Tags
breastfeeding, daycare, employees, employers, hiring, jobs, schedules, work, working mothers
Yes, I’m blogging about work because… well, I don’t care any more.
Work is…
…not going well.
While I always knew that motherhood restricts life in many ways, including in the workplace, I never really fully comprehended how much it damages me in the eyes of an employer.
I did know that employers look down on breastfeeding mothers, which is why I expressly (pardon the pun) avoided discussing my breastfeeding ways in the interview stage, and why I was so dismayed by my boss bursting in on me pumping guiltily in the bathroom on my first day.
But I didn’t really grasp how very undesirable motherhood is.
Good employees don't have one of these
Before I signed the employment agreement papers, I brought up my daycare’s hours.
It hadn’t come up in the interview because, well, it hadn’t come up. He didn’t ask, and I wasn’t even sure, at that point, what my daycare’s hours were.
But before I agreed to work there, I made it clear that my daycare closes at 5:30 pm, and that official policy is to charge me 5 bucks per 5 minutes that I am late. I asked if they had morning or afternoon shifts available.
I was told yes, there usually is an earlier shift and a later shift, leaving an employee alone in the clinic for the first and last two hours of each work day, and two in the hectic middle times. I asked if it would be okay that I could only work the earlier shift.
I was told yes, that it shouldn’t be a problem.
Ever since then it has been a problem.
