Pregnant Woman Sues Company After Being Fired For Bathroom Breaks

In light of the Supreme Court’s imminent decision on the pregnancy discrimination case against UPS, an Oregon woman has filed a gender and discrimination lawsuit against her former employer in an effort to get her job back after they terminated her for taking frequent bathroom breaks, which she claims was due to a bladder issue and oh right, her pregnancy.

When Dawn Steckmann, a fabrication technician at Maxim Integrated Products, a chip manufacturer, first became pregnant in 2011, her employers reassured her that she didn’t have to clock out for her increased bathroom breaks, something that happens when a woman is pregnant, which is something that has been happening to human women since the dawn of human kind.

However, when she became pregnant again in 2013, she ended up using the bathroom more often and more urgently due to a bladder issue that surfaced during the first pregnancy. So, after 10 years of employment, the company fired her. Via USA Today:

The Oregonian reports that in June 2013, Steckmann’s supervisor and the HR manager called her into a meeting, chided her for not clocking out, and fired her. She claims the HR manager said that she could have been watching movies during her frequent breaks, and that her supervisor equated her bathroom behavior to stealing because “not clocking out to use the restroom is stealing from the company.”

She could have been watching movies? Wow. I wonder if whoever suggested that actually heard what he said because that excuse is the definition of scrambling. Now, this may come as a bit of a shock, but all of Steckmann’s managers at the company are men, which actually makes the movies excuse make a tiny bit of sense though not any less clueless, ridiculous or inexcusable. Apparently she had already made gender bias complaints to the CEO about her supervisor, so it doesn’t exactly seem like the most welcoming atmosphere.

Steckman is seeking $406,000 in lost wages and damages. She also just wants her job back.