In a concerning viral video, that has now been removed from the app, a TikToker by the name of Ash says that when nobody would hire her when she was honest about being pregnant, she hid her pregnancy in an interview and is now hiding it from her current employer. This opened up a lot of conversation online, like if it is legal to fire someone because they are pregnant and what someone’s rights are at a job.
Right away, not everyone was convinced that she should be worried about her job finding out she is pregnant. But, as it turns out, Ash says she works in an “at-will” employment state, as she works in Florida. This means that an employer can terminate employees for any reason unless the reason is illegal. There are laws in place to protect discrimination against someone who is pregnant, including in hiring, but Ash says that there are people able to get away with it. According to The Daily Dot, she also says that her boss “‘has made some remarks, prior to finding out about me, that pregnant people are always in the way, needy, a burden, that they’d never hire a pregnant person again.'”
@attorneyryan Reply to @757girlstuckin850 #pregnancy #maternity #womenshealth #careertiktok
Although many assured Ash she could not be fired for being pregnant, Ash maintains that she kept her pregnancy private because it was easier. As she pointed out, she was trying to save money and would not have the time or money to sue her employer. And, as it seems, many women on TikTok could relate to this and Ash was not the only person hiding their pregnancy because they feared termination. “This happened to my sister they fired her bc she was high risk and needed an accommodation to be able to sit down and they didn’t want to allow it” wrote one person on TikTok. Others agreed that they felt shamed by their employer for hiding the fact they were pregnant, as some find maternity leave highly inconvenient.
@angelariihiluoma This happened to someone close to me. It still makes me furious! #fired #letgo #dramaticmoments #skit #job #pregnancytiktok #career #ForYouPizza
So, although people might not be convinced that people have been fired over a pregnancy, many shared that they were fired or had a hard time finding a job while being open about it. Commenters agreed that just because something was illegal did not mean that someone would not do it, no matter how unethical it is.
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