago - he thought it was wrong of her to wait until the end of her leave to tell him. Well within her rights though.

My boss is a director along with other directors in other offices, so its difficult to define who is his boss really, although our company was bought out and we are owned by a larger organisation and they are the ones who now pay our wages, so would probably go through them if needed. But as this office is small (11 of us), it would make for even more unpleasentness if I reported him.

Daisypops - sorry you are having problems at work too. You don't have to take the calls from them when you are off - I would ignore them if I were you. Surely we have every right to have our maternity leave in peace and decide after what we want to do.

You shouldn't be expected to lift & carry either - hse info here

Its not usually a job where I do lots of lifting etc. but now and again I have to do archiving etc. which does involve this, so this is why I told him I was pregnant as he asked me to do it to empty the office a bit.

Tippytoes, I was asked to lift a box to a corridor and I said I wasn't doing it. My FEMALE boss said 'you're only 12 weeks' I wasn't, I was 16 weeks and I told her so. I defo won't be answering works calls when I'm off. My DP was furious and said I should take it further now but I can't do with the hassle. Roll on 22 December is all I can say. I hope things get better for you. It just makes you resent your colleagues and not want to come back. Fingers crossed I can be a SAHM if DP sells his flat in time!

Hi similiar situation five years ago with my turkish boss... "ruddy women under 35 having babies. I made my wife go back to work full time as soon as our children were 6 months!"

He refused to let me go back part-time stating if I did then he would have to accept that any of my colleagues (all men, well over forty with grown up children!) might decide to work part-time. I did go to our local Citizen's Advice Bureau. They were very sympathetic but at the time the law was really ambiguous. I think it has changed a lot since then so might be worth popping in to your nearest CAB and asking?

I left that company, I am 34 weeks pregnant and my boss of four years is fantastic! Mind you he jokingly say last week "you were only having two weeks off after the birth? " with a big grin on his face... yeah right

Hello, I'm new here, so don't know what all the abbreviations mean, sorry, but wanted to post because my boss is pretty awful too. But he's clever enough not to step a foot outside the law either.

I find it very difficult; I'm a Recruitment Consultant and my working hours are 48 a week; I used to work about sixty but since I got pregnant I cut down to about 50 (would do less if I could but I can't drive and public transport gets me to work early every day). Our company's sick policy gives you ten days off sick full pay, ten days half pay and then after that they don't pay you; you have to claim it from benefits office.

I am 18 weeks pregnant and still feeling very tired so in the afternoon I get very little done. My boss monitors our calls and pulls me up on my activity every single Monday morning. I feel bad saying "but I'm pregnant and really tired!" but even when I do he puts on his best pseudo-sympathetic voice and says "I appreciate that, so why don't we arrange your week so you can start your calling earlier in the morning and be done by mid-day", basically, giving me no leeway at all, essentially I need to double my morning output to make up for my tiredness.

He actually said the other day "You see the thing is, it would be discriminatory of us to treat you much differently because you're pregnant. We can't treat you as a pregnant Rec Cons, we have to treat you as a Rec Cons first who happens to be pregnant". I've already had ten days off sick in the first trimester due to morning sickness and headaches, and dread coming down with anything serious now because I'll be on half-pay. Also while I was off some of my best clients got taken off me (this would happen anyway if someone was off a week or more, it's not due to the pregnancy) so the chance of me making any commission is very low; I can't even make up for the extra pay I'd be missing.

So I just wanted to say, it is horrible having a boss who is a complete and utter "bar steward". I just wanted to post because I know you can really feel like the only one out there especially when all your pregnant friends work in really nice companies with understanding bosses!