Our kids have been in and out of school, remote learning, lining up for hours for school mandated covid tests and requiring just extra attn during this time. We both have ft v intense jobs and a nanny who is great, but even with her we still have needed to take a little extra time to deal with the current situation than usual. DH was making up for it by working till 11, 12 at night and weekends - but no dice. Got fired today and they said 'it seems like you have a lot going on at home.' Have these people met 2020?
OH NO!!!!!! I'm so sorry! That's awful. So, so, so awful. I'm so sorry. Yeah we have a lot going on at home, but firing is not going to help the situation :( I'm sorry. He'll find something better.
Omg!!! I’m so sorry’. What does he do for work?
He works in content and marketing - this was a startup
@Anonymous I'm so sorry. I'm not sure any parent is at 100% right now. My guess they were hit hard in their business also because of COVID and are just looking for reasons to let people go?
TOTALLY this. Looking for reasons -- any reason. Anything within 28 miles of a reason. Don't take it personally -- a start up is a hard place to be in the best of times, but likely a terrible place to be now. How is your dh feeling? This is the first step to something WAY better.
That's really hard. My workplace sent out an email on Thursday asking all managers to be understanding during this transition to remote schooling and in general. There have been pay deductions across the board, though.
Sounds like grounds for a lawsuit
I was just going to say the same thing - depending on how this was done he may have recourse. Was there cause given other than "you have a lot going on at home" - like we have to cut costs or something? Did he have performance reviews or other feedback that he wasn't meeting expectations? I don't know what laws apply to a start up but in the HR training I have to take every year there is a lot that has to happen before someone is fired if we want to avoid a lawsuit.
He had no formal negative feedback prior - and the only cause given was you’re not keeping up and seems like you have a lot going on and ‘we can’t afford to have anything slow us down’
I would sue honestly. Not sure what for, any lawyer moms on?
Ugh ahead of the holidays. That is so awful I’m sorry
Oh man, I'm so sorry!!! May things look up for everyone soon.
Jesus I am so so sorry. How can people be so callous and cruel? Hugs to you and your family. I'm so sorry.
I told my DH, who said, does he work with 21 year olds? What kind of mature person says something like that in the middle of a pandemic? Good riddance. I agree!!
Lawyer here: NYC has a law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of familial status. "Familial status discrimination occurs when employment decisions are based on familial status, which would include, but not be limited to, making an employment decision, such as deciding not to hire or promote someone: because she or he has children at home, or has “too many” children; based on belief that someone with children will not be a reliable employee; because she or he is a single parent; because she is pregnant because she or he is a parent, regardless of living arrangements; because a father has obtained custody of one or more of his children and will be the primary caretaker; based on the belief that mothers should stay home with their children; because she or he is living with and caring for a grandchild; because she or he is a foster parent; or because of any other stereotyped belief or opinion about parents or guardians of children under the age of 18."
my guess is we'll see a lot of covid related lawsuits. I guess their argument would be that his home circumstances impacted his ability to work nonstop. Which of course is true.
Lawsuit is a good way to get yourself blackballed or to get companies to only hire 20-30 yo’s.
Eh. It won’t come to that. They will get legal counsel, realize they broke the law, and settle.
My husband was fired from a badly mismanaged startup a few years ago for BS reasons as well. He’s only worked for mega companies that have well-defined HR policies since and is much happier and thriving. Your family is well rid of that job.
It's so crazy what is expected of parents at the moment. I mean we can't fire every american with a kid under 18 so what's the plan?
Agreed. I still can't believe how 99% of work places have made zero accommodations. We're just expected to be on 24/7 while also conducting homeschool for children. There's no 'hey, no meetings before 9 or after 6, no weekend work unless 100% necessary.' Companies are just taking advantage of the fact that you can't say you're unavailable because we're all home. It's pretty vile.
A lot of companies are struggling to survive too you know
That’s so effed up! Your DH will have a lot of company soon unfortunately:(