Being Made Redundant...During Pregnancy

Don't get me wrong, redundancy sucks regardless of pregnancy status. However, it hits that little bit harder when you're carrying a child.

For context, the day began as normal – the cat was trying to steal my breakfast, whilst I was working remotely on a new project for the company's GTM team. That afternoon, I received a meeting invite – another ‘Company Update.’

That was never good news. In the organisation I worked for, that generally meant someone was being laid off. ‘It won’t be us, ’ I told myself. We were a good team, we were needed, and we seemed to be reasonably well-liked by leadership. However, as soon as I joined the call, HR appeared, and so did the CEO.

That’s when I realised it was us.

‘Due to a lack of economic growth’ was the reason all 8 of us in that meeting had been selected for a redundancy pool. We were told ‘nothing was official yet’, but I knew this was not true. During that call, I let the tears roll down my face, as my first thought immediately sprang to my unborn child – how was I going to support him without a job? I was originally offered a generous maternity package, nursery incentives and the prospect of having a job to come back to when I chose to return. None of that was going to happen now. I always enforced a rule to myself never to cry at work, and I never did up until this day. It was bad enough that pregnancy comes with a rollercoaster of emotions, hormone fluctuations and a new set of worries at each milestone. Now I had one more thing to worry about.

We were told there would be more updates to come on Friday (it was Monday now). The next day was just as bad. We all gathered for our usual ‘Team Thrive Daily’ group call. Team Thrive? I don’t think anyone was thriving at this point. Everyone in that meeting looked miserable - I could tell they were all at the end of their tether.

Friday finally rolled around, and this had been the most excruciatingly painful and slow week of my life. I didn’t know what to do. Do I carry on working or not? Most of the week was filled by me pacing up and down the living room, or walking to my nearest Tesco to stock up on comfort food, as my anxiety levels were at an all-time high. Finally, I received that dreaded call from HR. It was official – I was being laid off. Alongside everyone else on my team, bar one person, they had decided to keep on. There it was – I was no longer needed, and I was perfectly aware that no other business would employ me, given the fact that I was heavily pregnant. I was put on Garden Leave for the next month, and the day that finished was the day my maternity leave was supposed to start. Unfortunately, it was going to look a little different to how I originally imagined...