A TikToker has gone viral for documenting her saga of hiding her pregnancy so she can keep her job.
Ash, who you can find on TikTok @missbunnya , lied about her pregnancy when she got hired . Now she’s hiding her pregnancy as long as she can so she won’t get fired. And judging by her followers, she’s far from alone in having to take such steps to be employed.
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Ash demonstrates how to hide a baby bump.
Accompanying her video — in which Ash shows how she can make her baby bump look bigger or smaller — is the text, “When no one would give you a job when you told them you were pregnant, so you lied at the interview and now you’re hiding it.”
The video has racked up over half a million views.
Plenty of commenters correctly told Ash that she doesn’t need to disclose her status. While this is true, it’s worth noting that Ash lives in Florida. Employment laws in this state, along with others, are not friendly to new employees.
Florida is an “at-will” state.
Florida, along with Georgia and Louisiana, has “at-will” legislation. In a nutshell, this means employers can fire employees for any reason at all — pregnancy included — within their first 90 days on the job.
Others shared their experiences.
“This happened to me when I started at a job,” one person commented. “I didn’t tell them I was pregnant and then somebody asked so I said I was and I was fired the same day.”
Even if laws prohibit a hiring manager from discriminating against a pregnant woman, these are difficult to enforce. Dozens of commenters shared the ways in which they or someone they know ran into employment problems because of a pregnancy.
Ash is now starting to show.
In a video posted earlier this week, Ash said she was now halfway through her pregnancy. In an interview with the Daily Dot, Ash said that she’s now told her boss that she’s pregnant, and at this point she’s still employed, but it hasn’t been a comfortable experience.
“The owner of the salon has made some remarks, prior to finding out about me, that pregnant people are always in the way, needy, a burden, that they’d never hire a pregnant person again,” she said.
It’s a difficult experience for pregnant women.
It takes a man and a woman to create a pregnancy, but only the women shows visible signs of the pregnancy. Men rarely, if ever, have trouble getting hired because their partner is pregnant.
She’s hanging in there.
As far as we know at this point, Ash is still employed, even if she’s experiencing some serious morning sickness — something that most women who’ve been through a pregnancy can totally relate to.
What do you think?
Women, have you experienced discrimination in the workplace because you’re pregnant or have kids? What do you think of Ash’s experience? Be sure to check out her videos and share your thoughts on this story in the comments!
