New employer completely humiliated me for being pregnant.

[tabzz]

Hi all, sorry if this isn’t the right place to write this post, I’m new here. Just needed to vent!

About a month ago I got an interview for a job I’d been wanting for a very long time. It’s in health & social care and I’ve never had that sort of job before so I was, of course, over the moon when I was offered the job on the spot.

The paperwork and onboarding process took a while and in that period of time, I found out I am pregnant. I found out two weeks after the interview, the pregnancy was not planned but myself and my partner have made the decision to go through with the pregnancy, and we are happy with our decision.

A few days ago I was invited to come to an induction for the new job, it lasts about a week where we get all trained up. I wasn’t planning on telling my employers I was pregnant until the end of the first trimester (I’m 9 weeks as of now) however I was given a form to tick off any health issues or conditions I may have that could affect my ability to take part. Pregnancy was one of the options and I didn’t want to lie, so I ticked it. This hasn’t stopped me from doing any of the induction tasks since it’s all my own choice and risk, although I’ve been feeling very much up to the job.

This is where the title of my post comes in. Yesterday I had just finished yet another day of induction and the manager called me into her office to discuss my pregnancy and do a “risk assessment”. At this point I’ve done nearly all the training and am nearly ready to start working shifts on the floor. She asked me if I knew I was pregnant at the time of the interview, to which I said no (which is true!) and she raised her eyebrow at me as if to say I was lying! She then said “you can work but this might not be the job for you”.

Not the job for me? Because I’m pregnant? Seriously? I feel really discriminated against tbh. Just the conduct and her tone of voice and passive aggressiveness has made me feel really humiliated. Why make me go through all the training, KNOWING I was pregnant, only to imply you may or may not fire me? I’m so upset.

Did they call all the other new joiners in to discuss their induction and say they “can” work but it might not be for them?

If not, and they singled out the pregnant employee only - then that’s absolutely discrimination.

Very little heavy lifting happens in social care. Or it shouldn’t. Not only for your safety but for the patients.

I work a manual job where this is actually heavy lifting. I’m on my second pregnancy. It’s fine.

Yep, the managers card though not the OP’s

Regardless of length of service OP should absolutely let HR know. They will take it seriously. The manager should not have said what she said. It’s direct discrimination. HR do protect the business and this can include helping to ensure managers don’t make fuck ups like this one which may put the company at risk of a discrimination case.

There’s no reason why OP won’t be able to do the role when pregnant, there might be some reasonable adjustments needed towards the later stages but the hoists and equipment are there to protect employees from injury

I wonder if she just meant she doesn't think you have a realististic impression of what the job entails. If you are in a care role involving moving and handling, you will be physically touching patients. You cannot use a hoist without physically putting the sling under the patient first. This involves manually maneuvering them. The strain put on you from physically caring for people will get worse the further along you get in pregnancy.

If health and social care employers don't want to employ mainly women, who of course can get pregnant, they could raise the wages and attract more men. Yeah, didn't think so . . .

Wow literally shocked with some of these responses! It’s totally discrimination and illegal.

Check out the attached page on instagram for free advice

So you are admitting you would discriminate against a pregnant woman? Nice.

@tabzz I'd send an email detailing the conversation and ask her to confirm that it is an accurate account...

You are right. There's a lot of awkward movement though depending on the type of hoists used and the size of the room it's used in. It's how I ruined my back at the grand old age of 19, popped one day and has given me grief ever since. Mobile hoist on carpet 😬
You should be ok though OP, you should never operate any hoist or standing aid alone so if it's particularly tricky, hand over any such activity to your colleague.

Way to say you don't understand what discrimination is.

The law is on your side here.

But I’m a manager that does a lot of hiring and I’d be not thrilled to find out you’re pregnant as soon as you start. Obviously I’d not let you know this. Recruiting is lengthy and a pain in the arse. Who would honesty think otherwise?

Keep records, write and date every instance of this type of behaviour.

You may need it

That old chestnut again! HR are in the middle. In doing their job in making sure managers deal with employees fairly and as per policy, HR do protect both the employee and the company!!

I don't know why this concept is so poorly understood!

Don't be expecting to pass your probationary period.

I love the way that some posters seem to think that hard fought for protections in employment law for pregnant workers are 'understandably annoying'
Because of the potential inconvenience to the business

It's perfectly possible for something to be annoying/inconvenient and legal - it happens all the time because humans are complex beings, but that doesn't change the employer's obligations

Without being there and knowing all the facts it's impossible to say if the comments/tone of voice amounted to discrimination, but let's not kid ourselves that they can't get rid of OP if that's what they really want to do. Sadly this also happens all the time, and unless they're very stupid in handling the process they'd probably get away with it

They just know that some pregnant women might find physical jobs harder ....anyway. It does not sound like a dream job to be honest. What is it, a carer?

@S1lverCandle I hope you are not in a position of responsibility.

Someone as blatantly ignorant as you are is likely to cost an organisation a fortune in compensation claims.

Presumably you are still on probation? I would be extremely careful of not making any mistake whatsoever. They cannot let you go because you are pregnant, but they can let you go during probation if they have valid reasons.

Op is not due any compensation claim. She can try if she wants to 🤷🏻‍♀️

I’d send an email to her, CCing in HR and her line manager/big boss just repeating what was said and ask her to confirm what she meant by that and ask why she wanted to know if you were pregnant at the interview, since that’s an illegal question to ask during the hiring process so why would it make a difference.

The reason you get it recorded with HR is in case this manager starts giving her negative feedback or laying out the ground work to get rid of her. The manager has already shown she might be that type. You record the conversation with HR because then the manager has to be careful.

You are in fact wrong.

If it goes to tribunal, HR will be providing evidence in support of the company not the individual. They will advise managers on how to deal with any complaints until the the legal team take over, who will then represent the organisation in defending a claim.

That is the acid test. When the chips are down, HR will protect the company and business continuity.

Employee policies do need to be implemented fairly and in legal compliance and complaints dealt with fairly but ultimately HR are there to protect business continuity not act as shop floor Stewards.

Not sure why it's so hard for people to grasp this concept.

@S1lverCandle

Also, I’m assuming it’s care work and the heavy lifting involves moving patients. Thai is done using hoists. The actual heavy lifting by an individual is very very minor. She was probably doing the moving and handling training sessions. There is zero issue with a pregnant woman doing this sort of work. Unless the care home are going to break rules around the minimum number of staff required for moving patients. If they’re breaking rules on that, then OP could be at risk of injury, but they’d be in a heap of trouble and it has nothing to do with her pregnant but their neglect.

It's all very well protecting pregnant women but truthfully as a small business owner this would be my worst nightmare.

It's exhausting to recruit - going through applications (most of which are from people with fuck all experience but fulfilling their quota of job applications for benefits); interviewing those who bother to even turn up; then the paperwork involved for hiring/setting up an employee on pay roll/office systems. And then you face all the paperwork/admin for dealing with their pregnancy/time off.

Thanks but no thanks.

Assuming this is in care, you might find HR is sorely lacking. The idea of emailing your manager and cc'ing hr is willfully ignorant of the way 90% of care homes are managed. There's unlikely to be a whole hr department, it's possible it's just your manager with a different hat, and possible they outsource HR but as they pay for it it will be tiny amounts they contract

Obviously hoisting doesn't equal care home, and might be something like nhs or large sector care where there is hr

This. If you are dealing with patients that are disabled enough to need hoisting there will still be a significant level of risk because not all clients can be hoisted for everything, there will be moving/ turning in bed etc.