Thank you very much for your advice. I really appreciate it. I will contact Citizen’s Advice.

All the best!

Hi there,

I’m sorry to hear you’re facing this situation. No one should ever be made to feel uncomfortable at work.

The first thing I’ll flag up is that asking someone when they’re having a baby is highly inappropriate, particularly in the context you’ve described. It could lead to you facing discrimination, as it’s against the law to treat someone unfairly based on maternity and pregnancy. Furthermore, sexual harassment is still considered sexual harassment even if it’s not directed at you. So the comments you’re hearing are still considered harassment and you’re completely within your rights to do something about it.

It’s unfortunate that you don’t have a HR department to report this to, so I understand your anxiety about addressing it. I cannot give much more advice beyond suggesting that you contact Citizen’s Advice or ACAS, who have further information on your rights and have contact lines for you to use, where they can advise you more on your specific situation.

Here are a couple of links to the Citizen’s Advice and ACAS pages about harassment, including sexual harassment.
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/work/discrimination-at-work/what-are-the-different-types-of-discrimination/harassment-at-work/
http://www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=6078

Here is a link to Citizen’s Advice’s contact page:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/contact-us/contact-us/

I really hope this helps – best of luck to you.

Liz

The co-director of the small company I work for has asked me when I am having a baby (I had not been and would never think of discussing that topic with any co-workers, let alone someone who has a direct impact on the jobs I do and potential promotions).

On another occasion, when another colleague who was on maternity leave came in to show us her baby, the co-director said ‘Keep it away from the girls, they’ll start brooding’.

On several other occasions, I have heard him make very sexual comments about women generally. I understand that these comments are not directed towards me, however I feel very uncomfortable listening to them.

As the company is small, we do not have an HR department, and the method of complaint is to speak to the other co-director. I have not yet done this, as I am apprehensive that the other director will pull ranks and side with the other director. Also, it may make working with the original co-director much more difficult. Any advice would be helpful.