Let this woman’s Instagram post sink in, and then let’s talk about why it’s wrong to fire a mom working from home (allegedly) because she has to spend some time tending to her children.
A San Diego mother says working from home during the coronavirus pandemic cost her her job. She claims she was fired because her kids were making noises in the background of her teleconference calls …
Like many parents, Rios was unable to find childcare for her four-year-old daughter and one-year-old son. Despite juggling parenting and working from home, Rios claims she was able to complete all her tasks. She adds that her clients never complained about her kids being in the background of her conference calls. The only complaints, she says, came from her male, direct superior.
“I said, ‘Do you want me to lock my kids in the room? My one-year-old in the room? Do you want me to do that?’ And… he responded and said, ‘Figure it out.’” Rios said.
She says she tried to arrange calls to be during her children’s afternoon naptimes but claims her boss continued to ignore and demean her.
“He would purposely overlap schedules,” Rios said.
According to research conducted by Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom, 42 percent of the U.S. labor force is currently working from home full-time. It an ideal way to stay safe and promote physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it’s less than ideal for other reasons, especially if you have young children at home. For example, we’ve all seen more than one viral video of a child interrupting a Zoom meeting. (Personally, I had one interrupted by my dogs loudly fighting over a toy. After my apology, my clients said it was the best distraction they had all week.)
