Help! Advice about work

[myeyesmyeyes]

A little over a month ago I was called in for an informal chat and told to sign a file note as I'd made some minor mistakes and been late on two occasions. Consecutive days I had a water infection while I use a catheter and couldn't get off the toilet but that's not taken into account.
Anyway everything's been fine since. Last week I found out I was expecting, I'm 5+3. I work in a place with a heavy blame culture. A few weeks ago I sent an email that I remember sending but maybe mistyped the address it was going from, there are a number of options for this, it clearly hadn't worked but there's no trail and I genuinely remember doing it and not having issues. It's been picked up on and my boss today demanded to see a copy of the email. When I didn't have this she has asked it to investigate further and used the words "very concerning". It's not very concerning it's a bloody mistake. Now it feels like it's another thing I can be blamed for and I'm so worried with the way it's been handled and the fact I've already got a note on file that I'm going to have to go through a disciplinary while pregnant. Work don't know I'm pregnant yet. It's a small place. I feel there's no trust or any positive relationship so I'm worried enough having to have that conversation with them but now I think they will probably sack me first. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks x

How long have you been employed there?

Just my opinion, but I think you should tell them about your pregnancy tomorrow. I bet they'll be much more skittish around you.

Yes. You don't have to announce wider than HR and your boss - but there's a lot of legal protections for pregnant women in employment that kick in the moment your employer is informed. Do it by email to ensure a paper trail.

Thank you so much for replying.
@Singlenotsingle I've been there 18 months.

@Bibijayne it's such a small place (around 30 of us) that My boss is HR. Most things we email we get a reply with "see me" straight away and then when we go up it's quite intimidating. Do most people inform their boss they are pregnant by email? I was thinking this myself and I wasn't sure, will she think I should have told her f2f?

All the incidents you describe pre-date your pregnancy, and all but one of them have been dealt with.

No, disciplinary action (if it comes to that) shouid not be paused. It is unreasonable to leave an issue pending for months.

You need to find that bloody email You know you sent it, there can't be that many address possibilities. I expect your boss wouid be a heck of a lot less cross if you found It, and if you had offered to find it from IT (rather than her needing to raise the enquiry)

"Yes. You don't have to announce wider than HR and your boss - but there's a lot of legal protections for pregnant women in employment that kick in the moment your employer is informed. Do it by email to ensure a paper trail."

They do not cover actions from before the pregnancy. The protections are designed to protect against pregnancy discrimination. Not to give exemptions for all disciplinary matters for the whole duration if a pregnancy. So, if you were late for a pregnancy-related reason then it should not go against you. The latenesses before the pregnancy can still do so.

Thanks Edith I thought as much. I know I sent it and you are right. The system we use is a strange one and you have to type in your own email address in the from box, and the work email it would have sent from consists of random letters it isn't words. I can only think I may have mistyped this and pressed send and then there is no trail because it has tried to send from an email account that doesn't exist. I would have thought that would come up with an error message though. I'm just so stressed with it. Other staff make mistakes that are more major all the time and it gets left and I seem to get the brunt of it. I was late but I was turning up with a really bad water infection. It was ten minutes late. It's not a lateness problem