Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The lactating room might not have been ready because she might have returned from maternity leave earlier than expected.
Maybe she was supposed to fill out the paperwork prior to returning to work.
Form the article it sounds like the date for her to return from maternity leave was agreed upon at least a few weeks in advance.
Nationwide is claiming that they have no such policy requiring a waiting list so who knows what is really going on.
Quote:
Ames' complaint states that she had been a loss mitigation specialist in the mortgage division since October 2008. Pregnant with her second son, she began to have complications, including pre-term labor. She had to go to the hospital almost every week to get shots to stop the contractions, then she was on doctor-ordered bedrest for a month before her son was born May 18. Ames said her immediate supervisor and a human resources official agreed she could be on leave until Aug. 2. But her department head called June 21 to say that her short-term disability leave would expire July 12, and Ames' position would be held only until July 19.
Ames agreed to return to work on July 19. After she began the process to get her computer system running, she asked a security guard for access to a lactation room. He directed her to the staff nurse. The nurse "informed me that it was Nationwide's policy that I fill out paperwork to be placed on the list for the lactation rooms and that there was a three-day waiting period while this paperwork was processed," Ames said in her complaint. Because it had been more than three hours since she'd last nursed her baby, she told the nurse she'd need to pump within an hour. According to Ames, the nurse said she could use a sickness room, but the safety of her milk couldn't be guaranteed, and the lock on the door was broken.
She should have asked the nurse to use her office until the paperwork, that may or may not exist, was completed.
She could have asked her boss if she could take work home for 3 days....many companies in 2010 can hook you up from home in no time at all.
But I have to wonder why, when she was pregnant, or before she got pregnant, she had no clue as to the polices (if there are any) regarding the pumping rooms?
This article has been floating around the parenting forums. Personally, I think her office should have accommodated her, but I also don't see how she couldn't find a better option than quitting her job, especially since it says in the article her husband was laid off. Couldn't her husband bring her baby to her for the 3 days until they had the room ready? Take vacation those 3 days? Use a manual pump perhaps? I just don't see how quitting was the only and the best option in this situation. Thoughts?
See, this is why workers without kids hate mothers coming back into the work force. I am a woman and have been both a SAHM and a working mom FWIW
Anyway, a co-worker breastfed her child and there was no where at work for her to pump so she did it in the womens restroom. She didn't sue her employer, she found a way to get the milk her child needed and still kept her job. It is a wonder how all the working mothers in our past managed to keep jobs before all these lawsuits and policies had to be in place
See, this is why workers without kids hate mothers coming back into the work force. I am a woman and have been both a SAHM and a working mom FWIW
Anyway, a co-worker breastfed her child and there was no where at work for her to pump so she did it in the womens restroom. She didn't sue her employer, she found a way to get the milk her child needed and still kept her job. It is a wonder how all the working mothers in our past managed to keep jobs before all these lawsuits and policies had to be in place
Oh please! A pumping co-worker of mine was in sales and on the road more than she wasn't. Got pulled over for "pumping while driving". The state police officer noticed what she was doing and let her go (she realized she shouldn't pump while driving and would pull over if she needed to after that or try to arrange her meeting - hard to do- around pumping). She didn't whine about NOT having a "pumping station" every so many miles on a highway to fit HER needs. She did what she wanted to do when she could. She wasn't above using her car or anywhere else.
Three days makes a world of difference when you are hell bent on nursing and anybody who thinks it isn't has never nursed a baby. And remember it was only a few weeks after she had given birth so her hormones where all over the place. Plus she had to return to work earlier than she had planned. No wonder she was anxious!!!
Yes many women figured out a way to take care of nursing babies before this law but it is now the law and the company has an obligation to follow it.
If this woman didn't value her job or want to keep it she would not have gone back to work so much earlier than she planned when she got the call.
I think she is well within her rights to sue and she should be compensated. The law is the law whether you agree with it or not.
Three days makes a world of difference when you are hell bent on nursing and anybody who thinks it isn't has never nursed a baby. And remember it was only a few weeks after she had given birth so her hormones where all over the place. Plus she had to return to work earlier than she had planned. No wonder she was anxious!!!
She had 8 weeks off after the birth. I returned to work at 6 weeks.
And it's not like she didnt' have notice. They informed her almost 4 weeks before she returned to work.
Three days makes a world of difference when you are hell bent on nursing and anybody who thinks it isn't has never nursed a baby. And remember it was only a few weeks after she had given birth so her hormones where all over the place. Plus she had to return to work earlier than she had planned. No wonder she was anxious!!!
She had other options.
Quote:
Yes many women figured out a way to take care of nursing babies before this law but it is now the law and the company has an obligation to follow it.
They did. She didn't like it.
Quote:
If this woman didn't value her job or want to keep it she would not have gone back to work so much earlier than she planned when she got the call.
If she valued her job she would have been prepared.
Quote:
I think she is well within her rights to sue and she should be compensated. The law is the law whether you agree with it or not.
How did she work at this company and have no clue? Even though the company is saying there was no 3 day paperwork issue? She had other options to stay on site and pump, she just didn't want to. The law is the law and there was a room provided. Why didn't she just walk right in and plug in her pump? If she was turned away...then I could see a legal issue.
It is federal law that employers provide working mothers with a private place (not a bathroom) and breaks for pumping until their baby's first birthday.
Is it federal law that the room must ONLY be used for breastfeeding moms? Because if not, it's highly possible that the 'lactation room' was doing double duty as a meeting room or something and thus would explain the need for sign up lists and a few days notice to move around the scheduled meetings allocated to that room.
Why did you say "Oh please!" When I was basically saying the same thing you just did, that my co-worker wasn't above using the restroom if she had to as long as she could pump
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
