Should I tell a prospective employer that I'm pregnant?

[Cbynner]

I have a one year old son and have been working part-time. I have now had to resign from my job due to internal politics and I find myself 11 weeks pregnant and in desperate need of another job because I have been providing half of our income. I intend to continue working after the second baby. Should I tell a prospective employer that I'm pregnant before an interview or only if I am offered a job? Part-time jobs are very scarce where I live and I am worried about reducing my chances of finding a job.

Maybe I was lucky but after we moved areas 4 years ago, I continued to look for work. I saw a job in the Job Centre and when speaking to an Advisor (they had to contact the company for application forms) told him I was just pregnant. The Job Centre Advisor had a real go at me and said did I think I should apply as they only had a limited number of application forms and it might hinder someone else getting it!!!

He rang the company and they were fine. I filled in the application form, passed the test, had an interview (where again I said I was pregnant although I probably indicated it on the application form too) and was offered the job. I was honest with them from the start and even said I wanted to go back after the birth. I finished one week before ds arrived and went back exactly 4 months later. I am still there now, love my job to bits (work 3 days, very flexible, great boss) so in my case honesty was the best policy.

Personally I would not have felt comfortable not telling them I was pregnant. When my boss wants to 'have a go' he usually says something along the lines of 'I should have gone for the other girl' but I just tell him he certainly got the better deal by employing me.

I suppose it's all a matter of choice. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Well I finally plucked up the courage to tell my line manager at my 4 week one-to-one last Friday and she was great. I was expecting her to take the news in a very detached way but her first word was: "Congratulations" which I thought very impressive. We talked about the situation and I explained why I hadn't said anything before, i.e. insecurity about jobs having been made redundant, not having had it confirmed yet etc. and she was very understanding (well she gave the impression she was). I am very relieved but now she has to tell the department manager so I'm not completely in the clear yet! Will keep you posted.

well done Debster, hope it all works out OK for you

Debster, sounds great! A very close friend of mine was in a similiar situation - she was offered a "dream" job that she had been trying to get for several years - big money, mostly work from home, on the road on day trips a couple of days of week. She was 8 weeks when she got the offer - negotiated the contract, and before signing told them about the pregnancy - said she wanted to be fair to them. Of course, legally they could not then rescind the offer, but they were wonderful about it. Congratulated her - told her it was the perfect job for a new mom. She had the baby 5 weeks ago, and it is going great. So sometimes it really can work out the way you want it to!

Not so long ago I accepted a job knowing I was about eight weeks pregnant - and no, I didn't tell them. For a start, I wasn't telling anyone yet except dh, and I didn't see why they should beat my mum, friends etc to the news! Also, I wanted the job, would give them months of hard work and was the best person for it (in my humble opinion). I told them when I had got the job, signed the contract and had been doing the job for a while. I was then nearly four months pregnant and pretty fat, so they had already guessed. It was a pretty funky company but reactions varied from slightly grumpy to warm and supportive, but I didn't mind. My co-workers were very supportive and friendly. As it happens, the project collapsed while I was on maternity leave, so we all lost our jobs, but I was subsequently re-employed by the same company, so they clearly didn't hold it against me. I say, if you're offered a job then take it (you deserve it just as much as anyone else) and tell them when you're good and ready (there's absolutely no legal requirement to tell your employers until you want to go on maternity leave!). I was fortunate to work for a fairly forward-thinking company, but I still think employers don't really care for you, they care for their business, and I think everyone should think of themselves as a one-woman business - do what's good and right for you, not them. After all, anyone, pregnant or not, can take a job and then subsequently leave, and maternity leave doesn't cost a business anything (according to the maternity alliance) because they claim back all the money from the government) I always implied I would come back, but didn't make a huge song and dance about it. After all, I really felt I didn't owe them any special behaviour because they were 'kind' enough to let me work extremely hard and effectively for them Good luck to all job-hunting mtbs.

