Telling work your are pregnant

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I'm only 5 weeks so I have a while to go but just wondered what people are thinking about telling their employer?

In one way, it might be easier to hide because we are at home but then part of me thinks given the state of the economy it would be kinder to tell them as early as I feel comfortable to help them plan.

I don't think they can get rid of me because I'm pregnant but also wouldn't want to be in that position.

Interested if anyone has a view.

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I'm 16 weeks and I'm waiting for 20 week scan to tell mine - but I wfh so they won't see me/know until I tell them! Mainly because I don't want to have to un-tell them if I have a MC - but also because with things how they are, I don't want to give them any reason to accelerate me to top of the chop list if they are making cuts (I know this is illegal - but I feel it wouldn't be that hard to find a legit looking reason when really its to save £ on mat leave etc). Congratulations! x

I'm 12+4 but I've not had my first scan yet. I had to tell them last week as was asked if I wanted to come back to work in a couple of weeks and I work in a place where social distancing can not be done, I've said I want to come back but want to have had the scan first. They were lovely about it and are waiting for me to have scan/decide if I'm coming in over the summer.

I told my manager at 5/6 weeks so she could have it in the back of her mind when planning next year and also allocating me work tasks (my job can involve a lot of lifting at times!)
Im currently around 10 weeks and planning on telling everyone else there once I’ve had my 12 week scan and hopefully all is ok 🤞🏻
Do whatever feels right but I definitely felt a huge weight was lifted when I did tell her, it’s saved me a lot of awkward lies too !

Congratulations! Remember that being pregnant does NOT protect you from being made redundant and does not give you an advantage as an employee generally.

If you tell them early (you have until week 25 to tell them) and "changes are made" you might have inadvertently put yourself in a vulnerable position. As you say with the state of the economy and changes they may want to make, you May put yourself in a vulnerable position and will always be asking yourself "what if I kept it to myself". Also if you tell them early and miscarry, it might have been for nothing.

I am 7 weeks pregnant and am fairly certain I will be made redundant soon, so I am not sharing my news yet.
Having said that, you know your employer so go with your gut, especially if you think they need to know, eg projects coming up , travelling, is there any manual work ie heavy lifting?

Thanks everyone. Those different points of view are really helpful.

It's sounds like I should wait until at least 12 weeks but if something comes up like returning to the office I might have to tell them early.

I'm hoping by July/August if there's going to be bad news we'll know. If it doesn't happen until later like January I will have to tell them by then anyway.

I'm hoping they would have a hard time making me redundant since they promoted me during lockdown and never furloughed me but you just can't trust businesses!

Thanks all, congratulations and good luck! X

Just wanted to share my personal experience. I told my manager at 7 weeks pregnant but didn't make it official higher up until 20 weeks pregnant. And guess what? Redundancy hit cause of coronavirus 😂

However, because I left it as late as possible I still qualified for SMP off my employer. I'd just be careful if they're making any cuts at work. They can't legally do it because you're pregnant but if they're making a few redundancies, unfortunately people do tend to lean towards us pregnant women. I just might add before all this happened I was due a payrise and promotion.

Hopefully it won't come to any of that! But I just wanted to share my experience because I do think if I jumped the gun and told them earlier it would have been a worse situation for myself personally. Luckily, I appealed and came up with a proposal so I've got my job back. But it's been one of the worst few months ever trying to make sure I have money so far along in my pregnancy.

I told my manager at 10 weeks as my performance was dipping due to my anxiety and physical symptoms. He agreed to keep it just between us and then when I had a successful 12 week scan I advised he could tell HR and his boss. Currently I'm only having people at work who need to know, know. So far it's just my manager and his boss. Once I have my 20 week scan (and if all is good) then I will be more forthcoming with other people at work. But I'm working from home so it's easy to keep it quiet.

I had to tell my supervisor as soon as I knew as I'm a lab worker so they needed to do a risk assessment on what I can and cannot do. We are still getting lab access so this would still apply in the current climate.
I made a broader announcement the day the office closed and we all were sent to wfh.

I'm really early in my pregnancy but my job can involve heavy lifting - I spoke to a senior member of staff to advise them and they've been brilliant, they've made it so I can WFH for the rest of the week and no heavy lifting. I wouldn't have told anyone until the 12 week scan if my job didn't involve occasional heavy lifting.

I wanted to wait until 20 weeks + but ended up telling them the day of the Xmas party when I couldn't think of a decent excuse not to drink.

I'm office based though so no manual element that would need risk assessing.

If I were to get pregnant again I'd try and not tell them until 20 weeks ish.

I told mine as soon as possible as I work in healthcare

I told them at 10 weeks because we get paid time off for maternity appts and wanted to utilise them. Didn't get a bump until 25 weeks so could of waited really lol.

I’m pregnant with my second and have my scan on Friday when I’ll be 13 weeks. I’ll tell work on Monday. With my first I told them around a similar time as well.