Boss Hates Maternity Leave
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My boss at a small county Planning Department had a nasty temper. He berated the staff during meetings,
kicked furniture, cussed a blue streak, and never, ever promoted anyone. Even so, I enjoyed my job and had
a great bunch of co-workers.
After 6 years at this job, I became pregnant and, following the best advice, prepared a manual and training
schedule for whichever planner would take over my duties during my maternity leave. I scheduled a meeting
with the boss, and my supervisor, to discuss my proposed leave (10 weeks). I hadn't even gotten a word out
when the boss told me that if they could do without me for 10 weeks, I wasn't needed at all, and that it was
ridiculous that women stayed out longer than two weeks to have a baby. He went on in this vein for 20 minutes.
Although I went over his head to the County Manager's office, and he was told to approve my leave, I lost
all loyalty to that place. I later found out that he had threatened another planner with dismissal if she
didn't come back from maternity leave two weeks early, even though she had not yet arranged for child care.
By the way, this guy was recently promoted to oversee a number of departments. I moved away and into a better
job with a (male) boss who says "Your family comes first."
Do you have a bad boss? Have you ever had one? Would you like to earn $10? If you'd like to tell the world
about your experience, e-mail us at thelab@busreslab.com. If we
like the story, we'll print it here on these pages. If we print it, we'll pay you ten dollars. Please include
your name and address for the purposes of mailing a check if we use your story . . . rest assured that we won't
include either in the web site.
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