I saw a post on another sub about this similar topic and it made me want to post my own experience with a manager refusing the right to sit at all while on the clock even though I was heavily pregnant.
A few years ago, I worked at AT&T while pregnant and they refused to allow me to sit AT ALL while on the clock, even if I was helping a customer at a table with chairs that were supposed to be for us & them to sit in during the interaction. Imagine my awkward feeling when people (customers) would ask me why I don’t sit down or get comfortable (as I was HUGE) and I had to smile and just shake my head “no, I’m okay thank you!”
Before I quit I ended up coming right out and telling the customers “the store manager won’t allow me to sit while I’m working. Not even when the store is empty or while I’m at a table like this one.” They were often appalled.
One woman and her husband were outraged and berated the manager. She looked at me while it was happening and I just smirked and shrugged at her.
When she called me into her office later that day toward the end of my shift, I had a feeling there would be some BS so I was recording a voice memo on my phone, just in case she got out of pocket which was common for her. When I walked in she asked me to stand (yeah, while she was sitting at her desk!) to “go over the events of the day”. She had a sheet in front of her that I assume was a write up.
Now, my husband makes fine money, and I am marketable as hell professionally so in that moment I decided “fuuuuuuuck this.” And said to her:
“let me stop you right there. I’ve allowed you to walk all over me and enforce policies that aren’t blanketed for every employee, nor are they company policy. I’ve suffered mentally and physically at your hands due to this weird rule you made up, and you deserved to be told off today as it is clear to everyone except you apparently that this is a cruel condition to put on a heavily pregnant, swollen woman. I’ve gone home crying because I’m in so much pain daily. I’ve given you notes from my dr stating I should sit periodically and you still refused, all to “uphold a professional image”.
So with all of that in mind, I politely decline to have this meeting with you right now, nor will I be signing or hearing anything off of that paper which I assume is a write up. I don’t need this job, in fact, you have needed me and my sales to keep you out of hot water for months. so, I quit. Without notice. I won’t be coming in for any more of my scheduled shifts, and I will be happy to send you a resignation email stating everything I just told you. I’ll also be CCing the District Manager, and including the recording I have taken on my phone of this conversation.”
handed her my key and walked out.
I have never felt lighter than I did at that moment, 7 months pregnant and bursting like a sausage out of my maternity clothes due to swelling from stress of that job and standing 10 hours a day, everyday. The look on her face was priceless, but not as priceless as the apology email I received from the DM on her behalf and the company’s behalf, or glowing the letter of recommendation he wrote me and attached to the email thread, which she was also on, so she definitely saw it.
Karma is a bitch to those who cross her and a saint to those who serve her well. I hope she learned her lesson.