Pregnant and still on probation a year in. 13 February at 11:35AM in Employment, Jobseeking & Training 8 replies 538 views

juliejones34567

Hi there, 

I’m just wanting some advice...

I have been in my current job for almost one year. I do have mixed emotions about my job, like it one minute, hate it the next. So I have considered leaving already. 

The way they work is you have to hit your target for three months before they will pass your probation.  

I have had many meetings where by they say how much the value me, how I’m great for the team etc. However unfortunately I’m just not hitting target. 

So they keep extending my probation and try to help me pass. 

I have been consistent in making them money just not enough to hit target.

They say they would love to pass me but the big boss would see the figures and not agree. 

I have just found out I am pregnant very early on and now I feel like I’m stuck. 

Do I tell them after 12 weeks and give them a reason to dismiss me... or do I leave now and look elsewhere?! 

Any help and advice would be appreciated

SueC_2

If I'm reading that correctly you feel that they may your pregnancy as a reason to dismiss you.

Legally pregnancy is not a reason to dismiss you.  Quite the opposite in fact.

lisyloo

But they don’t need a reason with less than 2 years service as there are no rights bar discrimination.
For example they could simply say repeatedly failed to meet targets. They’d have to be idiots to say we’re getting rid of you due to pregnancy as that’s illegal discrimination so it’s very likely they wouldn’t.

General_Grant

BUT . . .  the OP surely now has right to maternity pay which would be lost if she resigned.
It would look very suspicious if they decided to dismiss her after she told them of her pregnancy - given they have managed to keep her onboard for a year/

Diamandis

I wouldn't say that's suspicious, not meeting your targets for a full year despite them trying to help you do so is a perfectly acceptable reason to get rid of anyone.

If you leave now you wouldn't be entitled to maternity pay in a new job. 

Jsacker

General_Grant said:

BUT . . .  the OP surely now has right to maternity pay which would be lost if she resigned.
It would look very suspicious if they decided to dismiss her after she told them of her pregnancy - given they have managed to keep her onboard for a year/

I agree, it would look suspicious. I would not begrudge the poster in contacting the likes of ACAS/Union etc over such a matter. The other posters on this thread correctly point out that there's a fair reason for sacking (poor performance) knocking around, but that does not necessarily mean that it would be the REAL reason for sacking. 

Advice to the poster:

- I genuinely don't know what you should do (leave or stay). In your shoes, I personally would stay and either hope that they don't get funny or speak to the likes of ACAS etc about possible pregnancy discrimination if they do. 

- Make records from now on. Preferably documents/emails, but a diary (date/time/people/gist of convo) may suffice. Basically, document instances of feedback relating to your performance in the role, your success in the probation period etc. Anything which can be used to refute the idea that they sacked you for performance. It could come in handy if you do go ACAS etc and they advise that you have a pursuable case.

TELLIT01

Jsacker said:

 The other posters on this thread correctly point out that there's a fair reason for sacking (poor performance) knocking around, but that does not necessarily mean that it would be the REAL reason for sacking. 

Whether performance was the REAL reason or not, it would be extremely difficult to argue that it wasn't a perfectly valid reason for terminating employment.  They have failed to perform for a full year, so wouldn't be able to claim they didn't perform because it was a quiet time of year for example.

Masomnia

lisyloo said:

But they don’t need a reason with less than 2 years service as there are no rights bar discrimination.
For example they could simply say repeatedly failed to meet targets. They’d have to be idiots to say we’re getting rid of you due to pregnancy as that’s illegal discrimination so it’s very likely they wouldn’t.

Apart from all the others.

OP, it sounds like they've treated you fairly so far. How they'd react to finding out that you're pregnant really depends on the employer imho. Some would take the risk anyway and dismiss you for poor performance when the two year mark was coming up, some would find out that you were pregnant and decide it wasn't worth it as long as you were doing ok. It would be interesting to know if there were any precedents for how long they let other employees run before dismissing. 
If they let others carry on for 18 months before dismissing them, but dismissed you after 12 once they found out that you were pregnant then that doesn't look good. But it really depends on the facts of each case.
Unfortunately there's no easy answer to this one. Do you think you'd be able to meet the requirements in the near future?

theoretica

Are the targets reasonably achievable and are other people meeting them?