Pregnancy announcement: a turning point
No law obliges a woman to announce her pregnancy to her employer. On the other hand, once the pregnancy is confirmed, the employer cannot dismiss an employee who is pregnant, during her pregnancy and until 10 weeks after her return from maternity leave.
When Alexandra discovers her pregnancy, she is far from imagining that the announcement to her employers will mark a turning point in her relations with her bosses. Until then the atmosphere was benevolent, says the young woman:
“I tell them a month and a half pregnant, except that I quickly understand that it will bother them. They react quite coldly, they congratulate me but they do not jump for joy. In addition, as I announce it, colleagues pass in the hallway and my directors allow themselves to tell them. I ask that the news not be spread more widely. “
The deterioration of working conditions
According to collective agreements, a pregnant employee may benefit from an arrangement of working time, with additional break times and an arrangement of working conditions if the workloads of the position are not adapted to the state of pregnancy.
No one informed Alexandra that her collective agreement then provided for two thirty-minute breaks per day. Worse, her superiors put her in a smaller office where Alexandra can barely move, put pressure on her, and increase her workload:
“Before pregnancy, I sometimes brought home work, but it was rare. There, they begin to put pressure on me. The tone begins to rise: I am criticized for not being organized, that I should have informed the management if I could not organize myself. I come home late, I work 9-8pm. “
A pregnancy that takes a back seat
This atmosphere prevents Alexandra from enjoying and investing in her pregnancy. She loses confidence in herself and questions herself:
“I don’t fit into my pregnancy. I’m sure my daughter didn’t want to bother. The stomach came out around 7-8 months. I felt like I wasn’t pregnant. “
Until the day when Alexandra’s superiors tell her that she will be replaced by someone on a permanent contract and that when she returns from maternity leave, they will keep the best of the two. Alexandra will then crack:
“At that point, I started to lose my footing: I had a burnout. My partner and my mother pushed me to stop, I was no longer capable of anything. After I left, I got no message from my colleagues to see if I was okay. “
The doctor arrests Alexandra who then begins her maternity leave. The future mother decides to finally devote herself to her pregnancy. Alexandra’s delivery is going well. She decides to look for another job, while she is on maternity leave. A complicated situation to manage but a decision that she does not regret, today fulfilled in her new job:
“Today I found a good job, with nice colleagues. Looking for him during my maternity leave was not easy, but it was unthinkable that I would return to the old one. “
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