Sacked while pregnant

Uncertain

jdturk wrote: »

This is not neccersarily true, there are HR companies out there that if you follow their advice exactly and get taken to an ET that they will pay the fees and costs for the ET but not the fine if there is one.

Obviously it costs time but monetary it doesn't have to

Are you sure? Can you provide a link?

What could possibly be in it for them?

The number of ET cases where costs are awarded against the claimant is well under 10%. Even if they are awarded they are capped at (from memory) around £8000.

Or do you mean that if you pay such a firm to "do" all of your HR work they, in effect, provide insurance against your costs at an ET. This I could more easily believe but presumably they must charge quite a premium and won't take on a new case if a claim is in prospect?

Also, from the employers point of view, there is no incentive for such a firm to put much effort in on the employers behalf. If they lose the case then the employer still has to pay the award to the ex employee. If they win, as said above the chances of them recovering any costs are slim.

Kimitatsu

ssp_while_pregnant wrote: »

I agree that I would rather be able to give the baby love and relaxed atmosphere than stress and material things but I'm just so worried that we will lose everything as I have never been in this kind of position before and I will fail as a Mum by not doing all in my power to give baby as much love as I can and the best start I can. Hope that makes sense.

I am not going to comment on the legal aspect of this because I dont have enough experience in the area - but I just wanted to say that you wont fail as a Mum. Being a parent is the most difficult and most rewarding job in the world, but all that baby needs in the first few months of its life is your love and attention, a couple of changes of clothes, some nappies and somewhere to sleep. They dont need the latest version of anything IMO, so as long as you can give baby love and attention then dont worry about giving themthe best start. Trust me, the bills go up as they get older so start off small!!

You have obviously taken advice from your union rep, so I would put in the letter of appeal and then wait and in the meantime try not to stress out too much. The weather is getting better and in a few months time that little bundle will change your life for ever, so take the time to look after yourself and chill out a bit.

Take care

neas

No offence (but its probably will offend).. but it seems like you and the job didnt mix, either through stress or not meeting targets but you were off sick for a long time.

The pregnancy occured when you was off sick i guess... im not sure what legally you are entitled to but my opinion, morally you should've found a different job that wouldnt cause you stress.

I never get why people go off sick with 'stress' for 6 months.... to me it seems a little over the top. It wont look good on your CV thats for sure or reference lol... so only reason to do it is to bum around lol.

I would seek a different line of work, and by all means try and get as much cashola for your unborn child and you but im not sure the company has done much wrong.


If someones off sick for 6 month at my work they usually get dismissed at that point because half a year off from work severely impacts the workplace and if you are that sick you should be signed off work all together... not coming back lol.

yellow3

i have read the whole of this post and feel the need to comment, i really feel for you but DO NOT worry about being a good mum. a good mum is someone who loves there kids, stressed or not.

i found out 1 week before i was sacked that i was pregnant (but hadnt told work) so didnt have a leg to stand on.
if i had told them i was pregnant they wouldnt of been able to sack me as they had never raised any concerns over my work.
however as they had raised concerns and then sacked me all in the one meeting before i had the chance to tell them about the pregnancy i had no choice but to just hold my head up high and walk out.
at the time i thought my world had ended, i couldnt breathe, i had only had 1 week to get to grips with the pregnancy, had taken out a mortgage 1 month prior. so what did i do??? i didnt tell anyone i had been sacked, my partner thought i was on the sick and i took out a massive loan!!! ( how stupid!!!! )
this loan i am in the process of trying to pay back early, as it is strangling me finacially as i wasnt thinking straight at the time, didnt realise once i had the baby i would have to work part time, not have as much free cash as before etc.
looking back i was probably suffering some sort of pre natal depression as i acted very irationally.

the loan is the reason i am on these forums, saving the pennies and all that jazz!!

the point of my ramble is that today i have a beautiful two year old running around my feet who loves me and i love her, she has no clue about my debt and it will be long paid back by the time she is old enough to realise about money.

it was a very dark period in my life and i kept a lot of it to myself rather than lean on my partner, but it will pass for you. concentrate on the baby, times will get better.

p.s i also had a sales job and it took my a very long time to admit it to myself that i was out of my depth and pretty much cr*p at it!! x

ssp_while_pregnant

Kimitatsu wrote: »

I am not going to comment on the legal aspect of this because I dont have enough experience in the area - but I just wanted to say that you wont fail as a Mum. Being a parent is the most difficult and most rewarding job in the world, but all that baby needs in the first few months of its life is your love and attention, a couple of changes of clothes, some nappies and somewhere to sleep. They dont need the latest version of anything IMO, so as long as you can give baby love and attention then dont worry about giving themthe best start. Trust me, the bills go up as they get older so start off small!!

