Employee fired for not keeping kids quiet during work calls
A working mum-of-two has claimed that she was sacked from her job after her children disrupted work calls. Dris Wallace, an account executive, said she was juggling work with caring for her children and was involved in lots of business calls as her role was to help her boss with existing and new clients.
In a blog published by ScaryMommy.com, the employee said that she “tirelessly” tried to meet deadlines but her boss became increasingly frustrated hearing children in the background of their calls.
She explained:
"He instructed me that on business calls with clients he did not want to hear the kids in the background. He stated over and over that it was not professional to hear the kids in the background on client calls and that I had to figure out how to keep them quiet.
“The pressure from my boss was creating so much stress. The kids were always interrupting, and the baby wanted to nurse all the time. They constantly had to wait for me to finish getting something done so I could tend to their needs. My heart broke."
Feeling no longer able to deal with the treatment she was receiving from her boss, Wallace reportedly went to HR but instead of reaching the solution she was expecting, she was told that they “should part ways” because she clearly wasn’t happy and they were experiencing reduced revenue due to COVID-19.
Wallace responded:
“It was a clear, inconsistent excuse to cover up their illegal motivations. It’s also just not true because they continued to hire new positions after my termination, and the company leadership had committed to no layoffs during the pandemic.”
Wallace is sharing her story in the hope it will raise awareness of “gender discrimination and bias against mothers”.
She said:
“No working mother should be discriminated against, especially during these times, for not being able to keep my one-year-old quiet for a business call. For not being able to turn something around in five minutes when my baby wants a snack. I'm going to fight for every mom that has gone through this.”
While this case took place in the US, the lessons remain the same for employers with employees balancing work and families during the working day.
Back at the beginning of lockdown, when the closure of schools was announced, employers were advised that they should prepare for some disruption.
CIPD’s CEO, Peter Cheese, said:
“With many schools looking at remote teaching, parents will have to juggle their work with helping their children to access school activities. There may be limited space and limited equipment to manage both parents and children working from home each day. There will be disruption.”
Guidance from ACAS on supporting employees with childcare responsibilities suggests the employer should be sensitive and flexible towards the employee's situation and try to agree a more flexible homeworking arrangement.
Examples of this could include:
- working different hours;
- agreeing that the employee may not be able to work a full day or a full week;
- reducing work targets; and
- being flexible about deadlines where possible.
The same approach may be needed if an employee is caring for someone else, for example an older relative or someone who's ill. To read the full guidance go to: https://www.acas.org.uk/working-from-home
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