USA - Mother fired because her children were heard in work conference calls

[lydiamajora]

Story here: www.10news.com/news/local-news/mother-claims-she-was-fired-because-her-kids-were-heard-in-the-background-of-her-conference-calls

Absolutely ridiculous. I'm glad she is suing but how a person can be expected to keep two very young children from ever interrupting a conference call, while working from home during a global pandemic, without school or other childcare available, is beyond me.

Excerpts:

Rios says it all began in mid-March when her bosses at an out-of-state insurance firm told her to work from home and telecommute via conference calls. This was in response to the state's COVID-19 lockdown orders.
...
Like many parents, Rios was unable to find childcare for her four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son. Despite juggling parenting and working from home, Rios claims she was able to complete all her tasks. She adds that her clients never complained about her kids being in the background of her conference calls. The only complaints, she says, came from her male, direct superior.
...
"I said, 'Do you want me to lock my kids in the room? My one-year-old in the room? Do you want me to do that?' And… he responded and said, 'Figure it out.'" Rios said.

Only in the US...🤦🏼‍♀️ At least I hope and trust it wouldn't happen here!

Doesn't surprise me. The US isn't exactly forward thinking when it comes to employment rights. Even more so for women.

Employment rights are next to non-existent in the US sadly. I knew a woman through my work, based in Kentucky she had worked for the company for 25 years, risen up through the ranks to be eeffecitively the Chief Operating Officer and had been responsible for massively increasing the revenue brought in (we’re talkings figures in the millions). One day she was told her job role was being eliminated and that she had till the end of the day to clear her desk.

The US is terrible for workers' rights and this is also part of the reason we are always targeted by TRAs - they can't believe that trans men and women actually do have rights here. We need to protect our rights!

I saw this on social media. Perhaps it's the cynic in me, but I'm rather put off by the fact that she hasn't named the company. Surely that would be the best way to push change? Otherwise it seems more like a 'sensationalise and sell' situation.

I wonder if a man would have been treated the same ? (Knows answer to that one).

Also, it's not stated (unless I missed it) if she is a single mother or not. But I have a feeling she is and this is a subtle move to try to enforce a faintly moralistic line about single parents.

One thing I did notice immediately was the total lack of suggestion from her employers "where's the father in all this ?". Probably because childcare isn't a mans job when there's so much misogyny to shift. They simply haven't the time.

When I rang a utility company yesterday, the initial recorded message mentioned that employees were working from home, and I might hear children in the background! (I didn't.)

As a PP said this isn't especially shocking for the US which has a very patchy record on employment rights across the board.

I don't think this could happen here in the specific circumstances mentioned, or at least if it did the woman could probably take successful action via an Employment Tribunal.

USA have odd ideas about women in the workplace.

A couple of years ago a woman was fired because some of her period blood leaked into her office chair www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/woman-period-office-chair-leak-sacked-fired-georgia-alisha-coleman-bobby-dodd-institute-carpet-a7909861.html%3famp

What is it they expected her to be able to do?

Surely theres room for a bit of understanding and flexibility here I mean lots of people are in the same boat. Course a man who can dump the responsibility of their kids onto their partner would complain bet if it was him juggling kids a job and a home hed he hailed a hero cos dads even "babysit " their own kids in man world...

To be fair, we have only heard one side of this story, just because you sue somebody it doesn't mean you are going to win.

The employer settled on that case - which is a shame as it would have been good to get a clear statement that this is sex discrimination.

www.acluga.org/en/press-releases/aclu-settles-case-behalf-woman-alleging-she-was-fired-getting-her-period-work

Cases like that in the OP will unfortunately mount up...

[quote fascinated]The employer settled on that case - which is a shame as it would have been good to get a clear statement that this is sex discrimination.

www.acluga.org/en/press-releases/aclu-settles-case-behalf-woman-alleging-she-was-fired-getting-her-period-work[/quote]
Yes - it would have been interesting if they had used the “men get periods too” defence.

Would have been a FABULOUS opportunity to get right into a detailed discussion of Menstruation....

And sex v gender

According to another article about the same woman and lawsuit, there were indeed men who were also juggling childcare and had similar interruptions, but either they had different superiors who were more understanding or there was indeed a great big dollop of sexism involved. I can believe her boss didn't like her and was just being a dickhead, but the fact that HR backed him up is the kicker.

As PP noted, you never know the whole story from one source, but I am still inclined to believe there was interpersonal friction between the woman and her boss which gave the company an excuse to fire someone they no longer wanted to pay for during the lockdown.

As far as employment rights in the US, "patchy" is the right word. Laws can vary quite a bit from state to state and some are far better than others.

The Rios case could get interesting. California has some of the best employee protections in the US, and some California municipalities have additional protections. California's an at-will state, so an employer can dismiss an employee at any time without providing a reason - but they also must answer if it's alleged that the dismissal constitutes illegal discrimination.

California explicitly protects sex AND "gender identity and gender expression" AND marital status (among other characteristics) - not sure which, if any, may be relevant. The dismissal right after complaining is also very suspicious - a court may find it coincidental, but they usually take those allegations very seriously if it's a single firing/layoff of a person otherwise in good standing.

My guess is that unless they're satisfied there's no merit, the company may settle. If it does go to court and is decided in the plaintiff's favour, judgements can be massive - not just against the company, but against her boss individually, and possibly others.

theproblemwitheyes: Perhaps it's the cynic in me, but I'm rather put off by the fact that she hasn't named the company.

She likely won't be allowed to name the company at this stage or will have legal advice not to - in case of prejudicing a jury (CA uses juries in both criminal and civil trials).

I'm not convinced that men would necessarily have been treated differently on this. Purely anecdotal but when I worked in a "city job" the men were really looked down on if they ever left early (i.e. before 7pm) to do childcare. On many occasions I heard their bosses ask "why can't you just get your wife to do it?". They would never have asked the women "why don't you get your husband to do it?".

It pissed me off because inevitably it held the women back. The women ended up going part time or delaying their promotions after having kids whereas the men just climbed the greasy pole. I think many men there would have been keen to go part time but the sexist working culture meant they would have been really derided for it.