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Engineer Says Software Firm Cut Her Maternity Leave Short After Her Baby Died

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Re: Engineer Says Software Firm Cut Her Maternity Leave Short After Her Baby Died

#72

> In an email reviewed by Motherboard, an HR representative told Jennifer, “your situation could never be planned for so would never be communicated,” and “all normal situations don’t fit your situation.” Jennifer was told that because she couldn't plan for the tragedy, Informatica would renege its promises. Perhaps Informatica should plan a bit more about what happens when you have incoherent policies and treat huma…

I still don't understand how this is going to result in anything positive for the company.

the whole point of an HR department is to stop anything developing that could cause productivity issues for a company.

Cutting the leave short for because someone's child dies shows a stunning lack of empathy or understanding of wider consequences for staff and company.

If I had found out that my company had pulled shit like that, then there would be hell to pay.

what kind of emotional vacuum do these people live in?

Re: Engineer Says Software Firm Cut Her Maternity Leave Short After Her Baby Died

#73
post #69
post #61

> Since Elizabeth Warren shared in a campaign video on October 9 that after becoming pregnant in 1971, she was pushed out of a teaching position—many women have spoken out on social media saying they’ve been denied promotions, fired, and retaliated against for their pregnancies. I’m sure most of those stories are true. Elizabeth Warren’s, however, was a lie.[1] [1] https://freebeacon.com/politics/county-records-contr…

A careful reading of that link does not support "a lie". Or another: https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2019/oct/09... It certainly is easy enough to generate a reason acceptable to external monitors to get rid of a person. I have done this myself, and would do it again. In fact I don't think I've ever worked anywhere over the last 40 years where this is not the default approach. CYA is a thing, and alw…

Both of those articles seem to extremely clearly support the idea that Warren was not fired or refused a job extension as a result of pregnancy.

We could speculate about unrecorded behavior. What proof do we have? Warren says one thing and written records literally contradict it. If Warren’s version is to be believed, it seems obvious it would require significant evidence to contradict the meeting minutes and her own earlier quotes about graduate courses.

Re: Engineer Says Software Firm Cut Her Maternity Leave Short After Her Baby Died

#74

Well this may be a controversial stance, but her baby passed at birth. There was no maternity leave to take any more. What there was to take maybe was a bereavement leave.

Maybe it will help for me to pass on how it was explained to me, as the father. Maternity leave is for recovering from the trauma of birth, and for taking care of the baby. Paternity leave is for helping the mother through the trauma, and of taking care of the baby. Unless it goes very smoothly, the mother had her body ripped apart and is also in a precarious mental state (postpartum depression, etc). Combine that with losing the child and you have someone who’s physically and mentally broken and possibly a danger to herself. I can’t even begin to imagine adding any bureaucratic difficulties to that. Ensure the bereaved mother takes her leave and also gets psychological counseling. The non-pregnant parent should also take leave to help the pregnant one recover physically and also to heal Themselves psychologically. Losing a child often destroys a relationship, so they should have space to heal and communicate.

I wish rules like this were simply baked in at the societal level. Having companies manage maternity leave creates misaligned incentives, which are so often the root of abuses.

Re: Engineer Says Software Firm Cut Her Maternity Leave Short After Her Baby Died

#75

Well this may be a controversial stance, but her baby passed at birth. There was no maternity leave to take any more. What there was to take maybe was a bereavement leave.

That's not a controversial stance, it's negligent and ignorant. A mother is a mother in the fullest sense at least months prior to the baby being born, and doesn't stop because of a miscarriage.

Re: Engineer Says Software Firm Cut Her Maternity Leave Short After Her Baby Died

#76
post #8

I had a baby that died. It was an excruciating experience and nobody around us knew what to do or say. From personal experience I can say it should be treated as a grave mental health issue and companies should be forced to provide a great deal of leave to both parents. Whether leave is paid or unpaid, this should be treated in the same way as any disability or health related leave. IMHO it would be cheap for compani…

I can't imagine what it would be like, and I'm terribly sorry that this happened to you.

BUT what's the limiting principle behind 'forcing' companies to provide 'a great deal of leave' for this?

I certainly agree that it's reasonable for an employer to offer bereavement time for the loss of a close family member, but why should this be made into law?

Re: Engineer Says Software Firm Cut Her Maternity Leave Short After Her Baby Died

#77

Her maternity leave was cut from 8 to 6 WEEKS I had to do a double take there, I read it as months first time. How can a woman give birth and be back at work in eight weeks? Six weeks seems impossible baby or not, the recovery time for pregnancy and birth can be many months. If I were a woman living in a society like that I think I’d either not have children or not work at all.

Why is this comment gray?American maternity leave (and prices!) is a joke compared to eg. Europe.

Re: Engineer Says Software Firm Cut Her Maternity Leave Short After Her Baby Died

#78
post #71

It seems a bit insane to me that pregnancy leave is something we Americans mostly leave to the discretion of employers. If we as a society care about it, we should back it up with public dollars and public policy.

It would require taxation and there’s a segment of the population and most corporations who would fight that tooth and nail even if it only cost a small amount in aggregate.

Re: Engineer Says Software Firm Cut Her Maternity Leave Short After Her Baby Died

#79
post #61

> Since Elizabeth Warren shared in a campaign video on October 9 that after becoming pregnant in 1971, she was pushed out of a teaching position—many women have spoken out on social media saying they’ve been denied promotions, fired, and retaliated against for their pregnancies. I’m sure most of those stories are true. Elizabeth Warren’s, however, was a lie.[1] [1] https://freebeacon.com/politics/county-records-contr…

Ridiculous. Of course the official record doesn’t state ”We fired her because she was pregnant“.

Re: Engineer Says Software Firm Cut Her Maternity Leave Short After Her Baby Died

#80

Her maternity leave was cut from 8 to 6 WEEKS I had to do a double take there, I read it as months first time. How can a woman give birth and be back at work in eight weeks? Six weeks seems impossible baby or not, the recovery time for pregnancy and birth can be many months. If I were a woman living in a society like that I think I’d either not have children or not work at all.

Why is this comment gray?American maternity leave (and prices!) is a joke compared to eg. Europe.

Users on this site are predominantly American. Most Europeans would share the sentiment of the parent comment.
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