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Original poster

Just offered someone a job and now she's told me she's pregnant! Disaster!

165 replies

Calendar · 27/09/2007 10:02

Have spent months recruiting for someone, thought I'd found the perfect person. We've sent out the contract, agreed a start date, she has handed in her notice but before she sent the contract back she rang and told me she had just found out she is pregnant!
Obviously I want to do right by her, but it makes life very difficult for me. It will take 6 months to train her up, then we will have to get in a temp to cover her. Also, this is a trainee position and she is supposed to be taking exams for the next 3 years in order to qualify (finance) but that doesn't seem very likely any more.
According to our company handbook, she is not entitled to company maternity pay or even SMP, but she may get maternity allowance.
What a disaster! Any advice? I have got our HR dept looking into this, but they don't seem to know much about it. I want to make sure I do the right thing by this girl but it's really not an ideal situation.

OP posts:
WideWebWitch · 27/09/2007 12:20

No Lorayn, it's not a case of that (whatever that's supposed to mean). If I ran a small business it wouldn't be viable if this caused me such huge problems.

Really.

Anyone who thinks it's fair enough to discriminate against a pregnant woman who wants to work, so, what do you propose pregnant women do for money while they're pregnant then?

Blu · 27/09/2007 12:23

I agree completely with that WWW -re sustainability.

Lorayn · 27/09/2007 12:25

Said pregnant woman shouldn't have handed in her notice at her previous job if she already knew she was pregnant.
As for business not being viable if you were having to go through this problem, I don't agree.
Like I have said previously, if this woman did not know she was pregnant, or that there might be a possibility of it, then ok, bad situation, but it happens.
If she knew there was even a chance and was currently employed then she shouldn't have handed in her notice, and if she knew she was pregnant then she should have told the employer before the contracts were sent out etc.
I am not uncaring, and hope that said pregnant woman still gets the job, and is able to find some kind of compromise (which is why I suggested maybe working from home early on in the thread) but it still doesn't seem right that businesses (sometimes small family run businesses, imagine if this was a family restaurant and it was the chef that had just found out and they were not even properly trained yet) are forced into a corner.

flowerybeanbag · 27/09/2007 12:26

I'm going to step away now, this is getting a bit ridiculous.

Congratulations to the OP for being honest enough to admit that knowing before a new employee has even started that she is going to be disappearing off for up to a year within a few months is a less than ideal situation and not being too paranoid to ask for advice on how best to deal with it.

Congratulations to the OPs new employee for being open and honest about her pregnancy much earlier than she has to be, thus enabling excellent forward planning.

LordVenger · 27/09/2007 12:29

Well I think the pregnant woman is taking the piss and I'd be furious with her. I wouldn't start a new job if I was just about to have my first child. There's employment rights, and then there's behaving with a bit of decency. I think it all comes down to manners, and she's just been a bit rude.

WideWebWitch · 27/09/2007 12:31

Wot? Now it's 'taking the piss' to be pregnant and to want to earn a living at the same time?

Do any of you have any suggestions fro how pregnant women should support themselves financially during pregnancy?

WideWebWitch · 27/09/2007 12:31

I should step away really but hey, I have time on my hands, I am procrastinating on some interview preparation

JeremyVile · 27/09/2007 12:34

LordAvenger, what absolute balls - there is no stipulation that a preganant woman is barred from accepting a job offer - she is on a level playing field with everyone elses.
That may not suit you, but its the law.

Lorayn · 27/09/2007 12:34

WWW, I understadn it is hard for people to support themselves, totally.
but as I said before, she would have been able to support herself if she had not handed in her notice at her other job. She also would have been entitled to proper maternity pay.
I can understand the pregnancy may have been a complete shock to her and not at all expected, but if it wasn't surely she should have made sure all bases were covered (ie she still had a job to go back to if this one fell through)?

tortoiseSHELL · 27/09/2007 12:37

Lorayn - as far as I'm aware X factor isn't a 'work interview' - it's completely different. And they can accept/reject who they like - it's a tv programme.

tortoiseSHELL · 27/09/2007 12:39

btw, when I was 6 months pregnant with ds2 (my third child) I took and passed WITH PRIZES FOR THE SECOND HIGHEST MARK the highest qualification in my field, which only about 4 or 5 people pass every year! So training is still possible, even though I was looking after ds1 and dd, and throwing up for months on end!

