Not being supported at work - advice please 😞

[Doggomom91]

Hi everyone. I'm 30 + 2 and I told work that I was pregnant in October last year. I had a maternity risk assessment (that I had to ask for) and it was established that I would need a referral to occupational health to ensure that I have the correct and comfortable equipment to work with (I work from home most of the time and at the time had a decent desk and a rubbish chair). Because I felt relatively 'normal' throughout the first part of my pregnancy, I didn't feel the need to chase my manager to see if this referral had been done and just assumed there was a backlog.

Fast forward to late November and I'm getting terrible, sharp back pains. I was seeing a physio through the NHS and made my manager aware. In December I told my manager that I was feeling really uncomfortable on my office chair and asked if he could chase occupational health. He agreed and his manager also reminded him. In January, I asked again what was going on and advised I had started having pelvic pain. My manager said "we already did the risk assessment". I advised that an outcome of this was a referral to occupational health, he did not seem to believe me so I screen shotted the assessment and send it to him. It turned out he never made the referral but there was no apology. He did it later that week.

We are now in mid February and I only had my occupational health assessment last week. They sent a report to my manager earlier this week recommending a new chair and some other bits. I break up in 9 weeks. My back pain is gone but has turned into horrendous pelvic pain where I can barely walk at times. Sitting hurts, standing hurts, walking hurts, sleeping hurts. My manager has now gone on annual leave and he hasn't ordered the equipment recommended by the report. I went over his head to his manager (my old manager) but I was fobbed off with "give him a chance, he's new to management". I also went to HR and occupational health directly and told them that I am not being taken seriously and asked to be sent a copy of my report. The first part was ignored and I was just sent a copy of the report which doesn't even cover half of the issues I'm having.

I don't know what to do and I really don't want to go off sick and be forced onto maternity leave early. Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can be heard? Sorry for long post, just need to vent and at my wits end!!!

I’ve not got any advice regarding your situation with work besides what other posters have already recommended, getting in touch with a union for example. I do think your manager has behaved appallingly and following all of this I’d be inclined to put in a complaint, time stamping when all recommendations were made by OH and GP and when you’ve had to chase him.

What I do think would be more helpful is to sit on a ball. I had such horrendous PGP in my pregnancy, I was reduced to tears by it almost every day. I was signed off from work from 24 weeks and because it was during COVID I had no access to physiotherapy. It was honestly awful. The only relief I got was when in the bath or sitting on a yoga ball. Maybe you could try sitting on a ball, if not for all of your working hours maybe for increments. Sitting on a ball with my feet shoulder width apart and gently bouncing really helped. Make sure you get the right sized ball and it’s blown up appropriately. Your knees should be roughly at right angles when sat on it with feet flat on the floor (you should feel very stable) - if the ball is too big your legs are extended and you balance on the balls of you feet/tip toes this won’t, likewise having a ball too small or under inflated forcing you into a low squat won’t help either.