What do I do with a pregnant employee?

Question

One of my employees is pregnant & is refusing to do her job, using her pregnancy as an excuse. She's being downright rude & obnoxious to the other members of staff & everytime I reprimand her she says I can't do anything about it because she's pregnant & has rights. She also claims that my asking her to do her job is bullying! What can I do?

She works as a Housekeeping Supervisor of small a hotel. Lots of moving around, no heavy lifting, plenty of opportunity to sit & rest, flexible hours - mainly checking the standards of cleanliness of bedrooms & presenting them to guests.She has never provided written confirmation of her pregnancy, nor has she given me a list of her limitations. She has been told that, if she feels tired or unwell, so long as she informs her line manager, she can rest whenevr possible. She has also started demanding extra time off, expecting other staff to cover her shifts. She used to be paid hourly, but pushed the company into putting her on a salary, without telling them she was pregnant (which by then she had known for a month).

Answer 1

There are a lot of unknowns here. You don't say if you are a small business owner or a manager for a larger company. If it's the latter then you can defer to human resources to find out what steps need to be taken to protect you and the company.

You don't say what type of business it is, or what the employee's job entails. Is she expected to handle chemicals? Is there a workshop with exhaust that could be harmful to her? Or is this an office/desk job or a job in a store?

For your own protection you can request a list of limitations from her doctor detailing what she can and can't do. Be sure that it includes limits to lifting and time for standing if that's part of her job. You can also request that she be on mandatory leave until she can produce the note. Which is both for her health and safety as well as you legally.

If she is not supposed to be working and is because she desperately needs the income, you aren't obligated, but you can try to find another temporary position that will help her out.

It's okay to make some concessions to a woman who is pregnant in your work environment, but if she's refusing to work and citing pregnancy as a reason, you can have her bring a note from the doctor saying she is unable to work and she can go on leave. You are not obligated to pay an employee on leave other than accumulated sick/leave time unless the company has a policy on it that says differently. You are obligated to continue to contribute to any health plans while the employee is on leave.

Answer 2

Again I am sure the law differs in every state but as an owner of 3 businesses I have had this issue arise on occasions. You can not fire her because she is pregant, however she does need to do her job. If she has restrictions she needs to get them from the doctor so you can have them on file. You can also request something that shows she has no restrictions. You can work around the restriction however you do not need to create a job for this woman. We had a lady that could only work 2 hours per day and she needed to sit the whole time. Well her job was as a sales person and because we had no jobs in our company that would require sitting she could not fulfill her requirements and therefor needed to take family medical leave. I would check with a lawyer to make sure you are doing nothing wrong and what you can do about her rudeness. Yes you can do something even if she is preggers.

Answer 3

I think this employee is using her pregnancy as a reason to slack off and is taking advantage of the laws that protect pregnant women against discrimination.

I think the only thing you can do without risking a discrimination lawsuit is to ask for a letter from her dr or midwife specifying her limitations and any precautions she needs to take while on the job.
Women with a healthy, low risk pregnancy are usually only advised to not lift anything heavier than 25 pounds, and to avoid long periods of sitting or standing with periodic exercises like walking around the office.
The best way to approach it is to ask her for a meeting and then get her input on how she thinks you could help her to do her job more effectively, and using the letter from her dr and the information from her job description come up with tasks that fit the limitations and precautions.
You could then make a written outline of job expectations that fall within those guidelines and present them to her, have her sign them in agreement and then place a copy of both the letter and signed outline in her employee file.
If she fails to do those expectations you could legally fire her for not doing her job as specified in the outline, and it would most likely be seen as a legitimate firing instead of discrimination over her pregnancy.

Maybe she needs to cut back on her hours in order for her to do her job better.

Approach it a way where you are trying to help her help you- and keep track of every conversation and what what was said and the complaints of the other co-workers, so that if she does end up quiting or being fired you have documentation that regardless of her pregnancy, she was a lousy employee.

