So now nursing women get two breaks. Dang that's a perk for sure. I still believe that being able to pee anywhere without making a mess is still a cool perk and a better win.
My company has private rooms with a comfy chair and a refrigerator for our new moms. You only have badge access if you are a pumping mom. It is so appreciated.
My company does none of that. Because we employ men. Who just get on and work. And men don’t make our employer pay for a room just for their life choice, wages to pursue their life choices, another person to do their job when they pursue their life choice. And they don’t get this sass of the patriarchy crap!
@@Pete_Piper You mean the choice the woman AND the man made, right?? Because if he isn't making enough, she has to help pay the bills. So unless all those men are making enough for their wives to go on proper maternity leave (which isn't standard in the States), they are just a responsible for the employer having to make those accommodations.
@@Pete_Piperif men made enough money to provide for their wives there could be more stay at home wives. Their failure as the breadwinners has made it so women are required to work to make sure the family has enough money between both incomes to keep a roof over their heads and a safe place for the babies to sleep.
It is ridiculous that companies don't strive to provide basic accommodations and needs to employees. But, expects them to bend over backward when they're in a bind.🙄
I'm lucky I work in a company that cares about their staff, I was travelling to work with a sore throat and while on the bus I took a soother to get rid of the pain but by the time I got off the bus and walking to the building I was gagging and retching and was feeling like I was going to be sick, I got into the building and was in tears from the discomfort the receptionist called up my boss and asked my boss to grab me some water I was given a bin bag incase I did throw up and my boss grabbed me some tissues aswell, the receptionist waited until someone else could fill in for him and the receptionist drove me home! My boss was so understanding and has found someone to cover for me tomorrow as well, because this literally happened today 13 hours ago, to be exact. My boss was so kind to me I kept apologising because we're supposed to give at least an hour notice before our shift if we can't work it, he told me it wasn't my fault and he understood, that they would be fine being a person short. I was so glad that he was reassuring me because I felt so bad and guilty for not being able to work today on such short notice. I honestly am so glad that my boss and the receptionist were so understanding I have adhd and autism so I was very upset about potentially making my coworkers jobs harder with me not there because of how inconvenient I fell ill, the guilt I had was awful I apologised for gagging when my boss was talking to me and he was just so kind about it all, It was handled so well and I can't begin to explain how grateful I feel because of how he made me feel better and less guilty (idk if I'm making sense here so I'm sorry if it's confusing) He basically told me that I made an effort to come in which is good and that these things happen, it helped me to feel less awful about leaving my colleagues a person short. I did end up being sick several hours after my work shift would have ended, and I am feeling a little better now throat is still sore I'll see how I feel in the morning weather I go into work tomorrow or not, it appears that throwing up actually made me feel better lol 😅. Sorry if this is long, lol. Oops... And yes, I apologise a lot... it's the Adhd & autism I feel like a burden and hate to inconvenience others 🤷♀️ weird psychological thinking that I can't help nor ignore/get over.
Entitled much? "I have problems, hey boss solve them. " "You have to the government said so" How about a little initiative and responsibility. Explain the situation. Suggest and discuss options. Any good employer will work with you of you work. Don't be an empty vessel.
I had a male boss who anticipated my need for pump space when my usual room (an until-then unoccupied office) became unavailable. He was actually out on vacation, but offered his own office while he was gone and helped me find a new space when he returned. Shortly after, the organization created a designated mother's room.
Before this law, I had a nursing friend who was nursing. 😂 The charge nurse made her pump standing up in the dirty utility CLOSET. Because she didn’t want to pump in the bathroom. So. It was a 4X6 closet with dirty patient trays, wound vacs, used bedside commodes, dirty linen and trash. I saw her walking out of it crying. Holding a lunch box. She said the charge wouldn’t let her take 5 minutes to pump, and she ruined a scrub top. I chewed the charge nurse out, and I found an empty clean room. I called the house supervisor and told her what happened. I was an ICU nurse floated down to medsurg. So I was close to the house sup. She was LIVID (she just had her rainbow baby and was pumping). They didn’t fill the room (thanks to the house sup), I took one of the girl’s patients so she could have 5, and more time to pump. Ladies, we have to look out for one another!
