Should I raise pregnancy brain as mitigating factor in poor work performance review?

[stella1w]

I am in a dilemma and a very bad work situation.

For reasons too complicated to explain I decided to retrain as a lawyer. Shortly after making the transition, I was lucky enough to fall pg with number one. I managed to get through the exams, and work fulltime in my old job as a journalist until I finished the studies part.

I started the two year compulsory onthejob training in September and a few weeks later fell pg with number two. I had horrible fatigue etc and got a terrible evaluation in December. I had hoped my performance would improve but if anything, it has got worse eg. making printing mistakes on documents about to be submitted to court. The kind of mistakes that basically would keep you from being taken on full time at the end of your training.

I have a real problem with keeping on top of the workload and do make errors. Other people also make errors but they are not leaving the office at 5.30pm and have more opportunity to show willing etc. So my department really don't rate me at all.

I have to submit my evaluation on Monday and am expecting a slating which objectively is kind of justified. However, I do feel that a lot of my mistakes are due to pregnancy brain - forgetfulness and inability to focus are recognised symptoms.

The question is - should I mention that as a mitigating factor? I don't want to make excuses but I think it is a factor in the situation. And legally, I think the law on pregnancy discrimination is that you have to make some allowances for pregnancy in these kinds of issues. So it might be worth putting down a marker as the situation is so bad. Or maybe I shouldn't mention it.

What StillSquiffy said.

Where's the time or energy for you to have a life?

Are you sure you really, really want to do this full time? Where will it stop?

You don't HAVE to be Superwoman. In 10/15 years time your children may have to formally introduce themselves to you if this carries on.

I apologise if this sounds harsh - I just think your expectations of yourself are extremely high, maybe consider going part time. At least while you've got under 5s. Give yourself a break.

Well, I did well in my law exams when I was first pregnant, then dealing with a new born, then working full time and studying in the evenings and bringing a 14 month old on my own.

So I am not lazy, or stupid and could concentrate enough to pass my law exams.

I am getting mixed messages from HR about the support. For example, the health and safety officer recommended I not push or pull heavy loads and HR then commissioned an external report to second-guess that and water it down.

For example, I am told I can take my lunch breaks IF my work load permits and I take work home in the evening.

For example, another suggestion has been I get up an hour earlier than my daughter in the mornings and do some work then.

I saw my midwife today and she said forgetfulness was a typical and well-known symptom of pregnancy.

I've now just started a new seat and am working to become as organised as possible to compensate for the inevitable tiredness and lapses.

Anyway,I've turned in a very honest evaluation owning all the mistakes. I still think some of it can be explained by the pregnancy and that an understanding employer would get that.

Thanks for all the feedback.

You can say what you like but if you don't improve your performance they're not going to keep you on, are they. And loads of lawyers in the firm will have worked through their own pregnancies so I wouldn't expect much sympathy.

Law exams are nothing like practice.

You may have just had a shaky start regardless of the pregnancy, hopefully you can turn it around in your next seat.

I am in a similar situation to you in that I am in the middle of my training year as an accountant. Due to my prior banking experience there are higher expectations placed on me. I am also required to complete another set of accounting exams (IFRS) and do my CPE training of 40 hours before I go on my 4 month maternity leave.

I have noticed that my memory has started to stall in the past week but I put this down to fatigue rather than pregnancy. There are a couple of things which I think have helped me stay on top while working 12+ hours a day, 6 days a week (and a few Sundays too):

1 - Prenatal vitamins. I swear by them.
2 - Eating every two hours. Buy precut fruit and veg and nibble throughout the day.
3 - Go for a 30min walk at lunchtime. You will be more productive when you return to your desk. If I get a wave of fatigue at 5pm I take to the stairwell and get the blood pumping.
4 - Never blame pregnancy. If I make a mistake I am upset that I made the mistake and that I didn't catch it when I reviewed my work.
5 - Ask friends and family for help at home so you can concentrate on your job and stay past 5.30pm.
6 - Drink at least 2 litres of water a day.

I think the biggest problem you have is that you are not at your desk afterhours. We have a girl who started after me and she is already having to fight to keep her seat here because she leaves at 5.15pm everyday on the dot. No one cares that she has to drive an hour each way to work or that she arrives half an hour earlier in the morning. She isn't in the office in the evenings which is when most work gets dished out. Also, as a collegue I got really pissed off when I had to stay for an hour longer on a Saturday evening to do her work because she had left at 2pm. I ended up finishing at 7pm that Saturday and finished my own work on the Sunday morning.

In a nutshell, you need to figure out if this job is right for you. If you really want it then I suggest you get your family and friends to rally around and help care for your first child. If you don't have family around consider getting a live-in aupair or an older local lady to look after your child in the evenings (WI is probably good place to find a subsitute grandma).

Whatever you do, don't blame anyone or anything for your performance. To the person listening it will sound awful and leave them with a worse impression.

