So I started at a new engineering firm that let me know they had flex time. Normally this means you can go to appointments midday as long as you work your hours in the day and that for example, if you ran a few minutes late in the morning you could work a few minutes after to make your time for the day. This also means there isn't a strict start or end time.
I got there my first day around 8 and subsequent days I was aiming for 9 since my husband starts around that time and the office is a good half an hour away from my apartment. I got two texts at 8:30 two days that week asking if I was coming in which I reassured I was dropping my daughter off and heading over. Midweek my daughter came down with something and I texted around 8:30 that I was going to have to stay home with her to take her to the doctor.
I was let go over text that Friday. My boss told the recruiter I was falling asleep at work and not calling in or letting them know when I was “running late”. I also was always awake at work. I was never told they weren't okay with me starting at 9 and that they preferred I call instead of text in for emergencies which apparently wasn't early enough.
I have a suspicion they saw the number of doctors appointments I put into the calendar and my pregnancy is showing very slightly, but not super obviously, and fired me because my pregnancy. There were no women other than a secretary and no people of color. I had not formally let them know about my pregnancy and they also knew I was in the process of moving and closing on a mortgage.
The thing that makes me the angriest is when I got this job offer I was on leave from another job that I liked quite a bit and quit to start this position. Nothing seemed like a red flag in the interviewing process. I also would've come in earlier going forward and called instead of texted if they told me.
The recruiter acted like they would've been more understanding if I let them know my child was sick that week, BUT I literally did. Sure it was a text but if they weren't happy with that form of communication the first text back should have been hey call me instead.
Tldr: fired for communication problem when in reality the firm wasn't communicating with me