Thanks for all your messages. Aloha, you have really hit the nail on the head. I really hated feeling guilty for being pregnant. I certainly didn't plan it to happen this way but then I didn't plan on being made redundant either. We all have to deal with situations we hadn't expected - that's just life. I heard today from my line manager that she has already told the department manager who was also fine about it. Although I haven't spoken to her directly about it as she is bring discreet she apparently said that this should be a happy time and I shouldn't stress about it. Hopefully I can now look forward to the rest of my pregnancy.

Can anyone help me? I am 20 weeks pregnant & was made redundant last week (which I think was due to the fact I was pregnant & taking that further).
The problem is I'm just about to start a mortgage that my partner now has to pay on his own. I feel I can't get another job as I am showing, no matter what I wear, so I couldn't lie in an interview. Should I just sit tight & wait until I'm ready to go back to work after the baby is born or is there something I can do to earn a bit of extra money to help with the bills?

I don't think that a potential employer can legally discriminate against you even though you are obviously pregnant unless the job is very physical or similarly inappropriate for you. Perhaps if you do get an interview you could be prepared beforehand regarding childcare and your motivation to try to eliminate any doubts. Having said that I suspect that it is very different in practice.

Could you do some sort of temping work in the meantime so that at least you will have something to put on your cv and money coming in? Definitely pursue your claim against the redundancy but you may find that this is as much as you can take on at the moment.

Good luck

dannib, I've been looking this up today and an employer isn't allowed to discriminate against an interviewee because they're pregnant but as Lizs says, the reality is that they almost certainly do if it's obvious. I agree, what about the temping route? Sorry about your redundancy.

dannib, What have you got to lose by applying for jobs now? There is always the chance that the recruiter is a mother herself and gives you a break. However, I think that if you are visibly pregnant you should raise the topic of pregnancy (as they are not usually allowed to ask you about it themselves in interview) and explain what your plans are about returning to work after your baby is born, and when you plan to start maternity leave. If you are "taking it further" about your redundancy, you will need to show that you have been actively looking for work, and keep copies of all the job adverts and correspondence.

After 18 months of trying, I am 5 wks pg . This coincides with an interview for my perfect job. It is only 5 hours a week (while ds is at pre-school) and working in adult education. If I get the job (I think I am perfect for it), it will really help us financially. Our history is dh left the company he had spent years building up to leave London as our son had the worse eczema docs had ever seen and we wanted to escape the pollution. So, we have had to start again and dh hasnt earned anything for a year and a half. He is back on track now but money is very tight. Soooo, a pt job for me would ease the financial burden significantly. I am tempted to wait until a scan has confimred things, I m/c last time, but I dont want to p*ss them off before I start (presuming they recognise my brilliance and offer me the job). What should I do?

Go for the job, get it, and tell them in the normal way at 12 weeks or so!
If you want, you could fairly convincingly tell them then that you had NO IDEA when you took the job. Or don't even bother to lie - it isn't any of their business anyway. But I wouldn't tell them up front I'm afraid....

I would say, wait until you have a formal job offer, then mention it before you sign the contract, and be clear that you want to keep working after the baby.
Someone took a job in my office and didn't come clean about her pregnancy for several weeks. This went down very badly, especially as she was covering a maternity leave on a temporary contract and went off on mat leave herself!!
She has had to find work in another employment sector as her name is mud now.
If you don't let on until you have been in post a while there may well be a bad atmosphere when you tell your employer - and this will not be pleasant for you.
Good luck!

bunny, go for it, don't tell them if you need the job that badly. it counts as sex discrimination if they don't offer you the job after you tell them you are pregnant - but my bet is most firms pay no attention to this. i can't bear it when people somehow have the idea that a pregnant woman doesn't need to work to support herself.

another vote for waiting for the formal job offer and then telling them before signing the contract. With your dates it should be easy to say you didn't know when you went for the interview but think it only fair to tell them - and they won't be able to wriggle out either because you already have the formal job offer.
Great news btw - congratulations!

Dannib

Did you get enough redundancy weeks of pay to cover you till you due date? How long had you been working there?

