Boss demands hospitalized, high-risk pregnant employee travels for work. 'It's unfair to cover for you.' UPDATED
"Can my boss force me to travel while pregnant?"
I have been with my current employer for 5 years. I am in England. I am currently 21 weeks pregnant. I informed my manager at 6 weeks due to medical history and health issues.
So I travel for work, mostly to Europe and the US, and work in events - idk if worth mentioning only a tiny portion of my job is the event itself, most of it is research and sales/marketing, I have nothing to do with venues, logistics, food, or any of the stereotypical things you think of when you think of a job in events.
I'm paid commission based on sales revenue for events I have done all the research, agenda writing etc for. Separate to this I also sometimes have to support as an extra pair of hands, which I have never been paid extra for.
So my manager has been fairly awful to me about not being able to travel - due to pregnancy related medical issues I have a note from my doctor saying I'm not allowed to fly, and this voids my company travel insurance which would make me feel very unsafe even trying to fly.
Not only this, but I've been on bedrest for most of my pregnancy. She forced me to go to one event at 7 weeks pregnant, a week after I told her, telling me I'd lose my ~£3000 commission if I didn't go.
At the event itself I ended up bedridden, unable to do anything and we were short staffed. A number of people asked her why I still went, including her manager, and she pretended she didn't know I was pregnant/ill. Because I'd physically gone, though, I still got my commission.
After that I explicitly told HR and my manager's manager about my pregnancy and medical issues and they have been very supportive, offering me fully flexible working, completely WFH, no pressure to travel abroad, time off for appointments, etc.
My manager however has continued to be awful - giving me grief for midwife appointments, being very inflexible over deadlines, expecting me to work when hospitalised on an IV drip, continuously asking me when I'm coming back to the office, etc. This is all directly against what she has been told by HR and by her manager.
I have pretty much just rolled my eyes and left her to it, but then this week there was another event which I'd done all the work for but it was pre agreed that my colleague would cover for me on the day and I would get the commission.
I did everything I could for this - staying online until midnight every day so I could make sure to help my colleague, sending detailed notes in advance, all of the preparation work, research, etc etc. This was all agreed months ago.
I don't know if worth mentioning this event was in the US. I feel extremely unsafe going to the US as a pregnant woman with the current political climate, especially with a high risk pregnancy.
My manager then called me on Friday saying she thinks it's unfair my colleague didn't get paid and asked me to give her ~£1600 of my commission because it's "unfair" she had to cover for me when I "refused" to travel. I said no.
She asked again whether I would consider it. I said no. I then sent her a detailed email with all the work I had done, what we had agreed in advance, and saying I felt it was pregnancy discrimination to penalize me.
She responded via a Teams message saying "why did you send me such a long email?" and I said "because some things need to be formal and in writing". She's now saying she wants to blanket change the policy so that if people can't travel for any reason, their commission is docked.
Our contracts say we have to travel so in the 5 years I've been here, people have only ever not travelled for extremely serious reasons - usually for severe health conditions.
There is 0 precedent for anyone losing commission and this seems to be a policy she is purely pushing to introduce on the back of my pregnancy. Nobody gave any grief to my colleague who had cancer last year.
I guess... do I let this go? Should I complain - I've said nothing to HR about her so far, although they have told her off of their own accord for things they've picked up on me without me saying anything.
Do I wait and see if she actually introduces this new policy and argue about it retrospectively? Do I get formal legal advice? Am I actually in the wrong here/do I need to drop it?
Here is what readers had to say in response to the OP’s post:
Please make a log of every interaction you have had with your manager and file a formal complaint against her, and also include the amount of extra hours you have been working which is usually also have to be signed off. Please don’t put yourself at risk due to one manager causing an issue especially when HR have been so accommodating.
They cannot fire you or let you go when you have all the evidence surrounding your manager as that would be a very easy discrimination and unfair dismissal case. To be honest, very high grounds for discrimination case anyway so go straight to HR and raise a formal complaint and log any other bad interactions moving forward.
Given the response of HR already, don't wait. Forward every detail to HR and upper management. I would absolutely be approaching legal companies on this expectation that this could get messy.
I understand your reservations about the extra stress on your pregnancy, but it looks like your manager isn't going to stop, especially considering that HR have already spoken to her. You've said that you'd be prepared to argue this retrospectively anyway, why wait?
Have a chat with your HR team. It sounds like they are on side anyway. No, they can't force you to travel. Yes, they can change policy around commission but not in a way that discriminates, and HR would need to be part of that conversation anyway.
Almost three months later, the OP returned with an update.
A minor update as a few people asked for one and I'd forgotten. I am now 8 months pregnant and mat leave will be starting next month, so almost done with all the work drama!
So I took everyone's advice and spoke to HR and upper management, which I was super worried about doing. They were actually extremely supportive, I told them I wanted to create as little friction as possible so I framed it as wanting a resolution before the issues escalated further, rather than it being a formal complaint.
I think HR and upper management were worried about me turning it into a formal complaint, as they pretty much agreed to everything I asked - including giving me confirmation in writing that none of my commission would be withheld as a result of me being unable to travel while pregnant (they said it would be halved while I am actually on maternity leave, which is fair enough as I won't be working).
They also put together a helpful document for my manager on "how to speak to and support pregnant employees", but framed it as something coming from them to support her rather than as me making a formal complaint and her being told off. Things like "if your employee is hospitalized and on a drip, maybe just maybe give them the day off work".
I had to go to upper management about her again last week sadly - I'd planned to come in to say goodbye to everyone before my mat leave started as I'm fully WFH for these last few weeks (as agreed with HR), I've been there almost 6 years so it would have been sad to leave without saying goodbye!
We had a social planned for the afternoon so I wanted to swing by for a bit. However I wasn't well enough to make it in for 9am and she basically told me that if I could only come in for lunchtime, not to bother at all because "upper management will not be happy with that".
Shocker, I contacted upper management directly and asked whether it would be an issue for me to just come in at lunch, they said it was not an issue at all and that of course I should have the opportunity to say goodbye. Manager is now fuming I went over her head and got her told off, but oh well.
Anyway! I thought people would appreciate the update that HR and senior management aren't always monsters, they were actually very supportive and have been throughout my pregnancy. I'm sure they had ulterior motives in not wanting a pregnant woman to cause them a lawsuit or bad press, but fine.
Here is what readers had to say in response to the OP’s post:
I feel your manager needs some soft skill training after this. It can't be a coincidence that she's fumbled twice on this. You may need to highlight to your upper management about this but then again I wouldn't care if I were you as you're off on Maternity.
LongjumpingLab3092 (OP)
Haha it's been significantly more than twice. The commission cut was just the final straw for me in terms of putting up with it. I think the document they sent her was their attempt at soft skill training! And she did get marginally better afterwards, the not wanting to let me say goodbye to my colleagues thing was her first misstep in a couple of months.
"However I wasn't well enough to make it in for 9am and she basically told me that if I could only come in for lunchtime, not to bother at all because 'upper management will not be happy with that.'"
Is this woman trying to get fired? Cuz at a certain point its gonna be cheaper to dump her than keep opening the company up to lawsuits.
No one in this post seems nearly enraged enough about this boorish behavior. I’m fuming reading this and OP’s asking if she should keep rug sweeping this insanity?? I’d be out for blood.