Boss Slammed for Giving Pregnant Employee Only One Week Maternity Leave
A boss was dragged on Reddit after it was alleged that they only offered a heavily pregnant employee a week of maternity leave.
Reddit user Little_Rip1193 shared the story on the platform's antiwork group. They claimed that their 8-month-pregnant fiancé was denied maternity leave by her employer and that she found out upon seeing her name on the upcoming schedule.
The pregnant woman messaged her boss, who claimed that her leave request was filed on "such short notice that HR and management was unable to find coverage." They added that it wasn't approved and never had been.
When the woman pointed out that she put her request in three months before she was due, the employer implied it wasn't enough time.
"The request should have been made the moment you found out so as not to leave us without enough coverage," they wrote. "Have you thought about the rest of the team and how this will affect them?"
They then offered to try and work something out but claimed that it would likely amount to only a week off. That offer was not remotely impressive, and the employee said as much.
In fact, she wrote that she'd get in touch with HR and would begin leave effective immediately. At that point, the seemingly panicked boss urged their employee not to be "rash."
Many users rushed to comment on the thread. They all voiced their support for the pregnant employee and dragged the boss for their poor handling of the situation.
"You have to love the attempt to backpedal when they realize they might be on the hook for something," one Reddit user pointed out. Another agreed and wrote that the boss might have not even tried to find coverage.
Others pointed out that the employer wanted to finish the conversation on a call, which would have limited the ability to collect evidence of what was said.
"I'm thinking the 'big bad boss' routine may not go well for the big a-- boss," another user opined.
"Always makes me smile when I see 'don't be so rash' in these conversations," someone commented. "So satisfying to see them scramble when someone pushes back because ultimately the manager knows they're in the wrong and just hoping OP would fold. The last message is basically the corporate 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry, please don't tell mom.'"
The original poster has since been suspended on Reddit. Newsweek attempted to reach out for comment, but it is unclear if they were successful.
Although it was not specifically stated where the original poster lived, BBC noted that America does not guarantee paid leave after a child is born. Only 21% of Americans have guaranteed access to leave via their job, according to the publication.