hi all- I was hoping to get some insight/advice from anyone who might have gone through or knew someone in a similar position. I was just fired from my job last week, at 6 months pregnant. I worked for a very small company and they told me it was due to work performance. I told them I was pregnant mid July at around 4.5 months pregnant. Before that, I had never received negative feedback due to my work - but after I told them, my boss lashed out at me on a couple occasions. I never received a negative performance review or anything in the form of a warning... But She did send me a couple nasty emails regarding my "misunderstanding" of a task, or critizising my work.. But only 2 or 3 times, and for very trivial items. Hardly worth firing anyone over (in my opinion..) but nonetheless I was terminated and offered no severance package. I had a yearly bonus coming up in January that I won't receive either.. I am wondering if it is worth fighting in court or if it's just too difficult to prove discrimination. Thanks for reading and any advice or insight you can provide.
Re: Was just fired from my job
People suck. If you know any friends or family who are lawyers I'd get their opinion. It's just reallll funny how they started treating you like this after you told them you were pregnant.
Edit - where do you live by the way? I'm a lawyer but I do transactional work so I am completely clueless, but my husband is a litigator and if you are in the NY, NJ or MA area I could send you some recommendations for employment attorneys.
So I've been feeling a little discriminated against here lately as well.
Here's to going on maternity leave in less than two months!
Just based on the little bit I gather from your post, it definitely sounds worth getting a consultation at least. I don't know whether or not you have a good case, because I don't have enough facts, I don't know the law in your state, and I'm not an employment law attorney, but I wouldn't be surprised if you do.
I would talk to someone in the legal field and if you can keep those emails and write down EVERYTHING. In the meantime I would reach out to your local state rep to see if they can help you with filing for unemployment.
*Full pay until the date I told them that I planned to take maternity leave.
*A portion of my maternity leave
*Extended healthcare benefits
*and noted that I had the right to add or amend my claim against them at any time.
It is very serious to fire a pregnant woman and if they didn't follow proper procedure they are in BIG TROUBLE.
I do agree that disciplinary anything will be used, though. Meetings, emails, instant messages and similar can all be considered disciplinary. People can be really oblivious to when they are on thin ice so OP may have been receiving warnings without realizing it.
If you have any questions. It's such a pain :-(