You are in a tricky situation. I'm not sure even you believe that your pregnancy is mainly to blame for your poor performance, You say you have read in a book that forgetfulness is a symptom of pregnancy and that your midwife has mentioned it as well. What do you honestly think? Are you enjoying the job, do you think that if you were not pregnant you would be on top of things? And what is going to change when you are not pregnant? You will then be the even more sleep-deprived mother of two young children. How is that going to improve your work performance? This is the question your employers will be asking themselves?

You seem absolutely determined to blame your problems on the "pregnancy brain". I work in a law firm and if you were to use that reasoning I think you'd be pretty much laughed out of the meeting. We had 3 outstanding trainees last year, only one of which we kept on because our US office who decide the budgets said so. I'm also pregnant at the moment (am a secretary, not a lawyer, though one of my senior lawyers is also pregnant) and I'm sorry but I just don't think I could ever use that reason in my review.

It sounds like you have a lot to deal with outside of work and that you are doing a great job homewise but I have to say I'm worried at your hope that "once qualified" you can afford a nanny. If you don't quality at the office you're training in then it could take quite a long time to get another position. Unfortunately the market is saturated with outstanding trainees who didn't qualify in their training firms and can't find placements elsewhere. Are you sure law is best for you at the moment, could you return to journalism which I imagine may have more of a flexi-time work ethic (if needed), something which law most certainly does not have?

I agree with MrsTeddy. The accurate assessment is the first step to improvement. And if you are about to go on maternity leave, memories of this disastrous seat might have faded by the time they decide who to keep on.

I wouldn't mention pregnancy brain. You need to be able to deliver work to the right standard, and once you stop being pregnant, there will be sleep deprivation, sick kids, and all sorts of other issues from being a single mother. What you need to do, both for your own sanity, and your career, is demonstrate coping strategies to be good enough. (for me, it was writing things down, btw, and an amazing number of yellow post it notes Everywhere).

If you have pregnancy related illness you are protected from any unfavourable treatment as a result of that. Therefore you should say if your work is suffering as a result of pregnancy related illness. Your employer can't help if they don't know. And you can't be protected unless you tell them.

MrsTeddy gives some good advice but it's worth noting that failing to offer you keep you on at the end of your tc because of poor performance as a result of a pregnancy related condition you told them about is covered by the anti-discrimination legislation in the Equality Act 2010. Pregnancy/maternity is a protected characteristic. With good reason (obviously there are legitimate reasons for not keeping someone on after a tc irrespective of pregnancy - eg no recruitment at all of tc graduates because no budget).

I am horrified at some of the responses on this thread.

Some very harsh responses (it is almost like a competition of who can perform the best whilst pregnant - everyone is affected differently). I really hope you do get some understanding and support from work as you are clearly trying to do your very best for everyone.

This doesn't sound like a pregnancy related illness though. Being forgetful isn't an illness and neither is pregnancy in itself, although it can of course make you ill. The OP is just struggling.

Pregnancy can cause extreme fatigue. Fatigue can affect performance. Ergo pregnancy related fatigue should be covered by the protected characteristic clauses in the act.

I agree pregnancy is not an illness but sometimes pregnancy can cause illness. Each person and each pregnancy is different.

I agree that pregnancy affects women in different ways. Some are dictating contracts from their labour ward, others suffer horribly with morning sickness, SPD etc. However, the OP here cannot show any proof to her employers that it is her pregnancy which is affecting her performance, given that she has been pregnant for almost her entire employment with them. If she goes down that road, surely they can legitimately say that it is not pregnancy alone - or perhaps at all - but the fact that she is a single parent without family support, parenting a small child, getting to grips with a change of career (which might or might not be suitable for her)and trying to fit everything in to a strictly limited number of hours?

It would be unfortunate, but maybe easier, for the OP if she was actually physically ill during the pregnancy so she COULD get some medical backing for her situation but her tiredness is going to persist post-pregnancy so she is going to need other coping strategies then.

I don't know whether you have considered this, but specialist journalism actually consists of two sorts: those who trained as journalists and then managed to specialise in an particular area, and those who have a specialisation and then learned to write. Having worked in the trade press, I can tell you that the latter transition is a difficult one to make, which is why the trade press can seem incredibly turgid and pompous (and "captive" to industry interests).

The advantages of choosing this sort of direction include:

• You already know how to write and pitch, and your new knowledge could be useful to old contacts for "soft" pieces on legal matters. (Someone who has no track record of making deadlines, or who might need to be severely edited, is a potential turnoff for an editor: you have experience and it would be "easy" to give work to you)
• From your OP, of your career, that stage of your career was far more impressive (in terms of multi-tasking, training while working full-time, etc.), and so your contacts from that world will still be impressed with you, whereas the time you have spent in law has coincided with fallen productivity and a record of mistakes. Why not go back to a part of your career you were juggling competently?
• If you are a specialist, you can write for various publications at once (which would answer any concerns you might have about going on staff).
• Good freelances can negotiate better rates (though of course it helps to be a member of the NUJ).
• Above all, the business model of trade press is far more subscription-oriented. This means more secure cash flows, less ability of editors to make weight with puffy PR filler (unless they are advertorial merchants, but those sorts of marketing publications can pay, too...) or agency material that subscribers can get from 10 other sources that they have not paid for.

