Told my company I was pregnant, then laid off 2 weeks later

[pirate1974]

Yup, it's true. I told my company i was pregnant and we had lay offs 2 weeks later and guess who they cut? The easy target! The pregnant lady who bills over 60 hours a week and gets praised by clients and who had a great performance review. Suspect? 100%! Anything I can do about it? NOPE!!!! turns out since I have no proof that they tossed me on the list bc I was pregnant, I'm totally out of luck. So my lesson to share, do not tell your company you are pregnant.

Sadly, when i went to share my outrage with other friends, they were like "a similar thing happened to me and a bunch of friends i have..." turns out pregnant women are not protected and employers do not care. This is especially important if you're working for woman who doesn't have kids. She doesn't get why you could possibly need health insurance or an income.

 

[Fruitee]

Oh my goodness that's shocking!! So sorry that happened to you

 

[Nikki1979]

I am so sorry Pirate. The same thing happened to my SIL. She got laid off three weeks after her company found out she was pregnant.

 

[calm]

I am sorry to read that Where I live (Spain) they make it really hard to fire pregnant women, its awful that they can do that to you, disgusting!

 

[MamaLa]

Oh my goodness. That's crazy. How far along are you? Smh that's ridiculous. How many got laid off? Did you know lay offs were coming, well I'm assuming that you were completely blind sided


Of course I have to play devils advocate did they maybe lay you off because you're some of the highest paid staff and they found people to work for way less?

 

[Nina83]

Wow, where do you live?! Here it's illegal to fire a pregnant woman, even if your boss hasn't found out yet. If they do you they can expect a big fat case against them and 99% of the time they loose.
It doesn't matter the reason- you're just not allowed to do it!

I am so sorry, that's such a horrible thing to do. Is there something you could do about it? An organization that helps with things like this?

 

[RaspberryK]

That's awful in UK it's illegal, I took my old company to tribunal as they selected me for redundancy without following procedure and they settled out of court for 6k
Xx

 

[ajlj1126]

I feel your outrage. Same thing happened to me with DD. I was working through a temp agency and was promised they would hire me since I was doing great and everyone there loved me. 90 days comes and goes, no hire, and I ended up working there for over a year as a temp. I was told they were going to hire me in May 2013, they had all the paperwork ready for me to sign. They found out (I made SURE not to tell them or make it obvious in any way) that I was pregnant in March and 3 days later they told me that I was no longer needed at the company. They didn't even give me any notice, they asked me to pack up and leave THAT DAY. It was humiliating. I'm sorry you're going through this. I had no case against them at all because as a temp they can let you go any time.

 

[sandilion]

Absolutely appalling!! I don't think they can get away with that as much over here in Aus. So it rarely happens here.

So sorry that happened to you! Pricks!