Contractor - unexpectantly pregnant

[vetran]

sign up for permie before you 'Know' you are pregnant.

Take the maternity leave

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...-pay-and-leave

sign up to return, then decide when you have the baby.

Possibly immoral but the cash is handy as is the job to go back to.

Worst case they catch on and don't offer you the permie job.

Medium case they keep you on and you can work from home plus you get 90% of salary for six weeks then £140 a week.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...-pay-and-leave

Best case they illegally dismiss you and your employer pays for Babie's first birthday.

sorry no friends in business.

[chopper]

In terms of childcare, most nurseries open around 7:30am and close at say 5:30/6:00pm (#1's nursery closed at 6pm and cost £40 a day; #2's childminder finished at 5:30 and cost £25 a day - these are Northern prices). This doesn't work particularly well if you have an 80 minute commute and a full day's work in the middle of that. And then when do you see your child? You pick them up, the fall asleep in the car on the way home, shove them into bed, see them again in the morning to get them back to nursery.

Kids get ill. All. The. Damn. Time. Especially once they start nursery, it's like a conveyor belt of disease. They catch a cold before the last cold has even finished. And nurserys/childminders wont let you bring your kid in if they're actually being sick (sometimes 48 hours after the last vomit) or have diarrhea/conjunctivitis or similar. So then what? Do you think you would actually be able to WFH with a poorly child at home? Or even worse, a completely well child? And of course they do expect you to drop everything and come and collect your suddenly unwell child?

And kids don't sleep. Or rather than have this amazing ability to sleep but still manage to keep you up, like crying in their sleep. They can lull you into a false sense of security by making you think they're sleeping through then suddenly - lots of waking up in the night again. And this isn't confined to the first 12 months. How will an 80 minute drive feel after being woken every half hour through the night for a teething child? I've bumped my car at a roundabout after an especially tulipty night's sleep of crying baby.

(Top tip for teething: Anbesol, Ashton & Parsons Teething Powder, and Calpol).

You're also making an assumption that your pregnancy will go swimmingly. SWMBO suffered bad sciatica with all her pregnancies and with the last one had Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction which basically left her unable to move much and so she ended up finishing work 8 weeks before the due date.

I work from home 5 days a week, #3 (8 months old) starts at the childminder next week and SWMBO goes back to work in a couple of weeks. But as it stands, I couldn't take a new contract with a nightmare commute at the moment unless as an absolute last resort. Sympathy tokens from employers/clients can run out very very quickly.

Should you go perm? If you tell them you are pregnant and an offer remains on the table then why not. If you don't tell them and they work out you've diddled them on this, then expect to be first on the redundancy chopping block after baby is born and before two years is up. Work for contractor money up until at late as possible, then take maternity leave through your Ltd Co (the government will reimburse you for your statutory maternity pay for 9 months if you have been taking a basic PAYE salary) which helps. A lot. Then work out where you are after that time.

[vetran]

like Nick, Ian, Nigel & Majid.


Great presenters.

[SueEllen]

like Nick, Ian, Nigel & Majid.


Great presenters.

Nigel is a tosser.

[Hairlocks]

sign up for permie before you 'Know' you are pregnant.

Take the maternity leave

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...-pay-and-leave

sign up to return, then decide when you have the baby.

Possibly immoral but the cash is handy as is the job to go back to.

Worst case they catch on and don't offer you the permie job.

Medium case they keep you on and you can work from home plus you get 90% of salary for six weeks then £140 a week.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...-pay-and-leave

Best case they illegally dismiss you and your employer pays for Babie's first birthday.

sorry no friends in business.

I agree with vetran

You don't need to tell them you are pregnant until 15 weeks before due date, so you have lots of time. so my advice is.

Take permanent offer, (I have been at companies that have employed women that knew they were pregnant during the interview, and you are not allowed to ask/try to find out.

negotiate working conditions before you go back after maternity leave. Or you just go back to contracting

You say your husbands work is not flexible, why? They have to legally consider a request for flexible working if permanent. If he is a contractor then maybe he should look for a new contract.

I will say you do not know what it is like with children. This clip will give you and idea you don't know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFQfylQ2Jgg

[northernladyuk]

I agree with vetran

You don't need to tell them you are pregnant until 15 weeks before due date, so you have lots of time. so my advice is.

