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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

#91
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?

It is reasonable, but reasonable employers for the most part don't exist. That's why we have laws establishing a minimum wage, nondiscrimination, paying out PTO in California, and the FMLA act which gives us parental leave in the first place.

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

#92

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.

I'm in the US and a coworker came to work the next day after giving birth. There is no time allotted for maternity leave and she had already used her vacation time at the beginning of the year before she was pregnant. I was at a charity event with the CEO and he was laughing about it saying."she was born to breed."

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

#93

She got six weeks instead of eight. How dare they. She could've applied for more days based on her psychological state. Also how dare they not pay her commissions earned by her team while she was away. I think the tone is all wrong here. Economically, it makes sense to "discriminate" against pregnant women, so the discussion should be more "Here's why you shouldn't do it" and less "How dare you do it!". Just my $0.02…

Economically it can be a good choice to kill someone. We still respond with "how dare you".

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

#94

> 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 th…

I have nothing (to my knowledge) but my opinion on this, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that a majority of people just lack empathy.

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

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Because of cases like this article. Evidently this woman's employer does not have the insight to behave like decent human beings and needs to be forced. Your argument can be turned on just about any labor law. "It may be reasonable for a company to do this, but why should they be forced?" The answer is without reasonable minimum standards, some people will exploit their employees.

That doesn’t speak to why the employer should do this rather than government.

When employers provide this social good they will inevitably call some of the shots; why should their voice have influence on this matter?

To me, this is similar to the public coming to the feeling that digital public spaces are worthy, but then the conversation turns to whether Facebook should be the one doing it...

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

#97
post #37
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…

>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. This shouldn't be limited to losing a newborn child. Losing a child at any stage of life is devastating.

child, spouse, parent and sibling should be covered, imo.

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

#98

Name and shame everyone in the chain of command here so an indelible record of their actions is left on the internet. Really the only acceptable solution.

I think this is a particularly bad way of dealing with problems. We have trials, laws and regulations for a reason; causing permanent effects on people's lives based on a single article is wrong in my opinion.

I'm saying this while also thinking that what the company did (according to the article) is despicable and insensitive.

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

#99
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Compared to the UK the social security system in the USA is fairly generous so if that is affordable so would be maternity leave.

Are you including the NHS in that comparison?

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

#100
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…

My understanding is it was very common for teachers to be fired/contracts not renewed as soon as they announced they were pregnant. Not sure why you think a link to a site like freebeacon backs you up. I understand that people might not like her policies, but this stuff is clearly targeted swift boating. It doesn’t add to to the discussion.

I think a link to the historical record backs me up.
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