Can my manager reject amended duties on a fit note?

[Nam095]

I’m currently 5 and a half weeks pregnant and I’m already suffering from severe morning sickness, and on top of that I’ve been feeling really quite stressed and anxious with certain areas of my job. I know that stress is bad in pregnancy in terms of the development of the baby so I want to eliminate as much stress as I can.

If I request a fit note from my doctor to amend my duties to request I no longer do the tasks that make me stressed (and with morning sickness I won’t be reliable to do that certain task anyway) can my manager reject this and still make me do those duties?

Thanks all

Do they know you are pg?
If you go off sick with stress it could affect your future career, I’m not saying don’t I am just making you aware. If you are so sick you can’t work (been there) it might be a better route to take

He can't make you do those duties in the face of clear medical evidence this would be detrimental to your health, no (although I wouldn't be totally confident a GP will necessarily write you a fit note saying what you want just on your say so).

But, and it's a big but, he doesn't have to let you only do part of your job either, it all comes down to reasonableness and if it would cause insuperable difficulties to the business he could say that the medical advice means you are unfit to do your job/incapable/not safe to be at work and that would mean you need to be off sick for work until you are better. Depending on your contractual sick pay situation this might not be sustainable for you for the next 6-8 months until you go off on mat leave.

I think while it's certainly not a bad idea to get some advice from your GP (or work occupational health service if you have one), I would probably try at least at first to approach it with your manager in a collaborative and conciliatory manner (so saying 'this is what I can do, this is what I am struggling with, how can we make this work for us both') rather than the blunt stick of 'you can't make me do this'....

@Hoppinggreen @maxelly hi thanks for the responses, yes I’ve already told my manager about my pregnancy and they made me fill in a risk assessment form where I had identified the areas of where I feel stressed etc and have yet to hear back from her to discuss these. I have a feeling she will try to make me feel bad by saying ‘that won’t be fair on everyone else’ as she tends to make people feel guilty for not doing things. And everyone in my team all do the exact same duties, obviously bar the managers. So it won’t be a huge impact on our team if I don’t do those specific ones.

I don't think you can expect to avoid all stressful tasks when you are pregnant. The kind of stress that affects babies is prolonged toxic stress, being in an abusive relationship, life threatening situation etc.

Hmm, not sure about this. I can see you being excused from physically strenuous tasks.

These tasks that are stressful, do your colleagues all do this too? Will they have to pick up yours if you don't do it? I'm not sure you can be excused hard tasks that are part of your job.

Are these tasks stressful because you're lifting ?

See I don't think it's that unreasonable of your manager to say 'it's not fair on the others', if you are asking to be excused these jobs because you find them difficult and stressful it's quite likely your teammates find them difficult and stressful too (if it was only you who found it stressful and others actually prefer/enjoy these jobs it surely wouldn't even be a question for your manager, you'd have a queue of volunteers to take over to 'swap' while you do their work?).

That's not to say arrangements shouldn't be made to sometimes relieve people of their difficult/stressful work in certain circumstances and equally it is also unfair to make pregnant women do jobs which they find physically impossible or unduly taxing, but your manager does have to balance the potential unfairness to you against the unfairness to your colleagues. This commonly comes up in my sector (health/public sector) where health care professionals routinely ask to be excused night shifts and heavy lifting or other physical jobs while pregnant - it's not an automatic yes just because they ask for it in these circumstances, a proper risk assessment is done by OH and the manager and a plan is agreed that may mean reduced nights, nights stopping by a certain week of pregnancy, help with lifting etc. It's not just a case of you present your positive test and get to only do what you fancy doing for the next 9 months, it's all a balancing act and what is possible massively varies job to job. Same with colleagues with disabilities, care of disabled children and relatives etc etc., no single person's needs always and forever trump another's.

I can understand your frustration that from your point of view you've highlighted the issue without any action being taken, but have you proposed any solution other than those tasks being removed from you entirely - good stress management isn't just about removing/avoiding the source of stress, it's also about developing techniques to manage and reduce stress, such as allotting more time for the stressful tasks, giving help with the tasks or a support buddy, letting the person choose for themselves when and how they do the task etc, obviously I don't know your job and what these tasks are but I would certainly try and work with your boss to find a solution rather than putting it all on her as she may well take the easy road of just saying no, and then you'd pretty much be faced with going off sick or struggling on, neither of which you want?

There's a very clear difference between tasks that are actually risky to pregnant women and those you happen to find stressful.
Do you always find them stressful?

It really doesn't sound like a reasonable pregnancy adjustment; removing tasks that you'd rather not grapple with.

It's chronic physiological stress that is potentially problematic in pregnancy, not parts of you're job you're capable of performing but don't like.

Intermittent short term stress isn't a problem. I'd argue that if your stress levels aren't so problematic as to be causing an actual mental health or physical health problem that affects all aspects of your deadly work, then the normal physiological and intermittent mild stress response isn't likely to be a problem.

I very much doubt your doctor will be happy to supply you with a fit note that picks and chooses the pieces of the job you don’t want to do, unless they are unsafe in pregnancy.

Reasonable adjustments can be requested, but what you view as reasonable may not be seen by the employer as reasonable.

Slightly different. I had PGP while I was pregnant. It was bad and it started early. As a result I found walking very painful. From about 16 weeks the 10 min walk from the carpark to the office was taking me the best part of an hour. It was so painful. I spent the whole day dreading the walk back. I spoke to my GP and said that it just wasn't possible for me to be off sick for months.

She wrote a letter to my workplace and occupational health and advised them that my condition would make walking very difficult and that I should be allowed extra breaks and a parking space in their carpark for the duration. They refused because if they have me a space "because I was pregnant" then everyone would want one. I was also denied working from home.

They were well within their rights to do this but it was awful. Another manager (not mine) had PGP as well when she was pregnant and basically demanded a space for me. She argued my case and I had one by the end of the week. The point I'm trying to make is that it really depends on your manager and what they feel is reasonable. I'm not sure a GP would write you a fit note but they may write a letter.

they made me fill in a risk assessment form where I had identified the areas of where I feel stressed
Did the assessment form specifically ask for areas that make you feel stressed? That's not it's actual purpose?

From a legal perspective, a fit note can be ignored by a company although they would need to have very good grounds to do so (or else be willing to face any repercussions). They are more likely to say that they can’t accommodate it and then you will need to be off sick. However, I agree that a doctor is unlikely to write the note specifics for you, especially not for the rest of your pregnancy.

Are the stressful duties actually dangerous for the baby?

I suffer from a mental health condition and various physical disabilities as well. Stress flares my symptoms and therefore causes me even more pain etc that I suffer from. So being pregnant and disabled is not a great combination. And like I said I’m suffering from severe morning sickness as well.

Anyway I have a meeting with my manager tomorrow to discuss this with her. As others have pointed out I understand that it would be considered unreasonable for me to ask to completely cut out these tasks so I won’t be doing this.

How did the meeting go today @Nam095 ?

Generally, the adaptations would be to reduce the risk to your pregnancy. For example, pregnant staff can be temporarily excused from night duty. Or they can have long day shifts changed to short shifts. No lifting, etc. What you're suggesting is more of an 'avoid things that I don't like/make me feel a bit stressed', which isn't really what it's all about.