Telling work I'm pregnant

[hammeringinmyhead]

Hi all. I am 11+1 as confirmed by my 12 week scan yesterday. I need to go back next week for nuchal testing but all looks good. First baby.

I work in a small company and alongside my role I do various bits of office management that involve lifting (carrying in and putting away weekly milk deliveries for example), and my colleague is 22 weeks and keeps asking me to help her carry things like boxes of samples! Ideally I'd like to tell my line manager so I can go to appointments without making time up and hand off the office management stuff (so far I've just asked him to help and deliberately not taken heavy things).

However... We are in the middle of pay reviews and I don't want the directors to know yet. I can't say I wouldn't get a role review and payrise due to this but I feel I have earned it after 12 years there. Does anyone know if I can "informally" tell my boss without anything going higher up yet?

I'm not sure where you stand legally but for various reasons I told my boss informally. She was great and let me decide when I'd tell people. However, the other side of the argument is that (I think) once you tell work officially you are legally protected - they have to protect your job, etc. But I appreciate your worries - some other posters may have more concrete advice, good luck!

Legally they can't descriminate against you for being pregnant but that doesn't mean they won't. There's ways of doing these things that would be hard for you to prove otherwise.

How long until reviews and payrises are sorted? If it's a week or two I would say nothing. Make up an injury eg. Pulled muscle, sprained wrist... Something that would mean you can't carry anything heavy.

Inform your boss your pregnant only after you get a fair review & pay rise.

There is no fixed date unfortunately. It's "ongoing". I reckon mid-May? Boss isn't involved in the pay reviews, it's just the directors and HR. I think you're right though - I should probably wait until I at least have a date for the decisions on individual pay rises.