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Bengaluru woman struggles to take leave as 15-month-old baby battles seizure and high fever, sparks outrage
A Bengaluru woman shared frustrations after being pressured to work while caring for her ill child.
Women often face problems while trying to balance their careers and family life, but one mother’s experience has sparked outrage after she shared her story on Reddit about being pressured to work while her 15-month-old daughter was seriously ill.
“Needed a leave because my daughter was unwell, and this was my manager's response,” the caption of the post reads.
In the post, the Bengaluru woman, who is a customer service professional, wrote that her toddler suffered a seizure on Sunday, followed by a high fever that lasted for four days.
Worried for her child's health, she reached out to her manager, whom she considered a good friend, to ask for leave so she could care for her daughter.
Instead of receiving empathy, the woman said she was told that another colleague was already on leave.
After she told her manager about the seizure, she was asked to arrange for someone to log in early and still work for a few hours.
Woman forced to negotiate:
The woman took a leave for 2 days, but her daughter’s condition did not improve. On Wednesday, she again asked for time off.
“There was another round of negotiation for leave because someone else was again on leave on Wednesday,” she adds.
According to the post, she was asked if she could work a half day. At first, the woman agreed, but later realised she needed to put her family first and decided to take a full leave.
“Nothing in the world is as important as my daughter,” she wrote. “I should not have had to explain why I needed leave. I should not have had to negotiate.”
The woman said she is a top performer in her team and had always believed her organisation valued its employees. “I know where my place is now and how I will be treating work going forward,” she adds.
She also shared that her husband took leave during the same period and was treated very differently. His manager, she said, was supportive and even questioned why he logged in while their child was unwell.
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Check out the post here:
Reddit reacts:
Reddit users expressed anger and disbelief at how the woman was treated, saying no parent should ever have to justify taking leave when a child is seriously ill.
One of the users commented, “Hoping for a world in the future where employees are treated like humans and not just a resource.”
A second user commented, “Harsh reality. policies and empathy are only on papers.”
A third user commented, “You shouldn’t have had to negotiate being a parent in a crisis. Work can wait. Your child can’t.”
“There is a special place in hell for such people,” another user commented.
(Disclaimer: This report is based on user-generated content from social media. HT.com has not independently verified the claims and does not endorse them.)
