My wife had been at Nike for 6 years and was fired last week. It was her first week back from maternity leave. In her exit/firing call with her VP and HR, they stated that the decision to let her go was made in June, a month after she delivered our child. Awful scenario all around but im imagine that she wasn't the only one who was let go in this scenario. Is anyone else aware of anyone who was fired either while on leave or post leave? Looking for guidance, Thanks.
9 replies (most recent on top)
Yes, I know someone who was laid off wile on an FMLA leave. The severance agreement is quite thorough - if you sign it, you accept its' terms. As someone also no longer with the company, it feels very slanted and wrong. But I knew what I was signing. and quite frankly had to because of the money. I wish you and your family all the best.
Lawsuit time.
OP, you have now posted your story in multiple threads. And it seems you may hold the mistaken belief that because your wife was recently on maternity leave she is somehow a member of some special class of employees who are not subject to the same policies and procedures as everyone else. I’m sorry but this simply is not the case.
When a person goes on or recently returns from any type of leave that typically does NOT exempt that person from personnel actions that are being applied to everyone else. Unless you have some ‘smoking gun’ evidence to the contrary it’s highly likely your wife would have been laid-off regardless of whether or not she had recently been on leave. This is especially true if your wife was part of an org that suffered any significant amount of layoffs.
I don’t mean to sound harsh and I’m genuinely saddened that your wife was laid-off at a particularly vulnerable time. But it really does seem as if you have this strange idea in your head that because your wife recently returned from maternity leave she should somehow be exempt from lay-offs. And that just isn’t the way it works.
It happens there, sorry it happened to you. I was out for almost 2 months for FMLA and was put on an action plan within 2 weeks of returning. I came to find out that one of my direct reports was making a play for my position while I was gone and my Sr Director, who was new and has since been fired, didn’t like me because I applied for his position when it was open. So someone with over 10 years of a CFE no worse than a highly successful and 3x Maxim winner is now the worst employee on your staff? Oh well
It stinks but if there is one, just one person above you on the org chart that wants to get rid of you they will find a way during times like these.
Agree with @who this isn’t atypical at other big companies. awful and sad but not unusual. Lawyer up if you believe there’s some sort of proof of discrimination, but likely hard to prove unless there’s something in writing, pictures or videos to prove discrimination.
Lawyer up ASAP. No more communication with Nike or HR directly. Go through your lawyer.
They will try to stall, but hang tight. Nike will give in and settle with a non-disclosure agreement.
They've done this with while groups of women who shared stories of their s-xist management. Everyone was well paid to be very quiet. And you've never heard about it again.
I’ve worked at a couple of companies that went through layoffs and in all cases some employees that were on parental leave were cut. It’s unfortunate, but not unusual. There really isn’t any reason she should have been treated differently than someone not on paternal leave. It’s a hardship to be laid off no matter if you are a new mother, an experienced mother, a father, or someone without kids but other challenges in their life (caring for parents, caring for pets, recently divorced, and everyone else just trying to hold it together, etc). Again, her situation is unfortunate, not at all saying it’s not, but it’s unfortunate for everyone impacted, including myself.
@anon, technically laid off.
Was she fired or laid off?