Third trimester work deadlines..what does your industry do?

[bmachine]

Would appreciate a sense check here from different industries.

when a woman enters her third trimester, if her work is largely desk based no lifting/manual work do your work places begin to ease off them in terms of deadlines and pressure? Or treat them as normal?

I've just entered third trimester and ive been put on an deadline that will require overtime and weekend working to get over the line (common in the construction industry and unfortunately periods like this considered part of the job generally) will be two months of this.

would like to understand how different industries would deal with this.I'm guessing I'm supposed to just crack on?

Honest thoughts please.

I haven’t been pregnant but with colleagues who have been, I haven’t seen any change in their work although most have worked from home more. I suppose the point would be what happens if you have baby earlier than expected and who picks up the work.

Usually treated as normal unless they ask otherwise, or you could be accused of discrimination for not giving them projects!

For any manual work there would be a risk assessment, but for a desk job no change.

Though certainly if they said they were struggling we would try to lessen the load.

As a manager (in a desk based industry) I’d treat a pregnant woman exactly the same as any other employee unless she requested special accommodations, in which case I’d of course be as sympathetic/accommodating as I could. I would never just assume that a pregnant woman would want to be put on “light duties”, that seems incredibly patronising and possibly discriminatory.

Definitely just crack on.

If you needed pregnancy related adjustments, you’d ask for them. We all got an ergonomic review of workstation, and informed on who to contact if we thought further adjustments might be needed.

No expectation that you became incapable of performing the office role as normal, once office had been checked. Obvs if you had a condition alongside the pregnancy that meant office work impossibly (maybe hideous SPD) then you’d get signed off completely

Treat as normal unless asked otherwise

Unless someone requests otherwise because of health problems associated with their pregnancy they're treated as normal. I worked as normal up to 38 weeks including 60/70 hour weeks and all nighters when needed to meet client demands.

You should have a pregnancy risk assessment which is reviewed monthly. One of the potential risks is causing undue stress. Take some advice from ACAS.

You crack on as normal. If you are too tired to work normally at a desk job then you start mat leave earlier.

I work in construction also

Last pregnancy was high risk twins. Deadlines were deadlines albeit if I worked late/weekends I made it clear I'd be taking easier days the following ones but I was generally ok as long as I didn't need to move from the sofa and could rest the laptop on my massive bump - i WFH from 28 weeks though due to nature of pregnancy

We would do a risk assessment at different stages of the pregnancy. With every pregnancy in people I line manage and with my own it has been business as usual up until the mat leave date. I work in an industry with no manual work, no heavy lifting but long hours, overtime, stressful deadlines are the norm.

If anything I worked harder in the last trimester trying to clear as many of my cases (legal field) so it was less to handover. If you can’t fulfil your job requirements look at reasonable adjustments and look to start maternity earlier

My work are really good actually - it's generally accepted that people tend to want to work as late in pregnancy as possible and therefore they slowly handover in the last month leading up to their last day. So your responsibilities lessen as you get nearer to your mat leave date with the goal being that in your last week you would be pretty much handing over emails as they came in and that's about it.

I'd be expected to be treated as normal, unless my work pregnancy risk assessment stated otherwise. Remeber that should be regularly reviewed as your pregnancy progresses. I presume by weekend working you mean in addition to your normal hours, not instead of? Overtime is not mandatory so they shouldn't expect it, that probably warrants a discussion if you're not up to it. But you can't just expect them to ease your normal workload.

In my workplace we’d have your cover lined up by the third trimester and I certainly wouldn’t ask someone to work extra hours - we don’t do that anyway.

I work in public sector, so probably a lot more policies and support structures in place that in private companies, but I was referred to Occupational Health at around 25 weeks because I wanted to get an ergonomic chair for wfh due to aches and pains and their procedure was to go through a full pregnancy-based assessment with me and make several recommendations on 'reasonable adjustments' which included longer deadlines and flexible working arrangements In the end I never discussed the recommendations with my manager and I have to say that despite my workplace having these things in place, the idea that they can be implemented without someone else having to work overtime to pick up the work is very unrealistic. However, I'm no expert, but I do think it's something you're entitled to ask for under law- certain sectors tend to be careful and have the procedures in place because they know they need to to comply with equality/anti discrimination legislation where pregnancy is a protected characteristic. There's a lot of ambiguity over what a ' reasonable adjustment' would be. Personally I don't it's reasonable for anyone to be expected to be forced to do overtime and weekend working for two months, let alone when heavily pregnant, unless it's explicitly stated in your contract (and even if it is if you are pregnant/have health issues) , but the law itself is so ambiguous I don't know how easy it would be to argue that

I am 30 weeks and still working to some deadlines but also already starting my handover as there is training to do for a number of things that I currently do.

Work has also been very understanding throughout my pregnancy and I have been very lucky to have such a great manager.

I would usually do the stairs between 20-30 times a day but that side has been scaled back massively.

Also, I believe legally employer has to do a risk assessment when you disclose your pregnancy, even if you're job is office-based

Treated as normal for desk work, unless you agree reduced hours (which obviously means reduced pay.)

If the overtime is really excessive you could try and negotiate - but really you are fit to work or you aren’t.

For travel and physical tasks obviously there should be a risk assessment, and you be given different tasks when this isn’t possible.

Thanks for your perspectives, very helpful. I guessed this was the case as I've seen it before in my office, and for my last pregnancy I worked late nights/deadlines/weekends (ie overtime) until I actually started contractions in the office (probably due to the stress of it!) But I didn't know if it was standard practice.

I think this time round I will take leave earlier as I just don't have the stamina of my last pregnancy.

I did a risk assessment for work which as it's mainly office based (I have no active building sites at the moment) didn't really flag the issues of being overworked.

Thank you all for the useful input.

Also work in construction, I actually felt much better in the third trimester than I did the first. I worked up until the end, did my role as normal. If I was struggling, they would have let me take early mat leave though. Unfortunately if you’re overworked, that’s more to do with your company and you need to bring it up with them, others are probably feeling the same pressure pregnant or not.

They definitely are and yes i agree it's a company wide problem pregnant or not!