Being a working mom is never easy, but having a supportive boss makes all the difference.
One anonymous mom recently went back to work, and like many moms, she'll need to pump breast milk during the day. So she sent her boss an email to give him a head's up. She told him that, ideally, she'd take three breaks for breast pumping per day.
His response was so golden, the mom just had to share it on Reddit. He said:
“Yes, whatever you need to do be successful here, I am supportive. I think it would be helpful to block your calendar for the times that you will be unavailable as I (or others) may inadvertently schedule something over these times. And nothing here is so crucial that you should not take care of yourself so please let me know if there’s anything else that we need to discuss.”
Fellow moms on Reddit loved his positive response. Score one for working moms!
Motherhood is tricky when it comes time to go back to work, and if you're still breastfeeding, that just throws another wrench in the works. There's often no choice but to pump milk during the workday.
Every breastfeeding, working mom faces this issue, regardless of their job setup.
Even famous actresses like Rachel McAdams have to deal with figuring out how to breastfeed while maintaining a career.
And famous singers, like Pink, deal with it, too.
But when you're not your own boss or on your own schedule, the whole thing is even tougher to handle.
The US Department of Labor says that employers are required to provide a "reasonable break time for an employee to express breast milk for her nursing child for 1 year after the child’s birth each time such employee has need to express the milk."
In other words, you should be able to pump milk at work whenever the heck you need to.
The law also says that employers have to provide a private area that is not a bathroom for this purpose.
But do all employers listen to this law? Haha NO.
That's why one anonymous woman on Reddit was delighted when her male boss was actually really supportive when she informed him that she'd need to pump at work.
"Emailed my manager about my return to work and plan to pump; this was his response!" she wrote alongside a clapping emoji.
In short, the boss told her that he supported whatever she needed to do to be successful at work, breast pumping included. He even encouraged her to speak up about anything else that she might need, because "nothing here is so crucial that you should not take care of yourself."
A boss said these words. A real, male boss! Amazing.
Thanks to this simple, three-sentence-long email, this mom can now pump at work in peace.
In response to her post, other moms chimed in with their own bosses' attitudes toward pumping. Many of them were also positive.
One impressive manager even created a whole new pumping room just for an employee who'd recently given birth. It had a fridge and white noise machine and everything!
Other bosses, unfortunately, are not so supportive. One woman's (female) boss told her to pump in the bathroom with a "Meeting in Session" sign on the door.
Another woman's (also female) boss told her that she could only pump if she could find someone to cover for her while she was gone, forcing her to stand her ground and insist upon her rights.
As one Facebook user pointed out, we shouldn't have to be this congratulatory to bosses who are actually supportive of their breastfeeding employees — and who actually, y'know, FOLLOW THE LAW.
But until every boss does right by their mama employees, we'll be over here giving a round of applause to the ones who do.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
