Hybrid working request - heavily pregnant

[Upsidedownswan86]

First time poster here.

I work in an office based role. Currently, we are working in a hybrid manner. Teams are expected to work in the office for at least 40% of the working week. This works well.

I am pregnant at the moment. Last month I had a horrible sickness bug which resulted in 3 days of sickness leave. I was then told by my (kind) line manager to work at home for a week to ensure I was totally well when I did go back in. I did that.

I then (after two days back in the office) got a fever overnight tested positive for Covid. I didn’t take any time off sick for this, but worked from home until I tested negative again - that is the office guideline.

A week after testing negative I then developed a heavy cold. I asked my line manager to advise as we aren’t meant to go in with cold symptoms since covid. I was told to work from home for a couple of days until the cold finished.

I am concerned about my lowered immunity. I made a formal request to work from home as I was concerned. I have 3 weeks of work remaining before mat leave begins. Higher tier management have said that I can do this, but that I must come in on request whenever needed and for weekly team meetings.

After two weeks of that arrangement, I am expected to review my health and then go back up to 40% for the last week.

This feels off to me. Why bother with going back up to 40% in the last week? There is no clear reason given. To be honest, I’m in most days anyway as I have customer facing meetings…. So what is the point in insisting on a return to essentially presenteeism style working for the final days?

I want to go in when I’m needed. I don’t want to go on for the sake of it while over 35 weeks.
What do you all think?

I think that when you get to your final week and ‘review your health’ you will find that your health means you cannot attend the office…

Basically, nod and smile. Perhaps it’s connected to handover or whatever, but I’d just agree and then ‘review’ in the final week.

I think they have been incredibly flexible and their expectations of you are in line with those they have for your colleagues - they don't have to give you a reason, they are your employer. It's for one week - go in.

I wonder if it's just standard wording for a request like this.

You've essentially asked to temporarily change your work location because you've been sick. Anyone who wasn't pregnant would be asked to review this regularly to check it was still needed. It just happens that after 2 weeks you've just got one week left.