Take permanent offer, (I have been at companies that have employed women that knew they were pregnant during the interview, and you are not allowed to ask/try to find out.

negotiate working conditions before you go back after maternity leave. Or you just go back to contracting

You say your husbands work is not flexible, why? They have to legally consider a request for flexible working if permanent. If he is a contractor then maybe he should look for a new contract.

I will say you do not know what it is like with children. This clip will give you and idea you don't know.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uFQfylQ2Jgg

They do have to legally consider a request and can then reject it. It really is there so that you can't be disadvantaged for asking.

[lukemg]

I can see from the range of advice that this is a tricky one.
My gut feeling is to be honest with the boss but I would also expect him to cut you loose when you leave to have the kid AND possibly sooner if he can slot someone else in, that's just the way people are.
Also - how big is the place ? small consultancy - you are screwing them over really and going to leave them short, they will take this very personally. Massive multi-national - this will be a minor bump in the road.
They will know you knew at the time when you accepted the offer but if you can front it out, take the perm offer and act surprised later...
Feel free to be selfish, companies dont give a toss about you and will clear you out for any number of reasons.
Rule still holds - If you are likely to have bouts of sickness or pregnancy, perm tends to work best.

[london17]

sign up for permie before you 'Know' you are pregnant.

Take the maternity leave

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...-pay-and-leave

sign up to return, then decide when you have the baby.

Possibly immoral but the cash is handy as is the job to go back to.

Worst case they catch on and don't offer you the permie job.

Medium case they keep you on and you can work from home plus you get 90% of salary for six weeks then £140 a week.

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.u...-pay-and-leave

Best case they illegally dismiss you and your employer pays for Babie's first birthday.
sorry no friends in business.

Thanks for the advise!!

Well things escalated today and my boss said he needed to move me off day rate to FTE ASAP as they couldn’t justify keeping my day rate against a stopped project but could offer me a full time position in the department. A bit strange but it is what it is.
Anyway I was stuck...we went for lunch and I said yes I would like to keep working ‘for you and the company’ - he talked benefits and I talked base salary. He thinks he can have final paperwork done and dusted in 2-3 weeksst which at that point I’ll be 12-13 weeks.
I will loose the job if I don’t take the FTE and we need the money.
I am a little pissed with him as I left a gr8 contract with lots of extension scope (awful commute - up the country - overnight but 2 days work from Home) to go with him on the basis of 3-4 mths contract and then discuss FTE. I’m in the door weeks! he is lovely, genuinely but a little green when it comes to HR stuff so I am not surprised he has made these f**k ups and believe me they are unintentional

tulip situation to be honest...
Re maternity pay - I haven’t seen the T&Cs yet but legally I need to Have worked for employer for 26 weeks when you reach the 15th week before your due date to get 90% for 6 weeks. I would be fairly sure there T&C would have a similar clause. So no 90% for 6 weeks.

[northernladuk]

I am a little pissed with him .

Just imagine how pissed he is going to be when you sign and then tell him you are pregnant then.

Bearing in mind they have a budget for perm would it not be possible to point out your are pregnant and will be leaving in x number of weeks. They would save money paying you as a contractor for the period than they would sticking you as an FTE that isn't going to be around much and they have to continue employing you after? Might be a short term hit on the contract budget with a finite end rather than a long term FTE head who won't even be around in the short term future? Too risky maybe?

[london17]

Thanks for all the advise!!

Well things escalated today and my boss said he needed to move me off day rate to FTE ASAP as they couldn’t justify keeping my day rate against a stopped project but could offer me a full time position in the department. A bit strange but it is what it is.
Anyway I was stuck...we sat down and I said yes I would like to keep working ‘for you and the company’ - he talked benefits and I talked base salary. He thinks he can have final paperwork done and dusted in 2-3 weeks which at that point I’ll be 12-13 weeks.
I will loose the job if I don’t take the FTE and we need the money!

I am a little pissed with him as I left a gr8 contract with lots of extension scope and gr8 people (awful commute - up the country - overnight but 2 days work from Home) to go with him on the basis of 3-4 mths contract and then discuss FTE.
I’m in the door weeks!!
I do enjoy working with him, I’m well protected, he trusts me and I knew it would be fun.
! he is lovely, genuinely but a little green when it comes to HR stuff so I am not surprised he has made these f**k ups and believe me they are unintentional

Re maternity pay - I haven’t seen the T&Cs yet but legally I need to Have worked for employer for 26 weeks when you reach the 15th week before your due date to get 90% for 6 weeks. I would be fairly sure there T&C would have a similar clause. So no 90% for 6 weeks.