Boss asking me to try to make appointments relating to pregnancy out of work hours

[Workpregnant]

I think ‘try to’ might be the sticking point here.

I work three days a week, and am pregnant. My next appointment is on a day I work and boss agreed to it but clearly reluctantly and asked me to ‘try’ to make appointments for days I don’t work.

I have no control over this at all though, so I don’t think it’s reasonable to ask. Or am I being over sensitive?

The school probably won’t fork out for supply for an appointment as you’d be expected to attend work, leave for the appointment and return. They’d likely get a higher level TA or internal cover supervisor to cover the class. But that would cause a bit of a problem too.

Schools are really inflexible places to work when you need time off. People go on about the school holidays so it must be family friendly type of job, but really no!! Wrap around care always needed for work days and no swapping of shifts or using annual leave to attend nativities and sports days.

OP my previous reply was before I’d read the full thread and saw you were a teacher. But my reply basically supports this.

You've got a legal right to the paid time off, and consultant appointments are not flexible, so your boss is being unreasonable. The people suggesting swapping days are also being unreasonable as you would get paid time off if you were full time, so why shouldn't you if part time. It will end up being less time off than it would have full time because, as you say, some appointments have been on your days off, so will probably work out fairly anyway.

Maybe just reply that you have booked X number of appointments on your days off already, but this one is not flexible. If there is any push back on that, I'd be contacting HR to ask them to confirm your legal rights.

You've reminded me I found out I had to attend a consultant clinic every few weeks in my 3rd trimester. I happened to hear that the clinic ran on my day off in the other hospital in my trust, so asked if I could switch to that one. The answer was no as it was already overfull there, and the doctor actually said to me, you are legally entitled to time off for this, so why would you want to move it and loose part of you day off anyway? He had a point!

@mummyh2016 I’ve said (to your post complaining about a colleague who works one day a week and deliberately arranges appointments for those days)

”But that’s hardly what I’m doing, @mummyh2016 , is it?”

You responded that you didn’t know if I was or wasn’t and I said:

”@mummyh2016 - I’ve said that I don’t. I’ve said that some appointments have been arranged for my days off (unlike your colleague) and that I work three days, not one (also unlike your colleague”

Sorry - not intending to be difficult - but why do you object to the way I’ve addressed you? I really can’t see what you’re annoyed about. There’s a huge difference between three days a week and one day and also a huge difference between ‘I want my appointment to be on a Wednesday’ and ‘your next appointment is on 1st March, which is a Wednesday.’

To others - thanks for advice. I really can’t just rearrange my working days. It would mess up my childcare and pre paid activities for our days off and also mean my job share was faced with identical problems.

We don’t generally have supply and cover is arranged internally. Not ideal I know but this is on cover supervisors - it’s better of course to have the class teacher there but it isn’t really costing extra money or impacting on colleagues.

I do think you should try to. I work full time, but 2 days in office and 3 at home. The clinic is 5 minutes from where I live. I also say, if possible, please could the appointment by on X, Y, Z, which is when I am at home, so as minimum inconvenience to my employer. Yes I have the right to make an appointment on one of my office days, but I also want to be a good employee (and you never know when you might want your employer to give you something they don't have to).

Cheeky boss. Well from experience it is a case of take the appointment that you are given -the NHS crisis is not a myth! If you are a private patient please ignore.

It it’s hospital appointments, fat chance of you being able to dictate to them what day and time you want them.

I work 3 days a week and when I was pregnant could try and arrange as much as possible for my non working days however the midwife was always the same day of the week and obviously you do have control over hospital appointments so I would just do what you can. I don't think it's unreasonable of your boss to ask though.

I know with ours it was a certain day only. I work at a hospital so my midwife saw me there which meant I missed much less work then if I had to drive home to the gp surgery to have it there.

It’s tricky because the employer is under no obligation to pay you for time off for medical appointments. If you can’t rearrange for your own time, you may find yourself out of pocket. It all depends on what’s agreed in your contract of employment, so start with that.

What if OP had another job on other days of the week, or was caring for a parent or another child, or just wanted a rest. Should she still be making up the appointment times or avoiding inconveniencing this employer?

I didn’t get to have a conversation where I could request anything, even the word ‘booking’ is a misnomer. All maternity appointments were just given or sent to me - and to be honest that was a stretch. Hoping you’d get a scan in the appropriate timeframe was on a hope and a prayer.

That’s 100% incorrect in relation to pregnancy related care.

No, this is unreasonable of your boss. You are legally entitled to paid time off for appointments and there is very little wiggle room for when NHS appointments are scheduled. You’re legally protected to not be discriminated against at work during pregnancy.

Sometimes you can’t do anything about it. I had something similar when I did 3 days. I wouldn’t have been able to swap nursery days easily and now so many places are full I suspect it’s even harder. I generally had my community midwife appointments on a nwd just by nature of how they fell but hospital ones I didn’t have any choice and they tended to be at awkward times during the working day.

How so ?

Can see his point when you have 2 non working days per week. But if clinic is a certain day, can you offer to work the time another NWD or just let them suck it up!

Pregnant employees' rights

"Employers must give pregnant employees time off for antenatal care and pay their normal rate for this time off."

Try, but not too hard.

You need to look after yourself here.

See I kind of get this, but if you have two jobs - not uncommon - the other taking up the other days of the week, then what happens.

?

i was in this situation and just swapped the days I worked.

You are entitled to reasonable time off for maternity appointments. Given that you work in a school, I wouldnt worry about it. Just continue to book your appointments off. Your boss is probably frustrated arranging cover but that’s life and they need to get over it.

In my experience, you don’t get to pick and choose appointments so try not to let it get to you. If you worked full time, your appointments would be in work time because you don’t get any availability at the weekend and they would have to accommodate those. Does your boss have no experience with pregnancy?

My routine maternity appointments with the midwife were during a clinic at my GPS on a fixed day, any other appointments such as scans etc were booked by the midwife, she'd ring up the hospital and make the appointment for me, I was sent for quite a few extra scans and I was always given the earliest slot available, i didnt get a say. People suggesting op makes the appointments on none working days probably don't realise you don't have much control over maternity appointments. I couldn't even pick a time when I booked my routine appointments, you were just entered into the clinic in the next available slot.

If you were intentionally booking the dentist or something on working days that'd be different, maternity appointments you have little control over and are allowed paid time off besides. Your boss should not be making you feel awkward about attending appointments, even if you do work pt. He could be accused of discrimination if he is treating you unfairly.

I had to do this - midwife was at clinic on Mondays and I worked on Mondays so had to go then! Work were fine about it as legally you're entitled to paid time off for maternity appointments (this even included an infant feeding workshop on a Monday!). I was working 3 days a week at that point and wouldn't have asked to swop days around, although I did ask to WFH those days to make the most of my time. Most people are part-time for a reason, and consequently are paid less (presumably 0.6 in this case?) as a they work less. The other days a week they could have a second job, be caring for a child or an elderly person.

If at all possible I would try and reschedule/or rearrange my day off/ not take the whole day off
Bit of give and take goes a long way