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1st Trimester
Work Troubles.. (kind of a long rant)
Hey everyone! Just wanted to vent a little about work! I have a pretty physical job, so my doctor told me that I should tell my employer sooner rather than later to make sure that I wasnt trying to do too much. So following that advice, I told my boss that I was pregnant when I was 5 weeks. I thought that this was going to be no big deal, because I work only with 9 other girls, and then my boss.
I told him that the reason that I was telling him was to make sure that I could still be the best worker that I could be for him without doing too much or doing something that could hurt my baby. I have worked there for a year, and always pull extra shifts when we're short etc. Anyway, he acted strange about it right then, and didnt really have anything to say.
Since then things have gotten progressively worse. He has started to schedule me the worst hours and all weekends, and has been asking me to do things that just blow me away. The week after I told him that I was pregnant, he told me that he wanted me to clean the bathrooms thoroughly with bleach. Our bathrooms are very small and unventilated, and also the doors dont even stay open. I told him that I couldnt do it because it wasnt safe for me to breathe all that bleach in with the baby, and all he said was, "you can figure out a way to block the door open or something." =(
I didnt clean the bathroom. I told the female manager on duty and she said that there was no way that she was going to have me do that, and she couldnt believe that he insisted that I do it, when there were 3 other girls there.
Then after we all talked about that incident, yesterday he asked me to do the outside garbage. It is one of the huge industrial cans that weigh like 50 to 60 pounds. I thought that I was going to bawl. I again had to explain why I couldnt do it, and then he just acted annoyed. He went outside and did it, and I could see through the window that it was so heavy that he couldnt pull it out, and a customer walking up helped him. How could he expect the pregnant girl to do it?
.... I just wanted to know if you guys had any advice. I could see being treated like this if I was a slacker worker to begin with and started to use my pg as an excuse, but that is definitely not the case. But I REFUSE to do anything that is going to harm my baby. Thanks for listening.
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Re: Work Troubles.. (kind of a long rant)
I'm in the military and my job can be a bit physical as well. We have rules as to what pregnant women can/cannot do. Do you work for a small, privately owned company? Or is it a larger one? I'm just wondering if you could look into any company policies?
Good luck!
I hate to sound so cynical and paranoid but...
Sounds to me like he's trying to come up with jobs for you that you can't do so that he has grounds to fire you. He can't let you go because you're pregnant, but if he can prove that you are physically unable to do the job requirements, he MIGHT be able to do it then. Or by scheduling you the worst shifts and asking you to do those things, maybe he hopes you'll quit.
I really hope that's not the case, but I don't know why else someone would suddenly start doing that. But then again, I may just be the paranoid type. =(
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This has possibilities. However, I think this is illegal. Pregnancy is considered a protected status, and changing her job duties/shifts in this manner is discrimination against a protected status. The law doesn't just cover firing her for it. OP, this is one is hard to prove, but I'd keep a documented record of everything just in case.
I work for Aldi, the grocery store.. I dont know if any of you guys have one near you or shope there, but the 10 employees that work that do absolutely everything. Stocking cleaning, register, etc. We are supposed to be extremely fast and efficient at everything and usually when Im at the register Im ringing 52 items per minute, and I can pull the whole stores empty cardboard in 2 hours... thats why I say that I know that I am a good employee..
And I was worried that he was trying to do something like that to fire me, and thats why I wanted to see what you guys thought or if there was anything that I could do?
It really upsets me because I am doing everything else except for the excessive things that hes asking of me, but I agree.. I tend to feel like hes doing it on purpise to make me look like I am incapable of doing my job. =( Its totally not right.
Let me add something here. This happened to me when I was pregnant with my 2nd baby. I was working for a small pediatric office (yeah the irony) and I had just had an excellent review after working for six months with the office. One week later I told my boss that I was pregnant and he said and I quote," I don't know what we are going to do we've never had a pregnant lady in our staff before." Two weeks later I missed four days of work due to bleeding and fatigue. I had a Dr.'s note from my OBGYN and the Dr. that I worked for called me up and told me that they would not be needing my services any longer, that it just was not going to work out. I went and filed unemployment and talked to one of the workers in unemployment about filing a suit against them. I was informed at that time that Texas is a "Right to Work State" and that nothing could be done. Where ever you are, make sure that you don't have the same guidelines.
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