Boss Asks If They Are Wrong For Firing An Employee After She Came Back From Maternity Leave

Pregnancy can be exhausting.

Not only are you growing another human being in your body, but you must also take time off from work if you work. As a result, many companies provide maternity leave. While not every company provides nine months of paid leave, some do, which is always a good idea. Anyone who has ever been pregnant understands how difficult it can be to deal with mood swings, physical changes, nausea, and other symptoms while also working eight hours a day. That is why laws exist to ensure that employees do not get the short end of the stick.

For example, maternity leave cannot be used to fire someone. That is simply discrimination, and there is no way to disguise it. Now, I’m not going to pretend that a person with specialised knowledge leaving for a few months isn’t difficult for the rest of the team, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have a child because they also need to work. If this were true, no single mother could ever work and have a child. However, OP appears to believe he can dress it up and make it appear as if he isn’t taking sides.

You can read the entire story by scrolling down below.

Source: Reddit

This is a more complicated situation than it may seem at first glance.

It is clear that he feels quite bad about the whole issue as well.

Jess got pregnant so she was granted maternity leave.

After she left, the rest of the team learned some new skills so they could cover her workload as well.

So they also hired someone new who is paid much less than Jess.

OP thought things would be okay once Jess came back.

However, that was far from the truth.

As the company now wants him to fire one person.

He didn’t think this would happen but he ended up firing Jess.

These two are basically why she was on maternity leave disguised as valid-sounding reasons.

The last one sounds like valid criticism but I am not sure.

To be fair to him, it is not all his fault either.

That is why he asked Reddit as to whether he did the right thing.

To be fair, I sympathise with him. He obviously didn’t see it coming. And he had no intention of firing either of the team members. I also believe it is a lose-lose situation because if she is not fired, the other guy will be. However, all of the reasons he mentioned, with the exception of one, are essentially disguised as ‘she went on maternity leave’. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were sued. After all, she doesn’t know the client because she was on maternity leave, and the new guy was hired because she was on maternity leave as well. All of this is due to her being on maternity leave.

He may feel bad but this person is right.

Most of the reasons are pretty clearly this but not all.

What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you believe he is being discriminatory? Or do you believe he is in a difficult situation and is unable to find a solution that will satisfy everyone? What would you do if you had to choose between these two people in this situation? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to share this story with your friends so they can join in the discussion as well.