Did I do anything wrong here?

[AirborneElephant]

Background: I manage a team. Our work is “project” based, so people get assigned to a number of projects. The leadership team (international) meet bi-weekly to discuss workload and allocations. The projects in this story are all equally “prestigious”.

Onto the issue. A few months ago one of my team told me she was pregnant. I did all the usual HR stuff, sent her the various policies, asked her if she needed any adaptations, all good. I didn’t tell anyone as it is obviously confidential, other team members didn’t mention it so I assumed she wanted to wait a while. A couple of weeks ago she started wearing a baby on board badge on her jacket. Not particularly discretely, she will walk in with it on, leave the jacket on the back of her chair with the badge showing ect. Great, I thought, she’s clearly now told people.

So at this week’s meeting I suggested she should not be on project A, as it finishes after her due date. Instead I suggested she should be on B which finishes earlier. One of the overseas LT then contacted her after the meeting to congratulate her on the pregnancy. She was furious with me and accused me of breaking her confidence.

I’m not worried about the legal HR side, I had an emergency meeting with HR yesterday and they are happy both that the information was no longer confidential and that in any case I used it in a way that was entirely legitimate. But I’m stewing over it. I normally have a really good relationship with my team so this blindsided me. Did I do anything wrong here or should I chalk this one up to pregnancy worries / hormones?

If you are not young you need to get training.

Plus you should understand that your highly experienced HR business partner is well aware that the woman in question has to be able to prove in court while funding her case from her own lessor salary that you disclosed her information to a group of her future bosses and/or selected her work in a way which damaged her career was sex based discrimination.

This random on the internet is pointing out the fact that staff will not be given a project due to pregnancy is discrimination which only impacts women.

You are a manager so yes there is a big emotional problem in you assuming that you can make an announcements about the due date of the women who work under your control without taking the time (before or after the event) to mention it to the woman in question.

Some people are bringing out the straw men I think. It is of course acceptable (in this example) to align business need and protected characteristic. It was a pragmatic decision. The projects were equally suitable but the timings wrapped up better so this colleague wouldn't have to do an elaborate hand over. That's fine. I'm not sure what court, union or HR dept in the land would argue with that. She wasn't disadvantaged or even affected but the sounds. If it was a junior role or outside her expertise that may be different. But it isn't true that PCs must be ignored for the sake of it.

The OP is asking about whether she made a misstep in assuming it was ok to announce the pregnancy in a meeting. She accepts that and will manage it.

Oh please. This doesn’t help women. If you’re very young then it might help if you actually think about this before jumping straight into declaring discrimination at every turn.

OP don’t sweat it. The woman is wearing a badge in work announcing her status. If she didn’t want this to be public then she would take it off once she’s done her commute

I see where the international organisation has no handover policy in place in a team which runs multiple projects over the year.
The OP is very keen to say that all projects are of equal value. Is that ever really true? Someone somewhere is using their project to get promoted. And the OP is not doing that within the TL peer group?
And keen to say HR confirmed that the legal boxes are all ticked and has only seen this as a breakdown of communication due to the womans emotional state.

The OP went into a planning meeting without having discussed any handover planning with the employee, has not yet confirmed when the woman plans to take leave, and all the womans projects happly end before the "due date"?

The OP wanted assurance that it was ok "just because" not even wanting to think that the HR person is working in an area which upholds the existing culture of an organisation. I have worked in enough places to recognise seamlessly mat leave and cover work reflects in the culture of the organisation and that international companies have internal conflicts as statutory obligation and market benchmarks vary as do attitudes.

No you wear them on public transport so people know to offer/give up the priority seat.

Yes but if you're barely pregnant that's a bit pathetic

Honestly, just apologise admit you were wrong not to check with her and move on. Don't blow this up more than it needs to.

I think it depends how you said it.
You could have said you was assigning her to Project B without giving a reason.
Maybe she didn’t want people to know her due date yet?
I personally think she is being precious as it wouldn’t bother me especially wearing the badge but maybe she just didn’t want it announced.
Its trick as a Manager we are privy to information and often your not sure who knows what.