Ask a Manager: Employee got pregnant to avoid working on Christmas

[minoanmiss]

My good friend and I are at a stalemate and I was hoping you could help. She’s a pharmacist in a very busy medical clinic, which is open on holidays. During this time of year, she tries to make the schedule as fair as possible to accommodate people’s travel, time with family etc. There are a few employees who do not celebrate Christmas and/or New Year’s, and because they receive double pay, they typically don’t mind working those days. However, there is still some crunching of shifts that just has to be done.


About a month or so ago, she overheard one of her lead techs (who was very pregnant) tell another tech that she’d gotten pregnant on purpose so she’d automatically be off during the holidays…again. This pregnancy is this woman’s second child; her first was born last year, two days after Thanksgiving. She returned to work in late January. This new baby arrived a few days before Thanksgiving, and she’ll probably return from maternity leave around the same time next year. My friend then heard her say something to the affect of “Anna (my friend) screwed me over a couple years ago and I wasn’t going to let that happen again.” Apparently the year before last, they were short staffed and this woman had to work the evening shift on Christmas day. She was paid double and my friend even made food available because she knew that this employee was upset. But she was given a month’s notice that she would be required to work that day.

My friend thinks she should speak to this employee when she returns from maternity leave. I think she should leave it alone. I mean, sure, she could’ve kept that fun fact about her planned pregnancies to herself and it was thoughtless, but I don’t know if it rises to the level of “needs a talking to.” I feel like if there were other issues going on with her performance, then that should definitely be addressed, but my friend is pretty set on speaking with her upon her return. What do you think?

Good lord, no, she shouldn’t say anything to her.

First, I’m skeptical that this woman is truly making her reproductive decisions based on not wanting to work around a holiday, and it’s more likely that the timing just happened to accommodate that. Second, if the comment was 100% sincere, what is your friend going to say — “you need to make reproductive decisions without regard to holiday scheduling”? Of all the things that are none of a manager’s business, an employee’s personal reasons for how she times a pregnancy is high on the list.

Your friend needs to let this go.

Comments

[minoanmiss]

LW: she may be a good friend but she sounds like an awful boss.

LW's friend: *Foghorn Leghorn Voice* It was a JOKE, miss, ah say a joke.

[purlewe]

yeah there is missing information. But also.. I have friends who have told me that they will never EVER do X bc it is on an important day for the rest of their lives.. and I am like.. eh? that day might not be important 5-10-20 yrs from now. But no, they insist DAY IS IMPORTANT. eh? shrug. I don't find anything important enough to lose my shit over anymore.

[ioplokon]

Yeah I'm like Not this time

[minoanmiss]

ahahhaahhahahhahhhhahahha bwee

[feldman]

Even if this was a completely earnest and factual comment*, I still wonder why the boss was eavesdropping on staff conversations about her in the first place? And if said employee feels screwed over, that's a very different discussion that's long overdue.

*No employee is having babies (with a good deal of physical pain and decades of work for each one) just to play hooky with the boss's holiday schedule, get a grip for fuck's sake. The timing is at best a cherry on top--with the very big caveat that pregnancy is rarely that schedulable.

[ashbet]

I have a strong feeling that the employee was making a snarky joke (it really ISN'T that easy to precisely time pregnancies, and who the hell would bring a new life into the world simply to avoid one day of holiday work??)

Reproductive choices are none of the employer's business, and she absolutely should not confront the employee about it. LET IT GOOOOOOO.

[jadelennox]

I wish Alison had said "if you say anything to this employee, depending on the size of your business, you are almost certainly violating the EEOC as well as possible state laws."

In the US, harassing workers over the timing of a decision to become pregnant is 100% illegal. Yes, this includes you, Joss Whedon.

[minoanmiss]

OMG can you imagine That Bad Advice's take on this?

[mirlacca]

Yeah, entirely aside from the idea that someone would get pregnant to mess up an employer's vacations schedules, and the EEOC issues, the manager needs to keep her mouth shut (and given how so many offices are rabbit warrens, I can certainly understand how the manager might overhear this conversation): I am imagining the woman fifteen years from now dealing with teenagers and thinking, "For THIS I skipped an evening shift on Christmas Day?"

No. Manager should keep her mouth shut, think about karma, and smile.