Share Your Story: Have you faced pregnancy discrimination in the workplace?

Personally , until women refuse to reproduce or have sex at all with men for any reason - they won't get their rights- if women world-wide went on this strike - it would not take long for them to get their rights. Would some be raped and beaten? You bet- fired? Absolutely, but they already are.  It is simply the only way to control the male world- everything else takes too long.  They want dinner, a clean house, a paycheck, and kids? Good - let them fork over what we need for it. Enough of playing the game by their rules and through the legal system- takes too long.  Stand up and STRIKE

When I worked security for Pinkerton in Indianapolis and I was pregnant with my daughter, I was working at a jobsite where one of my duties was having to check temperatures on or in refrigerated semi trailers.  My gynecologist/obstetrician told me to absolutely not do that part of my job and to tell my captain that.  Which I proceeded to tell him.  He then informed me that if I could not perform ALL of the duties of my position there, that their company didn't need me working there for them.  Even though I asked to see if they could transfer me to another job account or jobsite, he informed me that they didn't have any other openings at the time.  I don't believe that now and I didn't then.  This occurred in January 1992 - I had  been employed with them since August 1991 and my daughter was due in July 1992.  In other words, he said to heck with my health, my daughter's health and my job.  The reason I couldn't do this particular duty was because it involved at times climbing the back of these trailers to near the top to read the temp. gauges or to unlatch and push up the rear doors on these trailers to located the gauges inside of the trailers.  Both of which would have threatened my life or my unborn daughter's life.  My captain was ready to fire me over this fact.  Which wasn't fair at all. 

I applied for a job in a computer hardware firm and was offered the job, but the new boss commented that the insurance did not include maternity coverage.  "But you won't need that, will you?" he said.   I declined the job because I was in fact planning to become pregnant sometime soon. 

Many years ago, well before my health issues, I was working as an LPN in a small nursing home.  I worked the graveyard shift with one NA-C.  When I found out I was pregnant, I  heard about an opening for a nurse on the swing shift.  I put in a request for that position because I felt that it would best fit my pregnancy the best.  I never heard back; but, figured that my request had been ignored when a new LPN began working within two weeks of my request. Pregnancy really drained the energy right out of me.  The graveyard shift was just too hard for my body.  It wasn't long after the new LPN had been hired that I got a note on my time card telling me that I could finish my shift; but, I was not to come back to work.  It was the first time that I had been fired from a job.  The reason that was given was that I had fallen asleep and the maintenance man had caught me sleeping at the nurses's station.  I was not able to prove or disprove that claim. I have to add that this was my first pregnancy.  I was also over 30.  My doctor treated my pregnancy as a high risk pregnancy because of my age.  He told me that I could keep working as long as I could tolerate it.  I walked three miles a day.  I should be able  to work.  Unfortunately, those early days of pregnancy were not easy.  If my employer had been more accommodating, I probably would have been able to keep working for a longer period.