12 weeks pregnant and stressed to the max at work

[Moonladyx]

Hi all,

The caption says it all really, I’ve had quite a tough 1st trimester with sickness, a few trips to the hospital for a drip.

I told my manager straight away about my pregnancy as the sickness was awful, I haven’t taken one day off (I only work mon-wed and all from home which I’m so thankful for) so I have powered through, there’s been a lot of tears.

They now seem to keep piling work on me, from Sunday afternoon I’m crippled with anxiety about the upcoming week 😓. I really feel at my wits end, I’ve sobbed all morning and only been longed on for a hour.

I’ve never looked into being signed off, but do you know if you’re paid of you’re signed off stressed? I can’t afford to give up my wage, I feel so low, unhappy and trapped at work xx

It depends on whether the company you work for pay sick pay or if you will get statutory sick pay. I am off sick at the moment at 17 weeks pregnant and will only get statutory sick pay. Think it's £100 a week

As PP said, it depends on what your sick pay policy is and also your company.
I was signed off with stress a few years ago and my company paid me but it was at managers discretion.
With regards to them giving you lots more work, have you spoken with your manager about your workload? That would probably be the first thing I would do and see if there is a reason for the increase or if they can reduce it.

AG96
hi can I ask how long u been off sick plz

Thank you for your replies.

This is the thing I’m not sure on, I think it would be stat after 5 days 😥

I have told my manager about the work load and the stress it’s causing but that hasn’t seemed to change things. My job load is for 5 days not a 3 day job, it’s so tough and I feel awful moaning, I feel it’s all I do lately.

I’m wondering if the GP could help me manage my anxiety another way, I’ve never taken medication for anxiety but maybe it could help as it’s really affecting my day to day life 😔

I think you need to explain to your boss that you simply cannot do a 5 day workload in 3 days (and that you aren't being paid to do a 5 day workload) so you need to sit down together and work out what is reasonable for you to do in 3 days, and delegate the rest to someone else.

What babyjellyfish said. If your manager won't look at your workload then the next step I would take would be to speak to HR.
Then perhaps go to the doctors after that if I wasn't getting anywhere.
Stress is an awful thing and especially when you're pregnant so I do sympathise with you and know how you feel.
It's worth making a doctors appointment anyway and maybe make your midwife aware aswell

@Zohra806 I've been off 1 week, this is my second week and will return next week. Just 2 weeks in total. Really needed the time and is worth getting paid less for 2 weeks

@AG96 ok thanks I’ve been off sick for 5weeks for really bad nausea and go back on Saturday I’m dreading going thinking Shal I get another sick note don’t know what to do

@Zohra806 if you are still ill then get another sick note. I feel like health is more important than work. There are other jobs but there is no other you

The same thing happened to me when pregnant, because they didn’t want to hire more staff I was given an excessive workload and felt so anxious and stressed.

I echo what previous posters have said and talk to your boss and then if that doesn’t work HR.

When speaking to HR didn’t work for me I went to my GP and was semi signed off, the note said I should be OK to work with ‘reduced duties’. This finally made HR realise that they needed to do something about reducing my workload. The next step would have been getting signed off fully.

I also spoke to pregnant then screwed who were really helpful.

@Moonladyx could you schedule a formal meeting with your line manager to discuss workload, explain it's too much and agree priorities and what can wait or be shared with someone else. Go into it proactively, with a plan if you can eg. X is a priority but Y can wait until I have capacity. If your line manager doesn't agree or takes no action then either escalate, speak to hr or acas.

It's not necessarily because your pregnant, although with sickness it is awful, but an unsustainable workload is an issue for anyone facing it so even if you left the person replacing you would likely have the same issue. You work 3 days so either your workload is appropriate for your hours or they need more resource.

Have your work completed a risk assessment for you? You may need to formally tell work in writing but you should have a policy that outlines this for you.

You should also have a sickness policy that outlines what pay you will receive if off sick.

I’d be kicking up a bit of a fuss and involving HR if needed; I had this in my first pregnancy and when I started asking about risk assessments and putting my concerns in writing about the effect of stress on my health and pregnancy they started actually listening

Honestly it’s time to be honest and state that the workload you are being given is not sustainable and you are only
working 3/5 days a week so should only be expected to do 60% of a full time role.

book a meeting with your line manager and ask for it to be minuted