Should I tell my employer I'm pregnant?

[daimbardiva]

I'm 9 weeks pregnant and it has recently emerged that the small company I work for has serious cash flow problems. As the CEO is off sick, we are all working together with the board to try and keep things going. We have been asked to be upfront about any issues that will affect company finances in the near future - obviously my going on maternity leave will be one. However, I've not said anything yet as I know there will have to be redundancies, and I'm concerned that as my being off of mat. leave will cost the company money, it could be a reason for the board to find another reason to make me redundant (did that make sense?!)On the other hand, bringing it out in the open might mean that they can't do anything about it, and my job would be safer.

Last time, I told my boss early as I felt I owed it to him, but he's not around now. I feel I should be honest with my colleagues but do not trust the board not to use it against me. Alternatively, I am only planning to wait until 12 weeks to tell them which is not much longer, but by then it should be clearer just how much trouble we're in.

Sorry - a bit of a stream of conciousness there, but any thoughts would be appreciated.

I wonder are they suspicious? Seems a bit of a funny thing to ask.

Firstly, don't feel too guilty about the money... statutory maternity pay is claimed back off the government. The cost they would incur would be in hiring a replacement/covering for you whilst off.

You're not completely safe from redundancy even if they know you are pregnant - they would just have to have a rock solid justification for doing so - and since they're clearly struggling then they clearly do. I don't want to worry you by saying this btw. What it would mean is that they would need to think twice before making you redundant.

So that means that you need to weigh up whether you think you would be safer telling your colleagues/the board before you are ready, or waiting a few weeks until your boss is back/you've passed 12 weeks. Even if you tell them at 12 weeks, it's not as if there would be an immediate impact on you being at work is there?

Is there anyone on the board you could talk to in confidence who you trust?

You may actually have more protection if you've told them you're pregnant and they then make you redundant because they'll have to make their reasons for dismissal very clear.

Is it possible that when they asked about issues affecting company finances they meant more along the lines of: an outstanding expenses claim/big budget deficit/unpaid invoice rather than who's about to take maternity leave?

Thanks for your thoughts. I don't think that they are suspicious about me being pregnant at all tbh - they definitely mean outstanding claims/invoices etc. We are largely project-led so each project manager knows best what's coming up and sometimes it is easy for something important to not be flagged up to the finance manager for inclusion in the cash flow.

Talking to the board is kind of complicated as most of them have resigned (!) due to conflicts with the CEO before he went off sick. The main people I feel I should be upfront with are our finance manager as obviously there is a lot of pressure on her at the moment and she needs all the help she can get (and is great), and also my opposite number as between the three of us we're effectively runnning the company at the moment and I feel like I'm keeping something importnat from them. However, I do also need to protect myself, and I'm just not sure which option would protect me more!

Hmm.

Just a thought... what would be the benefit to your 2 colleagues of you telling them just now?

Who are the decision makers about redundancy? If you looked at it from this angle it might make a difference about who you might consider telling.

I feel the benefit of telling them would be that they would a) know that from September I won't be around for 9 months which will have obvious staffing implications and b) the finance manager will know about it in terms of impact on cash flows

The remaining board members would be the decision makers on redunancies...

I'm still undecided what to do really - I'm now leaning towards telling the chairman and my two colleagues next week I think...

What would you have done had the financial situation wasn't an issue?

I think from what you said there's no reason to say anything. They're probably busy dealing with all the other stuff and giving them something else to think about might not be a benefit. Unless of course you want them to do your risk assessment asap because of the stressful working environment.

There is also the possibility if things are very dire that the whole business could go under and then it matters not if you're pregnant or otherwise because if there are no jobs that's it.

Tell them. You can't change the situation, and to be honest it sounds like every single one of you is in a bit of a precarious position as far as future employment goes.

I just think that leaving it longer can't benefit you, and would have a negative impact on your colleagues who could be believing that you're all pulling together for the next few years.

IYSWIM.

I've decided in the end to wait until I've had my 12 week scan before I tell anyone at work. If I was to tell my two close colleagues, I would want them to keep it quiet till then anyway, so it would actually be useless information to them if they can't use it, and would just be an added stress.

Also, the financial situation seems to be looking better at the moment, so there are big decisions to be made by the board in the next couple of weeks over who has responsibility for what in my boss's absence and I don't want the fact that I'll be disappearing for a while in September to influence their thoughts, subconciously or otherwise