Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I guess I'm naive. I cannot believe companies are that stupid to do this. Not saying it didn't happen, just cannot believe that with all the laws in place that anyone can get fired these days for anything!

My wife had a boss that was gunning to get rid of her; he was an older guy and thought that women should SAH. So he told her, if you don't come back after six weeks, no job will be there for you. Also he gave her crap work for several months after DD was born.

He was just very careful to not say anything in writing or do anything that actually required the involvement of higher management/HR. That, and the fact that we were living in a less than desirable neighborhood with lousy neighbors, kept her quiet and made her more frustrated.

Once he retired things turned around 180 degrees. She would be getting more promotions, etc., if she were to work 50-60 hours instead of 40-45 a week, she would rather spend the time with me and DD. She did get a couple 8-10% raises the two years after this, though, once she got some face time with higher management (one guy apologized.)

I'm not sure I understand. Did she actually lose her job or have some other adverse action, or was this guy just a jerk? Jerks are everywhere. Illegal discrimination happens too, but not as often because many of the jerks are too afraid to follow through.

Anonymous wrote:I guess I'm naive. I cannot believe companies are that stupid to do this. Not saying it didn't happen, just cannot believe that with all the laws in place that anyone can get fired these days for anything!

My wife had a boss that was gunning to get rid of her; he was an older guy and thought that women should SAH. So he told her, if you don't come back after six weeks, no job will be there for you. Also he gave her crap work for several months after DD was born.

He was just very careful to not say anything in writing or do anything that actually required the involvement of higher management/HR. That, and the fact that we were living in a less than desirable neighborhood with lousy neighbors, kept her quiet and made her more frustrated.

Once he retired things turned around 180 degrees. She would be getting more promotions, etc., if she were to work 50-60 hours instead of 40-45 a week, she would rather spend the time with me and DD. She did get a couple 8-10% raises the two years after this, though, once she got some face time with higher management (one guy apologized.)

I guess I'm naive. I cannot believe companies are that stupid to do this. Not saying it didn't happen, just cannot believe that with all the laws in place that anyone can get fired these days for anything!

Wow PP, that is awesome! Good for you! Do you mind sharing the name of you lawyer?

I was laid off while pregnant from a larger consulting firm. I received notification hat I was being laid off 2 weeks after I shared that I was pregnant. I was staffed on a project at the time and the role was funded for the next 10 months.

I would not sign and accept the standard severance package and contacted a lawyer to negotiated for me claiming that I was let go because of being pregnant and that there were metrics that my management would not be able to achieve if I went out on leave. (the way they calculated utilization was the time on STD was included in base available hours). My lawyer negoitated severance that covered the remainder of my pregnancy + 16 weeks. My rational was that it would be hard to interview while pregnant and that although STD would have only covered 6 weeks, if I was still employed, I would not need to be stressed over finding a new job during my paid leave.

I was also an in demand skill and after my last day of employment, took a 2 week vacation and started with another firm that gave me paid maternity! I used my severance to really jumpstart my child's college savings.

Iam also thrilled that I am not longer employed by the original firm. If was just what I needed to move on with my professional career.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:thanks all, can someone please recommend a employment lawyer that practices in VA?

John Cook, Cook & Kitts. Excellent attorney.

Thanks! I'm contacting them today.

Anonymous wrote:thanks all, can someone please recommend a employment lawyer that practices in VA?

John Cook, Cook & Kitts. Excellent attorney.

Anonymous wrote:I would just not show up anymore.

Great advice! OP says she has something that has to be delivered to client on Tuesday so she should not show up and finish the job? Great thing to do if she wins the lottery and never needs a job reference.

thanks all, can someone please recommend a employment lawyer that practices in VA?

Only on DCUM would I be able to figure out IANAL. Love it.

Another employment lawyer here. I'd suggest you talk to an employment lawyer asap - if at all possible, don't wait until your last day passes and you don't have access to your workspace and colleagues.

10 23 is right if you want to blackmail them. Talk to a lawyer about what kind of severance you can negotiate for.

But employment lawyer is spot on.

- Another HR

It's a small firm, if you have an idiot HR/manager type there's fewer people around to go, "WTF are you thinking, dumbass??"

19:50 is right, it's only illegal to lay you off if it was BECAUSE of your pregnancy.

IANAL, but have some experience with workplace grievances. Any lawsuit is going to compare how other folks "on the bench" were treated -- were they given a few weeks to sit on the bench while corporate looked for more work? Or were they told, "Hey, your project ends on August 10, you're laid off as of August 11?"

Talk informally to a lawyer if they aren't going to give you a decent severance package.

the others that were laid off are in another state and were on the bench for a long while, not on my project, but that happened ealier this week.

Who else was laid off and what projects were they on?