I think I was threatened at work today

UPDATE: it’s Friday and a coworker asked me why I was going into the janitor’s closet and I flatly said “Apparently we discriminate against lactating mothers here. Interim director name said this was an acceptable place to pump food for my baby, she said my needs weren’t real and I was just wasting company time” Y’all… I don’t know if that will come back to bite me, but it was priceless. His face was priceless and he was rendered speechless.

TW: workplace pregnancy/breastfeeding discrimination

I spoke up about the place where I’m being asked to pump milk, it’s literally the janitor’s closet—beyond filthy, nowhere to sit, and random chemicals and dirt everywhere. I thought I was pretty polite about it, and proposed a solution of either dedicating an exam room to this purpose or allowing me to coordinate a time to use the director’s office (the only non-shared space that’s not also used as a patient care area). Sooo… my manager told the interim director about this, and she… apparently took this as a personal attack?

Y’all, she called me into her office to speak, I assumed she’s wanting to work something out, right? She immediately WENT OFF saying that I “knew what the space we have here is” and that “I shouldn’t have come to work here if it couldn’t meet my needs”. She added skepticism that I was even using this time to pump milk, said it was disruptive to the organization, and said if I wanted to continue to have this time at all she need “medical forms filled out by my doctor saying it’s necessary.” She went on to say that there would be no further accommodations made for me, she wouldn’t be manipulated, and if I didn’t like that, “too bad.” She then proceed to stare at me in silence until I got up and left.

For reference, this is a woman in her early 60’s, never married/no kids, history of making bafflingly ignorant comments like asking me if I really needed the full six weeks of maternity leave or if maybe I could come back after a week or two.
 
@stevent Apparently a room in a bathroom doesn't count as pumping in the bathroom, FYI. That's what my office has. There's a 1" gap between the floor and the door so you hear... EVERYTHING. But at least they keep it clean and tried to make it comfortable.
 
@tmcp I also was told this when I worked for a local community bank. The bank claimed to put "family first," yet pulled this B.S. I ended up staying the entire year after my daughter was born before I got fed up and left. I fought like hell the whole time to even be able to go pump in the bathroom though. Now I wish I had just quit right away. We shouldn't have to deal with this.

And yet, so many of the older generation are claiming that the younger generation "doesn't want to work." The reality is that our employers are treating us like numbers now instead of like humans with basic human needs.
 
@rmora So, I'm in my 50's and we were treated pretty much the same way when we wanted to pump.

It is complete bullshit and I always check on the new mom's first to see if they need to take a break.

So glad for the pump act!! I worked at one place where I had to go to my car in the parking lot and pump there while eating my lunch.
 
@dave567 That’s the thing though. A lot of older folks have the attitude of “I made it work, why can’t you?”. I suffered now it’s your turn kind of thing, and it’s so gross, not to mention completely anti feminist. Good for you for having the attitude you have!
 
@stevent Any idea if they’ll extend the term from 1 year to 2? Seeing as 2 years is now (finally) the recommendation but no support has been put in place yet that I’m aware of to make that feasible for a lot of lactating parents.
 
@veryveryblessed I thought this had been law for a long time, that basically anywhere a woman has a right to be she has a right to breastfeed and that employers must provide a clean private place to pump and store milk.
 
@3m0_girl Yes, my understanding is that certain types of employees/employers were exempt from some of the standards and said standards were not as strong before. This act closes a lot of the holes.
 
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