You have obviously taken advice from your union rep, so I would put in the letter of appeal and then wait and in the meantime try not to stress out too much. The weather is getting better and in a few months time that little bundle will change your life for ever, so take the time to look after yourself and chill out a bit.

Take care

Thank you for your kind words. I'm just being such a worry wart! lol.

sho_me_da_money

Just a quick one on the Facebook thing - violating computer policies is a very serious issue. I doubt they hacked into you actual FB account, the likelyhood is that your credentials were either left logged in or cached in the browser.

But since the reason for dismissing you wasn't because of this, it dont matter.

ssp_while_pregnant

neas wrote: »

No offence (but its probably will offend).. but it seems like you and the job didnt mix, either through stress or not meeting targets but you were off sick for a long time.

The pregnancy occured when you was off sick i guess... im not sure what legally you are entitled to but my opinion, morally you should've found a different job that wouldnt cause you stress.

I never get why people go off sick with 'stress' for 6 months.... to me it seems a little over the top. It wont look good on your CV thats for sure or reference lol... so only reason to do it is to bum around lol.

I would seek a different line of work, and by all means try and get as much cashola for your unborn child and you but im not sure the company has done much wrong.


If someones off sick for 6 month at my work they usually get dismissed at that point because half a year off from work severely impacts the workplace and if you are that sick you should be signed off work all together... not coming back lol.

I agree the job that I was moved to didn't agree with me and the people didn't agree with me nor me with them. However I was doing a good job until they changed my role. The pregnancy had occured while off sick but was not expected.

I am of such a nature that I niavely assumed that when the company had seen the first doctors letter asking them to put things in place ie training and better communication channels that they would and I could go back to enjoying the job the way I did when I first started.

The company would not entertain changing anything until they had seen this letter and even then didnt change anything which is why it took so long for me to go back. I hated being stuck at home day in day out and it is most certainly not in my nature to be a bum. I wanted to get back to normality.

This company is a large company and it is well documented that the stress was purely to do with the job and therefore the company couldn't have sacked me with a doctors note.

ssp_while_pregnant

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

Just a quick one on the Facebook thing - violating computer policies is a very serious issue. I doubt they hacked into you actual FB account, the likelyhood is that your credentials were either left logged in or cached in the browser.

But since the reason for dismissing you wasn't because of this, it dont matter.

The facebook thing was during my own time and on my own computer. I would never have used FB at work or during their hours.

Uncertain

neas wrote: »

No offence (but its probably will offend).. but it seems like you and the job didnt mix, either through stress or not meeting targets but you were off sick for a long time.

The pregnancy occured when you was off sick i guess... im not sure what legally you are entitled to but my opinion, morally you should've found a different job that wouldnt cause you stress.

I never get why people go off sick with 'stress' for 6 months.... to me it seems a little over the top. It wont look good on your CV thats for sure or reference lol... so only reason to do it is to bum around lol.

I would seek a different line of work, and by all means try and get as much cashola for your unborn child and you but im not sure the company has done much wrong.


If someones off sick for 6 month at my work they usually get dismissed at that point because half a year off from work severely impacts the workplace and if you are that sick you should be signed off work all together... not coming back lol.

Too right this will offend - which is no doubt exactly what you intended.

If somebody is off sick long term it is because, at the very least, their GP judges them too ill to work. Unlike you he / she will have had many years of medical training and will have had the advantage of seeing the patient rather than jumping to prejudiced and ignorant conclusions on an internet forum.

Stress in the workplace is a major issue which needs seriously addressing at a national level. It is also worth remembering that suicide is the single biggest cause of death in younger people.

The fact that one person may be able to cope in a particular situation doesn't in any way mean another can. In just the same way you may get an appendicitis and others in you office (if anybody employs you) won't.

It is also possible that if somebody is performing poorly in their job it may be due to inadequate training rather than their lack of ability.

Uncertain

sho_me_da_money wrote: »

Just a quick one on the Facebook thing - violating computer policies is a very serious issue. I doubt they hacked into you actual FB account, the likelyhood is that your credentials were either left logged in or cached in the browser.

But since the reason for dismissing you wasn't because of this, it dont matter.

And if the did hack into the OP account (and she used her own personal computer, not the firms, so your assumption doesn't apply) then they have committed a criminal offence.