Feeling sidelined at work

[MrsW32]

I'm 26 weeks pregnant and since my 20 week scan I've been feeling sidelined, in terms of not being kept in the loop and then day-to-day tasks being assigned to another person in the team. When work does come my way, I am doubting myself as instructions don't seem to be clear and I know it's not 'baby brain', so I might take a bit longer than usual to complete the task - but I won't say that happens every single time. One of my other colleagues have picked up I'm not as sharp as I usually am, so are trying to use that to their advantage and try to appear that they're performing better than me. I'm planning to finish work at 37 weeks and I have another 11 weeks of this. I wouldn't mind so much if I was in the office but I am wfh most days and just feels I'm logging and sitting looking at the screen waiting for work to come my way. Just feel useless at the moment and I do kind of want a distraction from the pregnancy. Obviously conscious that they don't want to give me big projects if I'm going soon, but when I'm not getting day-to-day stuff it's really frustrating.

Just to add further context, the organisation I work for is undergoing widespread redundancies and restructures. Therefore I am bit worried about the future of my role as through the grapevine, there will be an imminent announcement about restructure in my team.

I like the feeling of having purpose each day and at the moment, just feel like I don't have much and no one is really missing my input at work. Do you think I confront my manager about this or sit back and run down the clock until I finish for mat leave?

Hi @MrsW32 , sorry you didn’t get a response. It’s hard to feel like you’re being treated differently. I’d have an informal chat with your line manager just reiterating your eagerness to complete tasks and stay in the loop until you go on mat leave. It may be a simple case of giving you a break, mistakenly thinking you need it. You can say you understand that it makes sense for the bigger, longer term projects to be assigned to others but that you’re keen to support and get stuck into the day-to-day. If you’re not management, you may also not have the clearest picture of the work that is available and needs doing. Maybe there’s more than enough resource available to cover what’s needed so they’re giving you an easier time because being pregnant is bloody rough sometimes?!

Don’t worry about your colleague. You can’t control or change anything they do. You can only continue to do your best in your role.

Don’t worry also about redundancy or restructuring. As a pregnant woman you’re very well protected at this time and while on mat leave. If redundancies/restructuring is happening they will consider this because they won’t want to be exposed to any discrimination claims. In essence if you’re going to be made redundant my guess is that performance will have to have nothing to do with it, meaning it’s totally out of your control. It will happen because the organisation legitimately no longer needs or can justify the role, and the person doing it/standard of an individuals work will be irrelevant. The only thing you can do here is try to prepare financially in the event it happens and have a plan for finding a new role toward the end of your mat leave if you need to.

On another note, I get wanting to be distracted from the pregnancy, but if work is genuinely easy going at the moment, use the down time to distract yourself with self-care instead. Anything that makes you feel relaxed and happy. When baby comes you definitely get sidelined and won’t have lots of time to spend on you, for a long time, trust me!

Keep a note of shifts in behaviour towards you - particularly anything that directly links to your pregnancy.
Also, if you do chat to management, it might be worth mentioning your work colleagues change in attitude towards you!
If not already in a union, join one! They are (generally) invaluable insurance, particularly for maternity related issues.