A boss has faced a huge backlash online after admitting to firing a woman who had just come back from maternity leave, citing reasons to do with cheaper labour. The boss took to Reddit to post an explanation, explaining that the mum had worked on a project-based team and when she was off on maternity leave, the team missed her expertise in the environment.
The boss explained: "Our team does project based work and in the period between her leaving for maternity leave we finished up the project we were working on when she left, and started working on a project without her."
In her absence, the team had to adapt to working without her expertise but soon they were getting confident doing the jobs she used to do.
"The situation we have now is me, and two others split half the work that she used to do," explained the boss.
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"We hired someone new to come in to the team to handle the other part of her workload and then some."
He went on to say that the new guy came at a lower price as this was his first job after graduating.
However, in recent days the new mother has come back to work after her maternity leave.
"Our firm has informed us that for some reason we no longer have the budget for a seven person team, and will have to let someone go," he explained.
"This news came about when I submitted the paperwork for her return."
Therefore, the boss was left with a choice of who to keep on and he decided to fire the new mother.
His reasons for doing so were apparently that the clients for their new project already worked with the new guy so far and like him.
Also, he claimed the spare money will benefit the entire team and give it more resources for the projects.
"Obviously, the ideal situation which I wanted was to keep both and not put a new single mother with no other job lined up out in the cold," he explained.
"But I had to do right by the team and firm. I told her I’d write her a brilliant Letter of Recommendation, and that in a few months she could try and apply for a job at our firm."
In response, the man has had a scathing backlash with one person writing: "Every single reason you mentioned was only true because she had been gone on maternity leave which legally CANNOT be a reason to terminate someone. Yet it is the cause behind everyone reason you gave."
While another person wrote: "You should probably start looking for new jobs because your company will be rightfully firing you for the mess you just created for them."
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