Starting a new job while pregnant

[feelalle]

Hi,

I applied for a role in a UK bank a while back. They got back to me after about 3 months to offer me another related role and within that period, I became pregnant. Took them another month to complete the required checks, and I am just rounding off my 1st trimester.

I have read a couple of talks here saying I am obliged to tell them around 25 weeks - 15 weeks before the due date. My issue is my due date is in 6 months time and my probationary period lasts for the same 6 months.

Should I be worried I might not be offered a full time role due to me going on maternity leave?

Thank you

There is always a concern in this scenario, all I would advise would be to work really hard in the period you are there and try to forge relationships with your team. Bigger companies have more scope but I’d imagine it won’t go down well.

They are legally allowed to dismiss you for no reason if you have under two years employment and myself as a business owner would never hire someone who was pregnant as I would have to recruit again for maternity leave so I would probably find a reason to dismiss you such as failing probation.

Hi,

I’ve been in your position twice (currently in it now) I told them before interview that I had found out I was pregnant. I got the job both times. This time I start my new role in January and will be finishing in June (I have a three month probationary period) they are aware of this and are fine with it.

When you work for national/international/global firms they have policies and procedures in place and as long as you are doing the job well they will keep you. They can cover the role whilst you are off and may get someone in to do so if you are off but this isn’t something which will be unknown to them. They have huge resourcing teams and HR teams to help them recruit people for mat covers.

Don’t panic (which I know is easier said than done!) you will smash your 6 months I’m sure and then come back and smash it again. The world is changing and so is business mentality - the PR from sacking a pregnant woman would be a much bigger nightmare for them than covering your job for a few months.