Finding out you’re pregnant while working can be stressful enough without dealing with unfair treatment from your employer. Unfortunately, pregnancy discrimination happens more often than most people realize, and it doesn’t always look the way you’d expect.

If you notice these red flags, your employer might be violating your rights. Consider speaking with a pregnancy discrimination attorney in San Diego to understand your legal options.

1. Sudden Performance Complaints

Your reviews were always stellar. Now, right after you announce your pregnancy, your boss finds problems everywhere. This timing isn’t coincidental. Employers often manufacture performance issues to justify firing pregnant workers.

2. Denied Reasonable Accommodations

You ask for a chair because standing hurts your back. Your manager says no. You request more bathroom breaks. They refuse. California law requires employers to provide reasonable pregnancy accommodations. Denial often signals discrimination.

3. Excluded from Meetings or Projects

Your team stops inviting you to important meetings. They assign your major projects to other colleagues. Management assumes you won’t return after maternity leave, so they push you out early. This exclusion counts as discrimination.

4. Pressure to Quit

Your supervisor hints that you should focus on family or suggests the job might be too demanding now. They make comments about how difficult it will be to balance work and motherhood. These aren’t helpful observations; they’re push factors designed to make you quit.

5. Reduced Hours or Responsibilities

You worked full-time before. Now they cut your schedule without explanation. Or they strip away your meaningful work and give you busywork instead. Employers can’t demote pregnant workers or reduce their roles simply because of pregnancy.

6. Hostile Comments from Coworkers or Management

Comments about your pregnancy, body, or capabilities create a hostile work environment. Even jokes count. If management knows about harassment and does nothing, the company shares liability.

7. Denied Promotion Opportunities

A promotion opens up, and you’re the most qualified candidate. But they give it to someone else and mention your pregnancy or upcoming leave. Employers can’t deny advancement opportunities based on pregnancy.

8. Threats to Job Security

Your boss makes vague threats about restructuring or mentions how the company can’t guarantee your position when you return. These intimidation tactics often precede illegal termination.

9. Forced to Use Vacation Time for Medical Appointments

Pregnancy requires prenatal appointments. Your employer demands that you use vacation days for these necessary medical visits instead of sick time. Or they refuse to let you attend appointments at all. California law protects your right to prenatal care.

10. Immediate Termination After Announcing Pregnancy

You share your news on Monday, and they fire you by Friday. They claim budget cuts or position elimination, but the timing tells the real story. Courts recognize this pattern as discrimination and wrongful termination.

What to Do Next

Document everything. Save emails, texts, and performance reviews. Write down conversations with dates and witnesses. Take photos of denied accommodation requests.

Don’t wait too long. California law sets strict deadlines for filing discrimination claims. The sooner you act, the stronger your case becomes.

Your employer broke the law if they treated you unfairly because of your pregnancy. You have rights, you deserve respect, and you can fight back.

Many pregnancy discrimination cases settle before trial. Employers know when they’ve violated the law. A strong legal demand often produces results. Trust your instincts. If something feels wrong, it probably is.