@@rrsttt7505you may not know this, but there is NOTHING sexy about pumping LOL it’s the equivalent of a cow getting milked in a factory. So keep your gross fantasies to yourself - you’d hate the reality anyway 😂
A few had coffee! Haha. The looks on their faces were kinda hilarious NGL lol. I waitressed on weekends and the staff forgot to tell the head manager I was upstairs. Again no doors 🤣 just word of mouth that I needed privacy. There's other reasons for therapy. I got it covered 🤣🤣
@@PinkyFruitcake How is she supposed to know which rooms are appropriate unless her job is in scheduling them? The managers know the schedules of all the employees which means the managers know rooms are needed for work purposes and which rooms can be spared to be repurposed into a pumping room.
As a Senior Geologist, i was tasked to coach a couple of juniors. One of the juniors (a female employee) had just delivered and asked me if there was a place she could pump. I went to the admin, got keys to a private meeting room with frosted glass panels and gave the junior co worker the keys to that room and told her to pump whenever she needed to. It really isnt that difficult to find solutions
@@MsMaryPatricia some women still breastfeed after 6 months of delivery, so yes...despite the maternity leave, she needed to pump. As for the office set up, the major European company I work for did not cater towards new mothers, so finding her a private room to pump was the least I could do. Are you always this combative? You must be a pleasure to be around since your assumptions are astoundingly nasty
@@MsMaryPatricia re-read what you wrote first. You sounded combative. If that wasn't your intention, then I am sorry, because it came across that way. Enjoy the rest of your day.
I got lucky with my pumping. My boss was a married man with 5 children, so he let me use his personal office because it had a couch and he set up a screen for me to sit behind because he didn't have shades. So he got a nice foldable one. And he left me alone. Was a saint.
@@fossil1127 nope. Women are more likely to complain about breastfeeding in public and all that crap. My older sister was disgusted by it and told me it's gross and unnatural
I was the first person at my job to need this sort of accommodation and the boss was great about it. But all the women I worked with were awful about it... One lady insisted it was something I could do at night before I came in to work or just on my days off🤦♀️ these were all ladies well into their 50s early 60s and we worked 12 hour shifts. They all had grown kids who they formula fed because they thought breastfeeding was "weird"
In my country, nursing mothers can request additional 30 mins. of paid break. It's absolutely insane to me, that lot of people in the US act like caring for the family is most important job a woman can do, and then create laws which are so hostile to young families. If I would live in the US, I wouldn't even think of having a child.
@ElysV135 why should you get extra breaks for a personal decision you made? You decided to have a kid. Pumping on the same breaks as everyone else is your problem.
Been a law in Germany for a long time. I got payed time to pump or breastfeed (husband brought the baby over), a room I could lock and a fridge to cool the milk. And the breastpump was covered by health insurance. 😊 Keep working on a better support US people 🤩
I'm in the US and my pump was covered by insurance , I was sent it as soon as I found out I was pregnant through a doctor, and got to pick which one I wanted. So between this act and that, we are making some progress!
When I was pumping, my job at the time, had private rooms, and you could choose to work if you wanted, or they even had tvs. No pressure, it had couches and chairs and was really nice. They even let me use the rooms to lie down while I was pregnant. I used them on my lunch break to take naps, as long as no one else was needing it, but we had several on just our floor, and every floor.
Such a law and amenity wouldn't even be necessary if the US just caught up with the rest of the world and provided new mothers with proper and adequate maternity leave.
@@redclayscholar620 No, I mean the rest of the world. Western Europe just has the most generous maternity leave packages. There are only 7 countries in the world that do not require paid maternity leave, and the US is unfortunately one of them. Other countries are required by law to grant female employees maternity leave, either fully paid, half paid etc. For example, China grants 98 days, Australia grants 22 weeks, South Africa 4 months, India 26 weeks, UAE 90 days and Singapore 16 weeks.
