Photo: TikTok
She was shocked and confused by the sudden termination until she saw that her boss was pregnant too.
By Nia Tipton — Written on Apr 01, 2023
A woman revealed that she was shocked and hurt after being fired from her job for a reason that didn't add up.
In a TikTok video, Lexie Smith shared the story of the only time she had ever been fired from a job, and many viewers pointed out that Smith was fired for a reason that was out of her control and seemed to be a calculated decision.
Smith says she was fired from her job after telling her boss that she was pregnant.
In Smith's video, she explained that the incident happened in November 2020. At the time, she was five and a half months pregnant, but when she had first been hired for the job, she chose not to tell anyone because she was afraid they wouldn't hire her.
"I kept [the pregnancy] a secret, and one day, I was super sick and had to stay home," she shared. Smith played it off with her superiors that she had to go to the doctor, and told them she didn't think she had COVID, but just in case, she would let them know.
However, Smith ended up telling her superiors that she just found out she was pregnant, despite first finding out when she was five weeks along. Her superiors congratulated her before asking if Smith knew when she would be taking her maternity leave.
Smith confirmed that she wasn't sure when she'd take her leave since she had "just found out" about the pregnancy, but would let them know soon when she figured everything out.
Days after revealing that she was pregnant, Smith went into her office, which she shared with the "big boss" of the company, though she was "never in her office" and would only show up for "15 minutes in the morning and leave."
"The one day that she decided to actually stay there all day, she was asking me questions, like, 'Have you figured out if you're going to take a maternity leave or not?'" Smith continued. She reiterated to her boss that she hadn't decided how many weeks she was going to take off, but she would be taking leave soon.
Smith continued her workday as normal and left, only to return the next day, which was the day that she was fired. She told viewers that she was almost finished with the day, and had two hours left of her shift before she was supposed to clock out.
As Smith is working, she suddenly gets a call on her personal phone from the CEO of the company, which she noted as being weird since any business calls were done through the phone provided by the company.
After asking if Smith has a second to talk, the CEO proceeds to tell her that the company "won't be needing her anymore" and that she was actually working her last day of the job.
"I was literally in shock like I didn't say anything, and he just hung up the phone," Smith recalled, clearly not knowing what had happened to prompt her sudden termination.
When Smith returned to the office weeks later, she discovered that her boss was pregnant as well.
In a follow-up video, Smith explained that after discovering she was being fired, she immediately went to talk to two of her coworkers who worked as recruiters for the company.
When she informed them that she had been suddenly let go, one of the recruiters appeared shocked by the news, while the other told Smith she had tried to keep her on and told the CEO and their boss that Smith was a vital employee at their organization.
Smith, who was understandably emotional about the entire ordeal, found it strange that one of her coworkers had known she was being fired and failed to give her a heads-up.
It wasn't until weeks later that Smith would go back to the office to see all of her former coworkers. Smith explained that she had taken her brother for a job orientation right next door to her former workplace, and decided to just pop back in and greet everyone there.
"This was probably three and a half weeks after I got fired," she said. "I walk in and say hi, because I was friends with the recruiters, and they were super nice."
However, when she bumped into her boss Smith was taken aback to hear that she was now pregnant.
"I just had to sit there, and I was like ... congrats. Why are you telling me that you're pregnant," Smith recalled thinking. When she got back to her car after the fact, Smith realized that her boss was the reason that she had been fired.
In an attempt to not have Smith's maternity leave dates interfere with hers, her boss got her terminated so she would be able to have more paid time off once she had the baby.
"So, after that happened, I'm sitting in my car thinking. Everything makes sense now," Smith added. "The day before I got fired, she's asking about my maternity leave. Then I got fired, and all of a sudden, she's pregnant."
Pregnancy discrimination in the workplace is fairly common.
Despite legal protections against employers terminating women because they are pregnant, including the Pregnancy Discrimination Act passed by Congress in 1978, which made discrimination based on pregnancy illegal, pregnancy discrimination claims are still widespread.
Between 2010 and 2015, nearly 31,000 pregnancy discrimination charges were filed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to the National Partnership for Women and Families.
A 2014 research study showed that beyond the 31,000 pregnancy discrimination charges, a large number of women were denied requests for simple accommodations such as paid maternity leave, time off for prenatal visits, or less physically demanding duties.
While Smith didn't elaborate on which state she lived in and experienced being fired because of her pregnancy, the rules of employers firing women because of pregnancy-related reasons vary.
In the comments section, many TikTok users pointed out that what Smith endured by being fired falls under pregnancy discrimination.
"Is there not enough funds for two maternity leaves or what? Because why else would that be a motive?" one user questioned, while another wrote, "That's not right for them to do at all!"
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics.