Boss told his line-manager & HR i am pregnant

[Galmamma]

Hey guys,
So I had a terrible return to work after mat leave. I had no return to work meetings, risk assessment, 1:1, discussion around what I would fit into my three days out of my JD as I went back part time and my JD was amended without me knowing, removing responsibilities . I raised a grievance, which was firstly not upheld and was done with organisational bias applied and then after, the appeal was mainly upheld. However, my line manager has admitted he’s never seen an outcome to my grievance and recommendations.. so nothing has changed. I am almost ashamed to say I sucked it up and decided to just move forward as I had such a young baby I lost my confidence and wasn’t able to jump ship and find another job. Fast forward 1 year and I have discovered I am pregnant again. I have notified my line manager via email to keep them in the loop and have made it clear I don’t wish for anyone else to know as it’s very early and I suffer from recurring miscarriages. I had an email back to say this will be kept confidential. However, I am aware he has shared my news with his line manager (MD) and head of HR. He hasn’t even applied a risk assessment.. which I didn’t have last time either. Now, I would expect him to tell them when I reach a stage where it’s a bit safer… 12 weeks and legally I have to to tell them at 15 weeks.
Am I overreacting that he has shared this info? Am I just emotional? Thanks!

I wouldn’t consider you saying not to tell anyone to include upper management and HR- he would have to tell at least HR for both your and his protection.

You can’t really expect your manager not to tell his manager / HR. It’s not as though he’s spreading the news around everyone in your team - perfectly reasonable to let those people know.

I feel as if you told your boss as a boss not a friend. So he has a duty of care to you and the company to inform HR?

I'm sorry but you cannot expect him not to tell his manager or HR. They are both reasonable informees of the news and sources of support for him to help support you. Even more so considering the history of upset.

His line manager and HR need to know if he needs to know.

Agree with this. It's to protect you and himself.

It's normal for a risk assessment for pregnancy not to be done until considerably later anyway. None of my pregnancy risk assessments were done before 20 weeks.

That’s entirely normal. Especially since he may need to check if anything else needs to be done in light of you having had miscarriages.

Its only sensible for him to seek advice and support from his own manager to ensure he does everything correctly and covers himself.

I think when he said he would keep it to himself, he would have meant not telling colleagues and people he didn’t need to.

He wouldn’t be able to do anything with a risk assessment if you don’t want other people knowing. Our risk assessment would go to HR and H&S. so would need more people to be told

I would expect him to tell his manager and HR. That is normal and protects both you and them.

Ok guys I am being sensitive haha I get it. I should mention he hasn’t told me that he’s done this and it was a colleague so unsure who they know. But thank you for your comments x

If the MD or HR have told colleagues that don’t need to know, they shouldn’t have done. But that’s not your managers fault.

and he doesn’t need to tell you who he has told. I always do. Personally, if a team member tells me something I and I need to tell HR or someone else, then I will tell the team member. But I don’t have to, especially if it’s for my own support