Often people act in such a way that makes them low in someone’s graces. Something similar happened with a mom who lives in San Diego, California.
A self-proclaimed mommy blogger Dris Wallace was fired by her boss during this lockdown. The reason you ask? The employer fired her just because her kids were noisy during the office calls.
Rios (Dris Wallace) has been working from home since March due to the pandemic. She is a mom to 1 and 4 years old kids. She has the responsibility of home-schooling and taking care of them.
Rios said that she tried her best to keep her kids occupied during her office timings so that she can concentrate on her meetings and calls. For us, it’s unfathomable how hard is it to take care of such small children along with office duties.
While talking to her clients, sometimes the children used to cry in the background which frustrated her employer to an extent.
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“The first week we were assigned to work from home due to COVID in mid-March, the comments started coming in,” Rios, 35, told The Post. “He was setting expectations and didn’t want to hear children on calls. He wanted complete silence.”
In an essay on ScaryMommy.com, the Modern Cali Mom blogger claimed her supervisor’s expectations were unrealistic for a working mom without an exclusive caretaker during a pandemic. But her employer allegedly ‘harassed’ her and rebuked her a couple of times for her children’s behavior.
Rios mentioned that her clients never complained about the issue.
She had set a boundary of not taking calls from 1 pm-4 pm. saying that it’s her kids’ napping time. Yet her boss kept arranging calls during that time. She claimed that it’s her lunchtime and the kids are hungry and impatient.
It’s bizarre to see an employer behaving in such an unrealistic and unacceptable way.
“I continued to be available throughout the whole day. There were late nights so I could meet deadlines. I was a team player, and I did it with two young kids.”
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Rios said she has spent a lot of money to buy toys to distract her children. “I lost count of how much I spent. Every week I was spending money to keep them occupied. It was insane.”
By May, the situation was almost out of hands.
“‘We can’t keep accommodating your work schedule,’” she recalled her boss saying. “‘No other account executive on the team has this issue. Your role as an account executive is to be present to our client, so you need to take care of your kid situation.’”
When she asked if he wanted her to lock her baby in a room, he allegedly responded, “Figure it out,” which she said reduced her to tears.
“It was so heartless. I felt degraded as a mother. Who says that? He is a father himself. That was a breaking moment for me,” said Rios.
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In late May, she put her grievance in front of the HR Department who cut the call saying, “There are two sides to every story.”
She had another meeting with the HR on June 2. “I thought this would be good, and they are going to figure it out. I wanted to work there.” Instead, they told her to leave the job if she wasn’t satisfied. The company gave her the excuse that they are doing this because of financial cut-backs.
On June 5, Rios filed a lawsuit against the firm. She’s currently looking for a job but most of the companies aren’t in the hiring mode yet.
Since her story came out, other families have been sharing their own struggles regarding work and home life.
“There are other mothers out there who are afraid to speak out,” she said. “I just hope we can find justice for myself and any other mom who has been treated this way.”