If you have an HR department or a contact person where complaints go- talk with them and see what options you have as well.

Answer 4

Well, that depends, whats the job? If its paperpushing there is no reason she cannot do it. If its heavy lifting or hard labor she can't do it. I would contact the local labor board and just see what your rights as an employer are. I HATE women who abuse being pregnant. Pregnant women are not going to break just because the have to do a bit of work! I should know I have 3 children and am 36 weeks, I've yet to break. Like I said check with the labor board and also request a list of what she can and cannot do from her doctor. It may just be you have to keep her until after she comes back from having the baby (I know, it sucks). But I would get rid of her ASAP after she comes back. You have every right as and employer to expect your employees to do the work they were hired to do (with some leeway for pregnancy and medical issues). Good luck!

Answer 5

My daughter who is 24 weeks pregnant was working in customer service at a desk when they found out she was pregnant they changed her job to filing and going out to the plant to bring back orders which weighed over the amount which she was supposed to lift by the way the filing consisted of sitting in the floor and filing or bending over the supervisor would not allow her to sit made her bend over for hours last week she had an uti the supervisor wrote her up for going to the bathroom more than 1 time in an hour period. So its according to what kind of supervisor you are we live in a right to work state and her supervisor threatens her with loosing her job


Make her show a Doctors Request she can't perform those duties or tell her she's fired she is taking advantage of her job and you

Answer 6

Contact your company's attorney to see if she/he has suggestions. If your company does not have an attorney, contact the local employment commission. They are there to help businesses and individuals. Make sure that you explain everything that has been going on.

If you wish to fire this employee, ask the other employees (especially her supervisor) write letters to explain her behavior toward them. This will give you "proof" of her behavior in case she decides to file a suit claiming that she was unjustly fired.

If you don't want to fire her, make a recording of her. Sometimes, hearing the way you sound from the outside gets the point across.

One thing that you need to be careful of is the actual existance of medical conditions associated with the pregnancy. If she is indeed having problems, then she needs to be on temporary medical leave rather than getting paid to do nothing and taking out her emotions on others.

I wish you all the best.

Answer 7

I would tell her that the only way she can get out of work is with a doctors note. Thats what they require at my work place, and if i wasn't preforming they would ask me to leave. It doesn't matter if you are pregnant or not, if you are not doing your job, you shouldn't be there. If she were acting this way and not pregnant, you would fire her, right? So, document her behavior and tell her that if she doesn't change her attitude there won't be a place there for her anymore. If she tries to file a claim, you can have the documentation and also lack of doctor's note to help. It is ridiculous when people use that as an excuse, unless they are too big to function normally!

Answer 8

Being pregnant is not an excuse for not doing her job. It doesn't give you a free pass for 9 months. You should check with a legal facility and find out the proper way to deal with her, there should be a way to repremand her properly with out jepordizing a lawsuit.

If there's nothing dangerous you are asking her to do, she should still be able to do her job. If there's an issue with what you are asking and it's too strenus (ect) she should get a note from her doctor and she should be provided with an alternate job through out her pregnancy. If there's nothing dangerous she's doing, I'd pursue the legal aspects with a law facility.

Answer 9

I'm not 100% sure but i think if you Give her a written warning this time on bad behave this should cover your back. and you will be able to sack her. say to her that if she gets three written warnings for her bad behaver, you have all the right to take things further. keep copies of you letters you send her. state in them what she has been doing wrong. and what are warning her about. eg.. being rude to other members of staff. You have covered your back and if she takes things to a tribunal you have stated why she is being given her card. Go to citizens bureo. there normally in the library. Good luck!

Answer 10

Start making note of everything. If she is so ill that she can't do her job, then she needs to show a letter from the doctor and take a leave of absence. I went through two pregnancies and there are many other women out there that do everyday and still go on with their everyday activities.This is not fare to you or the other employees.