@@raven_bard correction. There are 12 states that allow for 12 weeks paid maternity leave and South Carolina allows 12 weeks for state employees. My home state of Tennessee grants free child healthcare insurance and maternal healthcare insurance for up to 3 years. That was surprisingly passed by a Republican governor too.
Questioning leaving my current job as many coworkers keep complaining about my 10 minute pump breaks every 3 hours and management keeps trying to get me to change what I do instead of having my back. When I respond with I am by law allowed to pump, I'm met with "well the team is just being nasty to you because they feel like they are pulling your share of the work" mind you not a single person even offers to help me do my work. Discrimination for pregnancy and breastfeeding in the US is a real problem that too much gray area is being left in. "Reasonable pumping times" leaves way too much gray areas and my management seems to think it means reasonable to them and not what my actual body/supply needs.
yikes that sounds like a bad place to be in general, I wouldn't be surprised if the boss makes the others say that, if you reasonably can id def leave! but safety first!!
But are you getting your work done? Is it just their opinion because they see you 'on break' they assume you are relaxing and not working? This could all be in their own heads and it's not your job to manage egos. That's management and it's illegal.
Why would they offer to help you do your work? It's your job, not theirs. You chose to pop a kid. It's ridiculous that some people are given extra breaks just because they decided to procreate.
@@krn2683 10 minutes every 3 hours is not going to make or break anyone's workloads. If you work on a computer, you should be getting up and taking eye breaks more frequently than that anyways. Smokers frequently take longer and more frequent breaks for much less productive of a reason.
@@krn2683dude shut up. They give smokers extra breaks too. It’s a normal decision to have kids. It literally keeps the economy going. Many countries are freaking out right now because the birth rate is so low and if it continues to be low or decline more, their country is screwed. Believe it or not you need people to be popping out kids. They aren’t taking a luxury break. They’re taking a break to supply food for a child. Oh no, the employee will be getting extra breaks for MAYBE a couple of years. It’s the end of the world. Grow up.
I wish there were better options for working moms everywhere! Throughout 5 years at the grocery store where I used to work, several new moms needed to pump, and the only place the store could provide was the little room where the training computers were (and they were lucky if it was close to the department where they usually worked). If anyone needed to use the training room for time-sensitive training, it created a problem/awkwardness for everyone involved. 😐 I felt sorry for the new moms who were already under such pressure, and who had nowhere truly private and dedicated for them to go to pump. I wish the Pump Act had been a thing back then, but I'm glad it's in effect now. Thank you for spreading the word!!
As an ex smoker, you hit the nail on the head. Smokers get more accommodations than pregnant/new mothers, or any other employees. Some places decided everyone has scheduled breaks, no extra for smoking and as a smoker myself, it didn’t bother me. I think it’s more than fair.
You missed the point of the video. It is not about the breaks, these are not costing much. But dedicated room with these real estate prices is a huge cost on the business.
When my youngest was born 11 years ago I was working in a sub shop. I had to pump in the back prep area while I ate my dinner cause that was my only break and people walked in and out behind me the whole time. I'm glad there are more protections for moms today!
I worked at a brand new school from August until November when I moved and it had a Mother's Room just for pumping!! I had a baby at home so I got to use it, it was so nice. It had a very comfy chair, a little table that I used to eat my lunch on, a fridge and a sink. After I moved, I pumped in a storage closet 😂 It was fine, I didnt expect to continue to be so accommodated, especially since my new school was an older building, but man, I missed that mother's room😂 I really hope since this is law now that when companies build or even move new offices that they just include a Mother's room into the blueprints or sacrifice a small storage room for that purpose.
When we moved into our new building 10 years ago we created a mother’s room. It has a couch, a couple of individual cubicles, a sink, and a refrigerator. The room runs on a key card system.