I admit that you did say there were complex reasons why you retrained, but I don't know what they are (nor whether they are more to do with law or with journalism), so I hope you find this idea helpful.

OP I think Stillsquiffy's post is spot on. What is going to give? I learnt from hard earned experience that I worked so very hard during my pregnancy, that I found having a baby to be kind of easy (but again I have a superhusband). I would not do it again, not without the right support in place and I don't think I would ever want to work for a professional services environment. That pressure to bill is hard to live up to.

Northernlurker - that is impressive. I worked right up until a week before my due date and did some extra training but I don't think I was up to a first class dissertation.

I was sick constantly but never took time off work. I had to work long hours at times. However, I was able to schedule some appointments by taking holidays and was also able to rest on weekends. Although some weekends I did go to work.

I realise now with hindsight that I was very very sick, as I had nothing to compare it too I just thought every went through pregnancy faitgue. I was often up through the night, often being sick but I always got up and performed very well, and weekends I was mostly able to rest. How did I do it?

From years of having a high pressure job and through having to be accurate and also being very good at time management. However, I have a fantastic spectacular husband. I was also very highly motivated at my work.

I did NO housework during my pregnancy - he even got my clothes ready for work.

I guess I am saying that you need to consider what you can do to not have so much stress, just what simple actions you can take. Again, having some understanding of professional and legal services I would not wish your situation on anyone. I think you need to get some more support in place somehow, or work part-time.

Good luck and look after your health

And Pluedantic offers some great advice. Consider what you can do with your qualifications, I think it is very hard to re-train and I would always think favourably of someone who has managed that.

Your law degree can be useful for a number of different careers and is something that can't ever be taken away from you.

Good luck!

Hello everyone...

It's been interesting reading everyone's responses and really good to get the feedback - albeit rather negative.

I like the idea of a husband laying out my clothes for me and doing all the housework - unfortunately don't have that option.

I have just started in a new seat and so far things are a lot better. I will take on board the tips about keeping energy levels up etc.

The evaluation was postponed today because my supervisor just went on paternity leave. So hopefully, by the time it is rescheduled, I'll have had a chance to get some perspective and stabilise.

That's good news. Please keep in mind that your re-training does not make law your only trap; you do have different options. It is in big firms' interests not to remind their staff that there are alternatives to their hellish days and nights at work. I had a friend who trained at a big City law firm, and was incredibly pleased to take her training somewhere with "reasonable" hours. The firm was aghast that she was taking a paycut - they couldn't deal with someone like that! - and she was quite pleased to see they were suffering the consequences of their long-hours culture, in that few of the trainees wanted to stay on; the firm was in a spot of trouble about how to drive its machine without enough (educated) donkeys!

Thanks plupedantic for the wise words and also to Katie Middleton, almondlatte...etc

Hi Stella that is good news. Best of luck. I know I was very fortunate (as was my employer) that I had the support of my husband.

Maybe your supervisor might also get some perspective about the culture when he returns too, and might have just a bit more insight about your struggles and achievements.

Got to say I agree with plupedantic, again - some law firms are still so shocking and think if they pay enough then people will stay and do the most stupid hours and in the end people can become trapped in the machine. I find it ridiculous that some law firms can not amend their working practices. I didn't work for a law firm but when I did work very long hours in another area whenever I needed a lawyer I could call up a legal team pretty much anytime day and night - it was just the norm, they had some screwed up macho culture with competitive long hours working culture. You know - everyone would have a suit jacket on their chair to indicate they were still there.

I still think one mention of pregnancy brain and you have not a chance of getting kept on when you qualify.

I suspect many posters on here have little idea of the discretionary nature of that decision, or of the reality that if the firm doesn't want you, for any reason, you're out on your ear. A training contract is a fixed term contract with absolutely no guarantee of extension (as I know you know, OP).

Mind you, almondlatte, that means you were working some pretty long hours, too....

You have been rumbled!

Mind you, that gives you authority to say how dreadful it is.

Yes I've been rumbled, but thankfully I got out (left on good terms and all that stuff but I still think the lawyers worked silly silly hours, although they probably got paid more than me!

I have to say if a firm does want you out, then it can't be good to work while you are in the situation. I would always jump before I was pushed, but I think that given the OP has had an extension may be a good thing. She has some time to demonstrate her ability and dedication before her review.

Op I think you need to seperate the responses into those who are commenting on you and those who are looking at it from a HR perspective.

Good analysis, LoveBeingAKnockedUp