Bullying and unfair treatment whilst pregnant

[River93]

Has anyone experienced this themselves? I would like to put my story on here but I suspect my director uses this site and I’m terrified but need advice. If I could hear some examples and possibly PM a few people I’d be very grateful.

I had an awful experience in the first half of my pregnancy...
Boss very derogatory about me and the pregnancy. Saying I wasn't useful at work anymore, didn't care about the business (I took the same amount of money as I always had), that other women were better at pregnancy than me, that I'm the only member of staff "trapped" in the same workplace by the pregnancy, that I was a "threat" to the business because I asked to talk about my maternity leave, that I was too early on in pregnancy for it to be taken seriously (I was 20 weeks at the time!), He tried to lie to me about something HR said so that I felt isolated and couldn't get any time off for appointments, that I wasn't really ill when I was hospitalised with hyperemesis as pregnancy isn't an illness so wouldn't get sick pay, that I was "wasting company time" vomiting at work etc etc etc. The list is endless. Horrible man. Now dealt with by wonderful HR department!!

Ps, sorry for such a long post!!

It pretty common to be honest, wish it wasn't.
Congratulations x

I went through a slightly different experience and perhaps it was more bad management than bullying.

I had a new manager come in. Prior to new manager I had received a company bonus and award for outstanding performance. I was also asked to cover the manager role (and continue to undertake my own) when the old manager left and before the new one started. This led to a backlog in work which I struggled to catch up with when new manager arrived and started delegating lots of her duties to me. I announced I was pregnant about a month after she started. All had been fine up until then. Afterwards it was like she couldn't comprehend that my pregnancy was impacting my life - bad sickness, sciatica and pgp (on crutches) from very early on and lots of associated appointments (approx 3-4 hours/week). She actively increased my workload. She also expected me to be able to carry heavy folder to meetings and navigate the stairs (I couldn't even make myself a drink). Occ health advised I take additional breaks to walk around in my office and she did everything she gave me work at those rest times stating it was urgent. One day I found a note in her office (after she asked me to leave some docs on her desk) and it said that she was going to have a conversation with my about my performance. I knew what that meant as I managed all the HR. There was other very subtle things too.

She didn't do anything horrendous as such but it was more her lack of understanding about the impact to me from covering 2 roles (for 3 months) and then being in constant pain every day so much so that I couldn't walk and was dragging a leg behind me. At the time it very much felt like she was a control freak who wasn't happy with the fact that I got time off for appointments or that I needed special adjustments. In the end the GP signed me off sick and I never went back. I loved that job and have still not recovered (emotionally or financially). Feel free to PM me.