My dad was a health manager and when he was working he would let any women who needed to pump or anything like that do it in his office. It''s one of the many reasons he had such good connections with his employees. They would even eat lunch with him, that's the kind of man my dad is.
We had a lady that made the company get all that in order only to abuse the break time. They kept track of how long she was taking and the lawyers said it was extremely excessive, so she was fired. Went to court and company won. So when you start telling companies what the law be prepared and don't abuse it.
My work provided a spare classroom but the problem was was that not all teachers respected it being reserved for me and would use the room when I needed to pump. I would tell them that by law I have priority use of the room. However because I was a new teacher some staff would not care. I would have to scramble to find another place to pump during my short break times.
Currently nursing a babe and my company doesn’t have a spare room so they sectioned off a part of the back room with a shower curtain. Workers also stay out of the back while I’m pumping for extra privacy. 😊
Sooooooo my company (a public school system) did not provide me with this even though i essentially demanded it. And my retaliation was to pump as publicly and ridiculously as possible. I didn’t do it in IEP meetings but I did it while others were eating lunch. I essentially wanted someone to complain about it so they would have to find me a space. Never happened but I feel like my statement was loud and clear.
Also make sure to make a paper trail about it afterwards. Follow up with an email where you go over what you talked about. It’s illegal to fire someone for having a kid, but some places try anyway. Documentation can help you convince a jury that getting fired 2 weeks after requesting accommodation is illegal discrimination. (2 weeks is a random number out of a hat. Real times vary. If you think that you were discriminated against, talk to a lawyer about it to see if you have a case)
Two call centers ive worked at had rooms specifically for nursing mothers who needed to pump. I had a six month old when i started one of them and i was mindblown 🤯🤯 more companies should do this!
Having that private room is great. But you also need the TIME to pump at least 2-3 times between an 8hr shift. The longer the pause between pumping, lower is the milk production. The more frequent you pump, it higher.
@@Muchacha2024the issue is there’s needs to be a standard because people take advantage of it. I once worked fast food and some lady took 2 hours and nothing was said. Boy was I pissed I had to cover her station for 2 hours
I’ve watched so many of your videos and I’m still loving your catch phrase “you got this!”. You say it in such a friendly, positive and genuine way, I get a boost of confidence every time! Thanks for the encouragement!
My mom worked in a school library and regularly provided her office to pumping moms. It had no windows, a comfy chair, and a lock on the door. She had so much sympathy because when my sister was pumping she was in a janitor closet with no lock and people would regularly try to come in to get stuff.
Thanks for doing this- wish I would've known about this last year when I took a job and they promised me pump breaks. I was only there two months in part because they kept 'forgetting' to let me out of my classroom to pump and I lost my supply.
I really needed this law in 1998. My employer said they couldn't give me special treatment. I got my 6 weeks off of unpaid leave and that was less than tolerable for them.
Both jobs I’ve had while pumping were amazing and I felt so lucky to have such supportive bosses and coworkers! Even my male coworker would come take over when he knew it was time for me to pump, I worked at a hospital so I literally had to have coverage when I would go pump. They were amazing people and the only reason I made my goal of pumping until my kids first birthday!
I’m three months postpartum and breastfeeding 100% my baby, I will be going back to work in a few weeks so definitely I’m going to need to pump, I wasn’t aware of the PUMP Act, thank you Erin! ❤❤❤❤
Friend of mine had a girl at her work who took advantage of this. She would pretend she's pumping milk even after having finished and just sit on her ass taking an extra break. She forgot to turn the sign to occupied and a coworker went in the room and caught her. Was fired for stealing company time.
agreed but also for some moms, it’s extremely uncomfortable to wear a nursing cover when pumping cause it can get in the way. also for me personally and other moms, my temperature spikes whenever im pumping and wearing a nursing cover causes me to be overwhelmed when i become overheated and i start to feel claustrophobic
I made sure to make direct eye contact with as many people as possible while nursing in public. I had to intentionally refuse to be ashamed (mostly) my son didn't tolerate even a hint of a cover so it was tatas out in the middle of the mall for us
@@monilip cuz pumping in a college student lounge room isn't all that reassuring. And maybe I want more coverage than a bikini cuz I like keeping my body to myself. But you do you.
