I was not sure how to title this very well, and since I am seeing more and more posts about new moms and how not accommodating their jobs are, I wanted to share something that happened to me 6 months ago. Maybe other moms can relate. I am a pharmacist. when I was 2 months postpartum, i went back to work at one of the big retail pharmacy chains. This was a new store that they placed me in, and on my first day, I asked “where is the fridge for food?” And the pharmacy manager said “we don’t have one”. For the entire store, front end and pharmacy, there was no fridge for food. Okay so now I know to bring non perishable food (since my schedule was: 12 hour shifts 3 times a week and 7-9 hour shifts twice a week). But the pharmacy itself always has a fridge for drugs, so I asked if I can store the breast milk that I pump throughout the day in the medicine fridge. She says no, and then says “you’re planning on pumping? You know you’ll be working 12 hour shifts with no overlap because they cut our hours and many pharmacists quit”. By the way, pharmacists are not allowed to leave the pharmacy area if they are the only pharmacists there, so technically going to the bathroom is not really allowed but people do it anyways because it’s quick, however pumping takes about 20 to 30 minutes and you can’t just leave that long when you’re the only pharmacist there). I stood my ground and said I’m still pumping anyways. At this point I was pumping every three hours which means I would have had to do it four times during my shift, and that would take up a good two hours. Mind you, those portable hidden pumps didn’t work for me. So either I had to pump in front of everybody while I continued to work, or the job was just not for me. I ended up quitting on my second day because we were so backed up (the store was a mess) that I only got to pump once in my 12 hr shift, and I ended up with severe mastitis. I had no energy left to deal with this stupid company, who are known to mistreat their employees, so I just quit. But now I am unemployed and unable to find a suitable job in my field that can accommodate me.
Maybe I am asking for too much, I don’t know, it’s just hurtful to know that being a mom does not mix well with this profession
EDIT: this is in the US
Edit 2: I apologize I made it sound in the title like the job denied my request for a fridge but no, they just didn’t even provide a standard fridge in the break room for anyone.