“I Have My Own Life Too”: Child-Free Woman Refuses To Cover For Pregnant Coworker

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Unpaid overtime is far from anyone’s ideal scenario. But every once in a while people might have to add an hour or two to their workday, often to help a fellow employee.

But a couple of hours here and there are far from working overtime for months on end. That’s what redditor u/Content_Plate1802 was asked to do to cover for her pregnant coworker. She suggested that everyone in the team share the load, but the colleagues believed that she alone should do it as she was the only one without children or, in their words, responsibilities.

Some pregnancies bring unexpected situations that might stand in the way of working

Image credits: Matilda Wormwood (not the actual image)

This redditor refused to cover for her pregnant coworker who was ordered bed rest

Image credits: MART PRODUCTION (not the actual image)

Image credits: Content_Plate1802

The question of having children can be a sensitive issue

There can be numerous reasons people don’t have kids, from choosing not to to being unable to have children. Whether they’re child-free or involuntarily childless respectively, it can be a sensitive subject, especially with stigma around it being quite prevalent.

Research suggests that in poor-resource areas, for instance, stigma is one of the most prominent negative consequences when it comes to being childless in a community. Data suggests that not having children can also have a negative effect on the in-law relationship and marriage.

The study emphasized that, based on the research regarding the Western world, involuntary childlessness can have strong psychological and psychosomatic effects, and women seem to be especially affected. Some of the most common negative consequences include distress, raised levels of depression and anxiety, feelings of blame and guilt, and somatic complaints, among others.

These negative outcomes are just part of the reason people shouldn’t be making comments about or downplaying the structure of others’ families. For example, to say that someone’s free time is less valuable because they don’t have children, as team members implied to the OP. Nowadays, nearly one in six adults over 55 are childless, according to a 2021 report, which would likely frown upon such views.

Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio (not the actual image)

Policies regarding maternity leave can differ greatly from country to country

While some people don’t want to or can’t have children, others can’t wait to welcome their little one into the world. But that often entails jumping through quite a few hoops before the baby arrives, whether it’s health, home, or work, among other things, that they relate to. The latter is what the OP’s coworker had to figure out, as she wasn’t able to work anymore, but needed the income before she could start her paid maternity leave.

Policies regarding maternity leave vary with each country (it can even differ from state to state or depending on the industry). The redditor’s colleague was seemingly to get six months of paid leave, which only half of the world’s high- and middle-income countries, which are part of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) or the European Union (EU), provide, The Guardian reports.

It pointed out that, according to UNICEF’s data, Estonia is the leading country, where new mothers reportedly get full wages for the first 18 months of their little one’s life; last on the list is the US with zero weeks, as there is no national statutory paid maternity leave.

The OP’s colleague was ordered bed rest way before her paid maternity leave was due to start, which resulted in the dilemma of who could cover her workload. Even though the redditor sympathized with the soon-to-be-mother, she wasn’t willing to do unpaid overtime for months, especially considering that the rest of the team members weren’t either. Fellow redditors seemingly took different sides on the matter.