My office building had a great “mothers room” for new moms. I would just tell my manager I was taking a pumping break and let her know when I got back to my desk. Only accessible by a key you had to sign for at the reception desk. It had a very comfy chair with a side table, mini fridge to store your milk, a sink to clean your pump after and a cupboard for storage if you wanted to leave your pump there so you didn’t have to keep it at your desk all day.
I can’t be the only one who finds the name pump act a little fun… as amazing as it is Edit: I’m so sorry if it seemed as if I am poking fun at the act… I’m not I just thought the name was a bit funny. Thanks!😊
Spelled out, it's the "Providing Urgent Maternal Protections (PUMP) for Nursing Mothers Act." Sometimes they get cute with these acronyms, sometimes they obfuscate. The full act is worth a read. It notes that pumping time counts as "time worked" when adding up hours, wages, and overtime. Smaller businesses and (interestingly) airline flight staff are exempt.
Finding one of the small, safe (lockable!) rooms to feed my toddler in was seriously the best part of traveling via airport. It can get so stressful being a nursing mom in public and flying makes it doubly so. A dedicated and secure space, however small, for moms to take care of children in makes a huge difference.
@@DefaultDerrick dude, kids have breastfed until age 4-5 for the vast majority of human history and in most places in the world, they still do. there has never been anything sexual about it. if you ever breastfed a child you would know 😂 boobs are literally _designed for feeding kids,_ so get your weird sex complex away from this perfectly good mama, it's not her fault you can't get over it
I used to give myself insulin injections in my cubicle and I was very quiet and discreet but somebody noticed one day and they went to my supervisor. My supervisor suggested that I take my insulin shots in the bathroom. I was mortified and kind of a little ill at the thought of doing something that is supposed to be a sterile procedure in a public toilet. He didn't suggested that I come to him anytime. I need an insulin shot and he will gladly vacate his office and let me use it. I pointed out that he spends all day when he's in his office on the phone or in a meeting with someone and I will end up interrupting him and having to wait. After a few other suggestions that clearly wouldn't work in the moment because my blood sugar spiked and I suddenly need a shot now. I suggested I just do it in my car. With the shift I worked I was always parked very close to the door and no one could tell me what to do in my car. He agreed that if he ever noticed that I was suddenly away from my desk and it wasn't my break time that he would assume I was giving myself an insulin shot. This is the same supervisor who liked to point out that even though I hated sales, I always made my sales goals during our sales meetings I left that job as soon as I found something better. And it didn't take much to be better
@@dammar117It’s always about the mom whenever we talk about parents because dads deserve no rights too. Most dads don’t get paternal leave too because we can care for our new baby smh
@@cczsus6513 I like to use the word "mother" when talking about mothers in their roles as such, instead of neutralizing them with the term "parent." Fathers and mothers are very different. I think that dads should get paternal leave, which is also called parental leave, since both parents can take it. But maternity leave is very specific to mothers, who are pregnant, give birth, and breastfeed. To ignore the specifics of maternity in favor of a gender-neutral society is absurd.
I worked for a tiny company after I gave birth, open and shared floor plan with another company, and pumped in the bathroom stall. My daughter, recently turned 18. She is happy and healthy. For anyone who doesn’t have the cozy pumping accommodations - it’s ok.
