It Wasn’t Worth It

It Wasn’t

Worth

It!

It all began about six and a half years ago. I had interviewed for a teller position at a major banking center. I was wearing a black pants suit. I was no bigger than a size six, and the suit was a perfect fit. During the interview, the hiring manager, Mary, stated that she had to look no further because I had the position.

It was explained to me during the hiring process that I was hired as part-time 20-25 hrs. a week, there were no set hours, and I had no benefits. I did not have a problem with this because I had a two year old daughter at home. I agreed and started work immediately. After completing three days of eight hour training, I was put at a window. I never worked a part-time shift. Instead I would get to work at 7:30 and would leave between the hours of 5:30 and 6:00.

I had been working there for about a month when I went to the doctor. I was told that I was almost three months pregnant. I had no clue because I had no morning sickness and everything was normal. When I returned to work I informed my immediate supervisor as well as the branch manager that I was expecting. My supervisor and coworkers congratulated me and the branch manager said nothing. I got the feeling that she was not excited for me. At that time my supervisor explained to me that I was unable to lift and carry the heavy cash drawers and the huge bags of change because of my condition. There was a guy that was also a teller by the name of Jerrod and he was told to assist me with those things. He already knew what to do because there was another pregnant teller on our staff, but she was almost due.

Two weeks later, after the branch had closed for the day I went in the back to use the phone. In the middle of my phone call, the branch manager came back there and stated “get off of the phone”. I ended my call, but I was very angry because she was very rude and disrespectful. Next she said “I need to talk to you upstairs”. I went up the stairs with her where the conference rooms were. We went into the rooms and she began to talk.

She began the conversation by stating that she was pleased with my work and how I was able to handle the commercial window, how my drawer was never short, and my attendance was great. At this time I was thinking that I was getting a raise or something. She went on to say that when she hired me she had no knowledge that I was pregnant. She also said that she wouldn’t have hired me if she would’ve known because she already had one pregnant teller that was about to go on maternity leave and with pregnancy comes problems. At first I didn’t know how to respond to her comments, and as I was listening all I