AITAH? Fired a lady after maternity.
Am I the asshole?
After a few months clear to me an employee was taking company for a ride. Average a few days a week in the office, otherwise sick/on errands, delivered no work. CTC 55L.
Before I could fire her, she announced she was taking Maternity leave a few months into the job. Well crap guess I need to pay her for 6 more months more because of laws I don't understand. Rip my bank account.
She returns, same issues. I put her on a pip & she resigned telling me I'm sexist and it will be hard to find a new job now. I say sorry, performance was bad, she can do pip and stay if things are better. She askes for 2 months salary and i agree.
A lawyer calls telling me I need to pay more or they will file a case. Said I discriminated to her, and it's not legal.
I think this person is a bully/psycho/self entitled. But am I the asshole?
Thats how things play.
Sometimes things are genuine sometimes u come across opportunists. You can never fully get to know what is the actual situation.
She might have genuine problems but if the conduct aint good, to hell with it.
She might be faking it to retrieve more money,
She definitely had a kid! That I know at least.
Things happens man!
Pregnencies can be as easy as if nothing happened for some women. For some, it might be full of complications and issues and what not to another extremes.
I am seeing first hand. Not every pregnency is same.
They can be very tough to deal with and we men cant even comprehend it. So its okay.
She probably did that as her body wasnt fully recovered and women face a lot of discrimination at large in companies. The moment employers get to know about pregs, they fire them by giving false performance issues. Its a known thing.
Problem is, its a grey area. Some genuine dont work, some by the situation. Know one can know.
She spoke to lawyer just to save her job.
Yes you are. As a manager you should pay regard to the changes your employees are having in their personal lives and discuss their performance accordingly. You failed to do your job when you didn't discuss her performance while she was pregnant. It was not like you didn't know she will be going on maternity leave. In your post you made it sound delibrate.
That conversation would have made her vigilant about her performance and assured you if she was dedicated. You did leave her in a big mess, it would be hard for her to find a job.
Bringing up performance after someone tells you they are pregnant sounds really bad, emotionally for them and also probably grounds for a discrimination case.
So yes, I didn't say anything until she was back and issues came up again.
Firing someone just after they had a baby for issues that were going on since a year is worse. It's much difficult for them to have this conversation now.
As a manager you had to take a hard call. But the way you do it and when you do it matters a lot. You saved yourself from one uncomfortable conversation and directly blamed her.
Your primary problem is paying high salary 55L to a person who wasted time & money of the company. Never hire women at high paying posts until they are the only one who know how to build the technology.
Nope, you're not (only if things actually played out as you've shared).
It seems like you're being deliberately bullied in a well-planned manner. Consult a lawyer even if you end up giving in to their demands - they might keep attempting to extort more.
Above is my perspective on what happened.
If a person was not aware they are doing a bad job until a pip comes it sucks. but I don't think I broke the law.
she was super nice to everyone, nobody wanted to be the bad guy and tell her anything. I tried to be empathetic, but I'm just a single guy what do I know about being a mom.
It is a managerial failure in that case. Her manager should have hinted/said directly/explained in detail/ scolded in that order for at least 4 1:1s before the PIP. PIP is like 1 step above firing
A lot of comments here seem very ignorant about the toll pregnancy and giving birth takes on new mothers. And then there is postpartum to consider.
If you do not understand about it, consider talking to new mothers around you.
Lot of companies talk so much about women in tech but don’t support women against people like @incognito who have no clue about life/pregnancy in general . In fact I am so sad that the hr and company ceo allowed this to happen. She should book them also.
We have other women on the team who seem to manage fine after having kids.
Yes you are, if you don’t have the performance issues documented over mail, both before and after her maternity leave. Otherwise it’s just your personal opinion and it shows a lack of proper communication between you and her (also lack of managerial skills).
And the part about her not finding a job now is true as no one will hire her if she tells them about recent pregnancy. She is right to file a case. If you think from her perspective : you haven’t raised the issues earlier and one day suddenly after she comes back from maternity leave you are raising these issues, it feels like discrimination and not genuinely performance related.
Thanks, I did make sure it's all documented at least.
And I know it genuinely was performance related.
She resigned after I suggested a pip.
Hope it is documented before the maternity leave too, else it feels like discrimination and your case wouldn’t be that strong.
She did the smart thing by not going on PiP since it makes your case stronger regarding performance.
That lady took you for a ride man, there are freeloaders and coasters in both genders.
The other gender will not get this support. Try going to somebody saying that a man is being harassed by a women or man being fired is discrimination. Nobody would bat an eyelid. A women does the same , all hell will break lose. In India laws are extremely women biased.
Yes. Rightfully so.
I am 💯 sure you do not have a kid..
I'm 100% sure I don't have either.
You wont relate and will not be culturally fit in long term. Being bachelor, in power is easy
You are neither worried about family goals nor responsibilities
Short term selfish thoughts when you cant be good at managing thing
Aisa comments aa rahe honge, ab aage bolo
You are manager, how will you manage gender inclusivity in future
Maternity leave shouldn't be a risk to organisation
Yes you most probably are. If she was an employee who had been in the company before her pregnancy and has worked well in the past, there should have been some consideration of her past performance and her performance during pregnancy. It is tough on some women and there can be complications. I dont understand why the hell did you come here to get validation on this, if your conscience was clear.
And don't worry you will get validations from people like yourself.
According to what I know, maternity leave is for someone who has at least completed 6-months with the company. No? Yes, then in this 6-months you could have fired her based on her performance.