I work for a University. We are currently undergoing a 'restructuring' and I am 14 weeks pregnant. I have thus far only told my direct line manager, however she is now pressuring me to notify HR formally so that they can complete a risk assessment and ensure that from a health and safety point of view I am looked after. I have an administrative job, so am mainly office based, but there are building works, etc. going on around campus at the moment, plus my parking pass permits me to park at a halls which are about 25 min walk away from main campus. It's all uphill and I am finding that I'm getting very tired out walking this distance every morning/evening. (I know how feeble that sounds, but you know how randomly breathless/tired you get when you're pregnant!) If I declare my pregnancy to HR I would get a permit on the main campus site. I know that she has my best interests at heart, I don't have any reason to doubt that- she's always been a very good and empathetic manager who puts the wellbeing of her staff before everything else- but I have some concerns about formally telling HR about my situation. She is also possibly going to be leaving her current position shortly as a result of the restructure, so I won't have her there to back me up.
Everything we've been told thus far about the restructure indicates that it is not for financial reasons and, therefore, they are not expecting any compulsory redundancies. However, the area I work is in likely to be centralised and I can imagine that, as part of this, they will streamline the department and/or reduce the number of staff. It is company policy here to attempt to redeploy any staff whose job is deemed 'at risk', which is fine..I have no qualms about doing a different job, as long as I still have a JOB! My main concern is that a colleague of mine, on paper, looks better that I do. I have been working here longer, I have more experience of the business, I am working at a more senior grade and I am well respected by my managers, heads and peers. She is far less experienced however has the technical/programming qualification and skills which I know that they place a lot of value on in Central Services, and that I don't have to the same level. I would say at the moment that our chances if put into a 'pot' for a job would be about equal, on paper. However my concern is that my pregnancy would swing any judgements in her favour. I know that it's not supposed to, but can anyone guarantee, hand on heart, that a manager wouldn't look at the circumstances of two people who were equally skilled and/or qualified and decide that they wanted to keep the one who wasn't about to disappear for 10 months...? They could easily use my lack of technical qualifications as a way to justify getting rid of me.
So, my question is this. Do I tell HR formally now, or do I wait until April when- hopefully- I'll have a better idea of where I stand? (but even then, there's no guarantee)
Help! 