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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

#111

Post by MrBuddyCasino »

mattrp wrote: post #56

>> “Eight weeks of paid leave includes up to two weeks prior to the birth and assumes a normal vaginal delivery,” an HR representative said write to Jennifer I bet if most companies simply got rid of the HR departments altogether, not only would inhumane and repulsive policies like the above not exist, I bet most employees would be happier and more productive.

Some of the worst people I ever had the misfortune to interact with were in HR, and I'm 100% sure it wasn't just because their were the executors of company policy. There were great ones too of course, but I feel it attracts a certain personality type.

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

#112

Post by aaron695 »

Should a mother who's 5 year old child dies get Maternity leave?

It's pathetic how people are competing on grief in this Facebook generation.

She should have time to physically recover from the birth then bereavement leave like everyone else.

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

#113

Post by egdod »

dominicr wrote: post #110
egdod wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if Donald Trump recently started making some new claim about an event that happened decades ago. Imagine CNN dug up the only historical records that exist, and they directly contradicted that claim. Would you be this credulous then?

This not a theoretical argument. Trump regularly makes stuff up on the fly when there are multiple records proving the opposite. The White House has to make up 'alternate facts' on a pretty much daily basis to keep up. The results are always the same: his die-hard supports believe him, and reality is altered; his opponents point it out and wonder how anyone can think he's not maniacal; and the Republican party sighs…

I’m not sure how that answers the point I was making.

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

#114

Post by perl4ever »

vecplane wrote: post #76
ttul wrote: 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?

Obvious answer I didn't see from others:

Because hypothetical employers who are actually benevolent are forced to compete with those who aren't, absent regulation? AKA a "race to the bottom".

When corporations send me stuff in writing every day saying that they can only do the minimum mandated by law in respect to any ethical matter, I have to wonder whose opinion it really represents to say that minimum standards aren't necessary.

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

#115

Post by Cenk »

egdod wrote: post #103
Cenk wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Imagine if Donald Trump recently started making some new claim about an event that happened decades ago. Imagine CNN dug up the only historical records that exist, and they directly contradicted that claim. Would you be this credulous then?

If he claimed something happened to him that was known to be widely happening to people like him at the time, something that was the norm in business and was often recorded the way it was recorded in his case to give the people doing it deniability, then yes, I’d believe it.

Of course it’s difficult to give a general answer, and it’d depend on the details of the case.

Perhaps you have a specific example of where Trump was at the tail-end of systematic discrimination in the beginning of his career?

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

#116

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

KaiserPro wrote: post #72
pharrington wrote: post #6

> 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…

My thought exactly. Honestly, I think Informatica should consider firing their entire HR department.

As you say, the entire point of HR is risk management. I hear loads of time on HN about how you can never trust HR because they are only there to protect the company, and while that's true, a lot of the time good HR people realize that the employees' needs and the long-term needs of company are aligned, so they should be working to improve your situation.

In this case, they asked a woman whose baby just died to come back to work over 2 weeks of leave. Did they honestly believe this inhumane act, which would basically guarantee them lots of deservedly shitty press, was worth it over a measly 2 weeks of leave?

Any decent HR person (and, honestly, any decent person in general) would have immediately realized this was an idiotic decision.

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

#118

Post by perl4ever »

brohoolio wrote: post #70
egdod wrote: 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.

If what it says in the link is true, records say her contract was renewed and she says it was not. Then she left a few months later.

It's perfectly plausible that she could have been "constructively discharged" on account of her pregnancy, which morally would amount to the same thing.

But I think based on what is written, either that article or Warren has to be lying about specifics.

As a Democratic primary voter, I'm indifferent to this story, and will probably go with Warren if everyone else does, but if I cared, obviously I would check on the source, no matter how disreputable the publication.

Edit: I reread it a few times and now I think it's just BS framing by the Free Beacon. She had her contract renewed, but she resigned at the end of the school year, I'd assume before the new contract took effect. Probably was told she had to. To assume her story is perfectly consistent, you just have to assume they noticed she was pregnant in those couple of months.

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

#119

Post by harryh »

ttul wrote: 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…

IMHO it would be cheap for companies to simply buy infant life insurance for all employees

Individuals can buy this sort of life insurance for themselves without the help of their employers. Given that it is, as you say, "cheap" there isn't an economic burden either.

Why would we want employers intruding into yet another aspect of individual's lives? We're all well aware of the problems that come from having employers responsible for health insurance.

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

#120

Post by lemmsjid »

bb88 wrote: post #105

So people have been doing this thing called "management" for, what? centuries now? Why in 2017 (the date of this occurence) does management still suck at stuff like this?

I think the problem is that healthcare related stuff shouldn’t even be on management’s plate. Managers and executives are usually not qualified to decide what is good healthcare, but are forced to make decisions anyhow. Healthcare should be managed at the societal level.
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