In my country you get 3 months of maternity leave (which is not enough I know) but you also get an hour for nursing every day for a year after maternity leave, you can choose when to take it (although I heard some employers force employees to take it at a specific time which is illegal but happens)
@krn2683 not everyone is the same though and studies show how important that time is. Nobody is forcing you to take more time than you want. My son is 3 months today and I'd love to not be at home all the time but I know plenty of moms who loved and needed that time. Especially mom's who some of that time was NICU, my son was in there a month so that's a whole third of my time gone. But yes your mom is every person and speaks for everyone who's ever given birth and how we bond with our babies. The fact you said your mom shows that you yourself are not a mom and have no idea what you're talking about anyway. It's almost like if needing less time was normal than it would be a global average or something. 6 weeks is literally when you can get cleared to have sex or be submerged in water at rhe soonest, baby aside YOU'RE not even done healing.
@@krn2683 I see you in every comment reply talking shit to new moms though and how they don't deserve the time to pump. Really hope nobody treated your mother like that. I'm willing to bet you're a man also. If this law doesn't apply to you then stfu and move on. Women pumping has literally nothing to do with you if you're not pumping.
Does the dad also get 3 months? Or just the mom? Also three months of paid time off? I would start finding ways to fire and not hire women if I had to pay an employee to fuck off for three months.
Sending these to my office mates. We’re mostly female and I swear someone is always pregnant. Our management keeps yelling at one of our pregnant ladies for eating because it looks unprofessional’ at the office since it’s a medical office
I pumped in the storage room of the kitchen. Because it was next to my bureau. Better than a free room on the second floor.... far away.And had a sign with my babys foto on it saying: My mum pumpea mikk for me. Please don't disturb. It worked pretty well. Only one day a delivery man went stight into the room a got shocked 😂
My job had 3 private rooms with pumps already in them. We also had a mini fridge labeled "Breast Milk" Fridge. Each room had sanitizer wipes to wipe down the pumps after each use.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 7 years ago i worked for Starbucks and there was literally only the backroom and the bathroom. And the backroom had cameras. Thankfully my boss was able to put a curtain up in one part of the back room even though i had to face a specific way to avoid my tatas being on camera. I wasnt bothered by it and grateful my manager was very supportive of nursing/pumping. She did what she could with what we had.
This is so useful for me because I'm already forseeing having a hard time getting appropriate time accommodations and knowing about this will definitely help me advocate for myself.
Yeah no, that’s a step too far. Ion want to see breast milk when I’m opening the fridge for my lunch. The fridge is a public space, pls just bring your own cooler or something.
When I worked for Marriott the male manager tried to tell me I couldn’t take time to pump, then tried to say I had to do it in the public restroom until his female manager under him told him he could literally get sued for being a dumbass and she let me use her private office and would personally step in for me whenever I needed to pump.
I don't know if this is in the pump act or not..... but it really should require a sink to wash hands and pump supplies. Additionally, a microwave to sterilize pump supplies is needed (just put cleaned products in ziploc bag and microwave to sterilize), and some sort of cleaning solution provided by the company for people to wipe down the counter or chair or what not. When I get breastmilk drops on the counter when I am removing the flanges (which happens a lot) I need to be able to sterilize that counter for everyone else, and I shouldn't have to bring my own supplies from home to do so.
Why the hell should the company have to provide all this for you? You choose to have a kid, you pay for this. As someone trying to start a small business this is outrageous to me.
@beardedmountain4893 because it is basic human decency to provide a clean place for people to pump food for tiny humans. It's pathetic that there has to be laws in place for this for people like YOU who don't care about nursing mothers.
Please be careful when advocating for yourself with pumping. My pay was docked for pumping outside of my break times because legally I was entitled to the time but not entitled to be paid.
@@ryanparkhurst5718By the law, employers don't have to pay you during pump breaks. I wouldn't call that docking pay though. Just like smokers shouldn't be paid for smoke breaks.
OMG!!! So HAPPY to hear this! Back when I had my babies (2007, 2008, 2011) I totally had to pump in the restroom. It was actually more like a locker room since there were showers. Only nice thing was that there a comfy couch. So glad that new moms won’t have to go through that. ❤
My last child was born in 2011 and back then I had to buy my pump and def pumped on a public toilet more than once. Keep the conversation going! Our kids deserve better when they’re parents!
