How would your manager or supervisor respond if you experienced a medical emergency on the job?
Ideally, anyone worth their salt would respond with compassion, understanding, and a good dose of empathy. Not only is it in their best interest for managers to support their employees, but it’s also the human thing to do. Unfortunately, that isn’t always the reality.
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A Redditor shared what happened when she experienced a miscarriage on the job.
“I got fired today because my miscarriage was ‘too much.'”
A post on the r/antiwork subreddit begins with this doozy of a statement.
“Walmart can fire you for any reason by law, so I guess this is on me,” OP writes before launching into her story.
She started hemorrhaging at work.
An ambulance was called, and after OP was taken to the hospital, she found out she’d miscarried. Needless to say, she would need some time off work.
“I bring my medical records to work, and tell my supervisor why I have taken days off and she said okay,” wrote OP.
“A week later my supervisor tells me I’m fired.”
The reason given was that OP had taken too many days off. When OP protested, her supervisor told her to take it up with the manager.
“I have a meeting with [the manager] and he brings in the same HR lady who witnessed everything,” wrote OP. “I remind her what happened, and this is the first time the store manager even finds out.”
Did the manager change his tune?
In a word, no.
“[The HR rep] stood quiet the entire time [the manager] told me he needed people who were going to be consistent and keep up with the fast-paced environment,” OP wrote.
This is obviously an incredibly traumatic experience.
Experiencing a miscarriage is the kind of thing that necessitates not just time off work, but often therapy as well. It almost beggars belief that a workplace, even one that’s part of a multi-billion-dollar corporate machine, could be so heartless.
Is OP protected by law?
Some posters pointed out that if OP met a certain threshold in hours worked, she may be protected by federal law. But because she’s a student and part-time worker, she likely doesn’t have this legal recourse.
“I would definitely go to the labor board with this.”
As one poster points out , OP should get the reason for their termination in writing. From there, she may be able to make an appeal to the labor board.
“Please don’t let this go,” they wrote. “Unless they are made to pay, the next worker who gets sick is going to have the same problem as you.”
This isn’t even the first time it’s happened.
Incredibly, this same thing happened a year ago.
In a follow-up comment , OP writes that a former coworker said another employee at the same store was fired for experiencing a miscarriage about a year ago.
“Get a lawyer. Pregnancy is a protected class.”
With so many posters telling OP she has options, she added a follow-up edit to her original post.
Unfortunately, with so much going on in her life, she doesn’t really have the time or energy to fight this.
What do you think?
It seems almost unthinkable that a workplace would do something so callous, but people are fired without justification all the time. Should it be necessary for people to hire lawyers and fight the system, or should employees be better protected in the first place?
Be sure to let us know what you think of this story in the comments section.