I was made redundant 2 days after announcing I was 12weeks pregnant and they gave me 9mths worth of salary plus the rest as in my job I could have expected 6mths and that company paid 3mths maternity. I guess they knew that I knew what I was entitled too as I was the HR Director and so they didn't take any chances (this was back in Australia - so I am not sure what the legal position is in the UK).

But - it might be worth looking into if your redundancy payment is enough under the circumstances and getting legal help if it is not.

BTW when I was in HR a woman came clean that she was trying to fall pregnant and had it written into her contract that she would be provided maternity leave (even though she wouldn't qualify under legislation) and that she would be able to come back to work Part-Time (from a HR perspective I thought it was a bit ripe, but we wanted her and they were her terms). Needless to say after about 3mths she fell and eventually she came back part-time. More power to her!

Bunny2. Don't tell them. Legally you don't have to tell them until very very late, when it would be blindingly obvious to everyone (isn't it something like 29 weeks?). I was worrying about whether to put off trying to conceive until after my temp job was made permanent and an employment law friend told me about various cases which makes it quite clear that they are totally in the wrong if they take it into consideration. You are not being rude in not telling them - you have a right to a baby and a job.

Thanks for your very positive responses. I shall go for it, time to put my family's needs first. Cheers everyone, now all I have to do is find a suitableoutfit to wear.

Hi All

I've been reading this thread and thought that I would post as I don't really post that much as I'm finding my feet on here.

I was very lucky with my company, I started a new job and then within 2 months I found out that I was pregnant, I was beside myself and in a panic as I had a 3 month probation also the fantastic news was a complete shock as we had been told that it could be hard for me to become pregnant as I have a condition, but that's another story.

Well I decided that I should tell them as I felt they were getting a bit suspicious of me running to the bathroom and feeling very ill anyway. I have to say that my boss took the news better than I expected but said that he would have to talk to the board and go from there.

I passed my probation and got my works blessing and then started to work out a plan of my antenatal appointments etc. and to give them dates of when i would leave. I planned to leave in July and get cover etc.

BUT these plans didn't work out as I had my daughter 10 weeks early in May.

My dh rang my work to tell them what had happened, and everyone was shocked but wished us all well. My boss kept ringing up to find out how we were, they also sent me a basket of goodies. Now they can't wait to see me and my dd.

So I have to say that I am glad that I told them and was honest with them in the first place as you never know what may happen, but they have been extremely good & kind to me.

Bunny2, firstly congrats on your pregnancy

I accepted a new job last September. I had a 3 month notice period in my old job and I wanted to take some time off between the two so I arranged to leave old job on Xmas Eve and start new one on 1 Feb. I was going to go skiing for a couple of weeks, see friends, chill out etc.

Needless to say I got pg at the end of November and spent my 6 weeks off feeling slightly nauseous and worrying myself sick about what the new job would say! (And no skiing grrrr)

I took the decision not to tell them until I started. It was v nerve racking but they were wonderful, said congratulations and that as they were employing me on a perm basis it really made no difference to them at all. They gave me more mat leave than they had to and were very supportive the whole way through.

I am glad I waited to tell them till I started though. I should do the same if I were you - just say you only found out after you accepted the job.

Now my boss keeps asking when I'm going to have a second!

Thanks Sambo. I am going to go for the interview and, should I get the job, I'll probably take it then tell them later on. I am only 6 wks pg so lots can happen. I hope they are understanding and supportive, if not, then I probably wont bother returning after I've had my baby. Most of the stories here are really encouraging (apart form Scoobysnax example) so fingers crossed it will all work out. There again maybe I will tell them before I sign the contract ... I cant possibly make any important decision in my condition.

Well I found out I was pregnant on Saturday after just 2 days at a new job. Although I cannot afford to be unemployed I decided that it would be unfair of me to work for the company knowing that I would be leaving in the next 7 months or so. It was a job that entailed an awful lot of training and I just felt it was unfair to expect them to spend their time training me to do the job only for me to leave soon. I am now looking for a retail rather than office based job where I know there is a high turnover of staff, hopefully it will also be a job I can return to soon after the birth on a part time basis. Although I have to admit I will not be something that I will tell people in an interview as I do feel this would affect my application whether they admit it or not.