I was a paramedic for 21yrs and had my 3 babies during that time (2001, 2004, 2006). We never really had scheduled breaks or mealtimes -- you just fit it in between calls. While I was pumping I would keep my pump, multiple flange/bottles and a cooler in the truck with us. I can't even remember half the places I pumped! Sometimes I was able to use our office but more often it was in a parking lot of a place my partner could hang out in for 15min -- ER, Dunkin, diner, etc. I'd just toss my turnout coat over me like a nursing cover and do my thing. Not ideal, but I had an unconventional work environment.
I just sent an email to my boss and the therapist who's office was nearest to my desk asking if I could use her office to pump as we worked different shifts. No cameras and a nice sofa. Everyone was very nice about it. They both emailed that was fine and got me a key.
My company has had a wellness room for the entire 11 years I've worked there. It's not exclusively for breastfeeding mothers, but it's frequently used for pumping. It's got a nice, comfy chair and a mini fridge, and the door locks so you can't be disturbed. It's also good if you need to do something like take medicine, give yourself insulin injections, or if you have a headache and need a few minutes in the quiet and dark
Yes! Absolutely stand up for yourself. I heard the most offensive things breastfeeding. Including a principal telling me that is like deification so the bathroom for me, plus they noise was offensive. I paused, did a slow smile and said that bottled feeding is equally noisy and should also occur in the bathroom or I will call the civil liberties union and sue the school for harassment and child endangerment and I will have the school surrounded with breastfeeding mothers and we will have a milk in! She shut up very quickly.
i work at a daycare and we have super nice breastfeeding/pumping rooms for both employees and parents of the kids at our center. i know they’re nice because i had a breakdown once and one of the infant room teachers found me in the hallway and brought me there to calm down. they were really nice rooms
The place I work established an unused office for one of the recent mothers on staff to use to pump. When our CEO changed, he toured the office and saw the "Do Not Enter" sign and declared it didn't apply to him because he was in charge and walked in. (She was not in there at the time.) He was then told what we were using the office for. . He turned beat red and declared the sign to be, "insufficiently descriptive" and made us make a new one. This was 2018, I think.
Bout damn time! I Remember people complaining about the sound of my pump in the bathroom when I worked retail. Its a different level of sadness being away from your baby wanting nothing more than to feed and snuggle them and you reduced to sitting on a crapper trying to get milk out as fast as you humanly possibly can on your only break, crying your eyes out because nothings coming out & no matter how hard that damn pump sucks, if your not comfortable enough the flow won't go. Then you spend all day engorged and in throbbing pain. 😭
Self-advocacy is the most powerful thing you can do at work, stand your ground but be positive and encouraging, this goes a long way for yourself and also for those around you who might witness this, they may not know they have these rights too.
I mean maybe so but not many people here can afford a pay cut (since maternity leave isn't a whole normal paycheck) nor can they afford to loose future job perspectives for a 2 year gap on their resume.
A friend of mine recently won a lawsuit against our company for this exact thing, they'd tell her to clock out completely to pump and then try to write her up for clocking in and out and wouldn't let her have time to pump on the clock, after she got video evidence of them not having running water or a private refrigerator in the mother's room and had her breast milk STOLEN IN THE BREAK ROOM she got a nice settlement and we got a few upgrades to the mother's room at work. Never fired the manager and associate who stole her milk, they just transferred those two to different warehouses.. some places are just garbage.
When my mom was pumping for my little sister, she was given a room to pump in, but after a while my mom found out that her boss had a camera in the room and was watching her when she pumped so she quit her job, and wasn’t able to get a lawyer or start a case because of money,
I recently saw a vacant office room get a sign to notify it is now a pumping room and to knock first. I always wondered why specifically they made that, didnt know it was an actual law now. Glad it is though!
Not me thinking- why does she still need to pump, if her baby is already 3 years old. Them I’m realizing not every country has 3 years maternity leave😭😭😭😭 hugs to all the mamas🙏🏻
