Well its nearing time to return to work and im really struggling with it mentally and emotionally after the way I was treated when pregnant.
I work in a warehouse and had seen a how a the ladies were treated previous to my pregnancy so I had no concerns when my tuen came. They were removed from driving the heavy machinery given desk jobs and treated quite well in my opinion. Then new management arrived both warehouse and shift managers and it all went abit tit's up !
My partner also works there and let slip that I was pregnant earlier then I would have liked but I understood his concerns neither of us expected it what was to come. I had a welfare meeting and asked to continue with driving the machinery for as long as I felt safe and comfortable but was removed from the heavy lifting side. For a few weeks all was well apart from a few snippy comments from my new manager here and there and I continued driving about and being as busy and useful as possible unfortunately I have a previous injury in my hip that started to give me some bother so asked if I could move to a less physical role and was given some simple admin roles while they found me something more suitable. This worked out for a short while I done task for mangers and made myself as useful as possible but tension was definitely rising between myself and the new manager. If she saw me sitting she would tell me to go find something to do or give a task I just kept my head down and tried to stay out of her way.
Things really amped up when she asked for my matb1 when I got home I called the midwife and asked for it early but as it was a Friday it would take a few days I didnt think this would be an issue. The very next day the shift manager approached me while I was sitting with another manager getting a list of jobs for the night together and she went off on one. Said if she saw me sitting again there would be a problem, demanded my matb1 and accused me in a round about way of faking my pregnancy then in the next breath said that I must not care about my baby as I hadn't produced the matb1 yet. We had a bit of a back and forth and I filed a grievance online immediately.
Things were quiet for a few days and I was called into the office and handed a new list of responsibilities that I had to do everyday down to the exact times I had to do them.
Jobs included:
Load all salvage into trailers with manual pump truck. This is normally done by the loading team using machines. This is alot of heavy and damaged stuff, broken cages, cardboard, plastic ect the salvage trailers are usually filthy and soaking wet. I got injured a few times with cages and stock falling on me and slipping in the trailer.
Move all damaged cages from bay 45 to bay 11 im sure you can all imagine this is quite the walk and there was alway alot of broken cages to move and I could only move a few at a time so there was alot of walking back and forth across the warehouse.
Tidy parking area. Nice and simple compared to the other tasks but alot of bending and crouching to pick the rubbish off the floors. It got abit much as people seemed to stop cleaning up after themselves as thee would be somebody else doing it.
Drop manual pump truck across left half of warehouse picking up any and all recycling and rubbish then after lunch break the other half of the warehouse.
There was more and more jobs added as time went on such as walking the loading bays removing and rolling up straps tiding load bars and removing all rubbish and broken equipment.
To start it wasn't so bad and I just put my head down and got on with it but the more my pregnancy progresses the harder things got. I got the outcome of my grievance it was not put down to pregnancy discrimination but she was found at fault for being unprofessional as she shouted at me infront of multiple witnesses. Alot more went on I was still banned from sitting although HR said it was fine. She told he that HR dont make the rules 🙄 we had more run in then I could count. I was called lazy on a regular basis she shouted at me once as I was rushing to get to the toilet for not immediately doing the job she asked me to do as I rushed past. It honestly got worse and worse lots of things were being done and said. I cried alot would have to hide in the racking with the stock to have a sneaky sit down. I had to get rescued of the warehouse floor a few times and i couldnt get up. I was in alot of pain with my hips ,back and pelvis and the job list got longer and longer. It got the point that at about 34 weeks pregnant I threw in the towel and had to leave for my and my babies safety.
I think im honestly still processing it all.
It took a huge toll mentality and physically I recently had an MRI for the pain and have it showed I have chronic bilateral sacroiliitis im starting physiotherapy soon but im really struggling mentally with returning. I can honestly say I really enjoy my job but I dont know how to get over or process the way they treated me when I was pregnant.
What should I do to make it less traumatic? I thought maybe contact the warehouse manager and set up a meeting ?