Tinker · 27/09/2007 12:41

Have never done this before but will now have to

PARPPARPPARPPARPPARPPARPPARPPARPPARPPARP

NadineBaggott · 27/09/2007 12:42

Women!

Yorkshirepudding · 27/09/2007 12:43

Message withdrawn

JeremyVile · 27/09/2007 12:45

Just reading back through this thread - and, yes - its-not-real-its-only-stuff-on-the-interweb-yadah-blah.....

But I feel so disappointed to hear some of these views.

I used to work for a small businessman who told myself and the other girl who worked for him that generally he would never employ a woman of child-bearing age - he only employed us because "I'd never find a bloke to work for your salaries" (He also spent a good deal of his time slating single mothers on benefits").

I didn't realise there would be so much of this type of thinking here.

I just cant get my head round it - it's so sad that these attitudes are still in existence.

batters · 27/09/2007 12:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lorayn · 27/09/2007 12:46

tortoiseshell, it is of sorts a job interview, being a popstar, believe it or not is a career, and they are offered a contract of employment.
Also, I am not saying it is impossible to complete training whilst pregnant, I was pregnant when I was at college and used to sit up at 4am bf'ing DS whilst completing algebra assignments. All I have said is that the woman who applied for the job should have been honest from the start, or at least not handed her notice in (effectively giving any caring possible employer no choice) before she had discussed her ability to work whilst pregnant/with a young child.

Marina · 27/09/2007 12:48

Me too tinker at some of the viewpoints here.
and it's not just "the small business" that "suffers" from employing women of childbearing age (God that vile Ruth Lea's done her propaganda well).
The public sector often has freezes for posts which means NO maternity cover for absent postholders.
My managerial role has been chaotic over the past year because of this issue. But...not employ people if they are pregnant? FGS, shame on all of you.
And I am pleased to note a lot of WOTH women in managerial roles posting on this thread to express their disgust (not at you OP but some of the other posts).
Seems to me that a lot of people on the sharp end of coping with the logistics of maternity leave and cover will still stand up and defend it as a fundamental right for employees.

tortoiseSHELL · 27/09/2007 12:50

But you can't be honest from the start whilst attitudes like this prevail (I'm not actually talking about the OP here - more general attitudes). Because, for example, my field is VERY small and jobs are very few and far between. If wanting to get a job, you would have to go for one, even if you were pregnant. But try proving that you didn't get a job because you were pregnant. Whereas a job subsequently withdrawn because of pregnancy is much easier to prove to a tribunal court.

If you ever want to hear really shocking views you should listen to our local radio station, the phone in . It doesn't help that the presenter often presents 'anti-children' views, but people phone up with the tired old 'women choose to have children, why should they have maternity rights? It's their choice.', forgetting that men too choose to have children, but can have them without the physical implications. So whilst people consider it unfair for a 'woman to have it all', it's fine for a man to have a career and children.

tortoiseSHELL · 27/09/2007 12:52

The X Factor is so not the same as a job interview. I'm absolutely sure it wouldn't stand up to even the smallest piece of employment law. It is a television circus.

Tinker · 27/09/2007 12:53
Lorayn · 27/09/2007 12:54

At the risk of repeating myself, again, I'm not against maternity rights, but the situation is, this woman is not qualified, so would be undergoing training, it isn't the same as minimal vacancies in the field.
AND she already had a job, at which she would have been entitled to maternity rights.
As I have said time and again, I hope it does work out for the pregnant lady, and the op, but I still don't think it is fair to say that companies should have to employ a pregnant woman.

batters · 27/09/2007 12:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

tortoiseSHELL · 27/09/2007 12:55

If the x factor was a 'job interview' then presumably the people voted off each week should get redundancy payments?

tortoiseSHELL · 27/09/2007 12:56

And maybe all the entrants should take Simon Cowell to the small claims court for unfair discrimination?

They will all have signed away all their rights before they ever get in the room. But it just isn't the same.

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