Hello.
Not sure if I'm posting in the right area but hoping for some HR related advice. And I apologise in advance for the LONG post.
FWIW I have already contacted my HR department but have been told that they will ring me back etc so in the mean time I thought I'd come on here and see what people think of my situation.
I am currently 29+4 weeks pregnant and I have off long term sick since the end of September (I self certified for the first 7 days and my GP has been signing me off since) with pregnancy related pelvic girdle pain which quite frankly, has been physically debilitating and mentally taxing.
A week or so ago, I emailed my manager from my personal email to ask to bring forward my maternity leave start date (from 38 to 36 weeks, which is when my mat leave would automatically kick in if I was still sick) as physically I am not getting any better and am struggling to do simple things such as climb stairs, and even get on and off the loo....
Anyway, I digress.... back to the point!
So I have emailed my manager about changing the date of my mat leave and she replied and said she would change the dates accordingly. I have since not heard back from her and had no communication from work at all.
I rang my HR department today to ask what is going on and if they have managed to successfully amend my dates for starting M/L. The lady in HR (who was nothing but lovely to me) says that this is the first she has even heard of me being pregnant(!).
I told her that my boss has not completed a risk assessment since in notified her of being pregnant either, and I even asked for an occupational health referral before I was signed off sick which never happened. HR lady seemed really taken back by this and immediately wanted to know my managers name, as the HR lady told me she feels I am being failed as a member of staff by my manager as they should be trying to support me with returning to work as much as possible.
I basically ended up getting a bit upset (pregnancy hormones!) as mentally my pain is really getting me down and I am struggling with not having my routine of going to work at the moment. I had a bit of a vent about my boss as I have felt throughout this whole pregnancy that it has been me chasing things up and sorting things out with my boss. I have done all I can with regards to the maternity policy at work from an employee POV, so don't feel I have made this situation worse. I also get on quite well with my boss although she can be a bit "away with the fairies", she isn't a horrible lady and has been very supportive of me during my time off sick.
My worry is that I have now potentially got my boss into trouble which is not what I wanted to do, but HR were none the wiser I was even pregnant from the sounds of things.
HR have said they are contacting my boss and are going to ask her to do my an occupational health referral for me, and arrange a meeting with her and HR and myself to discuss everything about my pregnancy, as apparently this should have been done weeks ago.
I'm now feeling really nervous that my boss is going to make my life a misery when I return to work if I have ended up getting her a slapped wrist from HR. All I wanted was an update on the situation as I feel completely cut off from work and "out of the loop".
Am I being silly? What will this meeting be about and what should I expect from it? Sorry for the long post I just feel like my brain is all over the place and now I feel a bit stressed out that I've become a nuisance at work even tho I'm not there at the mo! 