Contents
I got pregnant on the pill… With Kenneth, we had been together for less than a year. I was afraid that he would react badly, but he was very happy and reassured me: “Anyway, having a baby is like starting a company, it’s never the right time! I was in full happiness. Then it got tough …
I wanted to do it right. There are no rules in Belgium, but I told my employer after a month and a half. I was pharmaceutical representative for a large laboratory. We had all been recruited by an external agency and we had to be evaluated before our integration. It was the normal course. Everything went well, until the day I realized that I had been sacked. In the end, all my colleagues were hired… except me. I remember the explanation I was given: “We are 90% sure of you, but we would like to be 100%. “So I was allowed to drive in a smaller car than my colleagues and earn € 500 less each month! I let it be known that I did not agree and that I felt discriminated against because I was pregnant. Moreover, another sales representative, who arrived after me, had already been integrated. I was then told that if I continued to protest, it would be an immediate dismissal. Even a ban on raising the tone. At the same time, I learned that I was no longer suitable for the position and that my assessments were negative.
I won against my employer
Fortunately, I had kept my entire file at home, not counting my emails. My lawyer therefore had all the evidence in hand to initiate proceedings: I had informed my employer of my pregnancy by registered letter and I had good evaluations. So I won. A few thousand euros. But only the result mattered to me and I would have been satisfied with a symbolic euro. One euro to say that I refused this discrimination… I had the impression that the world was collapsing: more work, more car, more money. All the lights suddenly changed from green to red. It was necessary to wait for the birth of the baby to think of reworking. In the meantime, I ate, I was bored, I didn’t earn any money. My companion makes a decent living, but I didn’t want to ask him anything. I’m way too proud for that! He left every morning only to return at 20:30 pm And I was lost.
At the beginning of the pregnancy, I resented my baby
When you’ve always worked full-time, you don’t see this situation very well. I had nothing else to do but wait. Charles was born on December 24. My Christmas gift for life. At the start of my pregnancy, I admit that I was angry with him… But as soon as I saw him, everything was behind me, of course, and I blamed myself for having thought so. Everything that seemed important to me before has become very relative. A few months later, I resumed working as a part-time nurse in a blood sample center, which allowed me to take care of Charles. There, I told myself that I was now able to manage everything and I spent full time in a hospital center. They offered fixed-term contracts of six months, even a year, especially to women. After three fixed-term contracts, I wanted a second child. My colleagues warned me: “Be careful, you risk losing your place, wait until you have a CDI to get pregnant …” Another pharmaceutical company then came to get me. After two months of interviews, I was hired as a “product specialist”, a very specialized position for which I followed six weeks of training and passed numerous tests. I was very proud of it. If we failed one of the tests, we could not go to the next step. I passed the first two with flying colors, but by the third it got tough. I had found out that I was pregnant and I was not feeling very well. This time, I hadn’t said anything, but everyone saw that I was turning from green to gray, from hot to cold, and my nausea did not go unnoticed, even if I escaped the lunches by pretending to be too much. job. One day, when I was not feeling well, I took my face in my hands. We were in class, my “product specialist” stared at me and her gaze changed. I realized that the rest might be difficult for me, but I was determined to keep quiet.
I had given everything even though I was pregnant
I wanted to wait until the end of the training, I wanted to be able to say that I had given everything even though I was pregnant. This is how it went. After class, I went home. It was a Wednesday night. There, my trainer called me to tell me that my next test, which was normally scheduled in four days, was brought forward to the next day. Cut to my protests, she said, “We assume you had the whole weekend to work. No matter how much I explained that Charles had been ill, nothing could be done. So I spent the evening working as best I could. Kenneth advised me to skim over my course. But, even though I didn’t answer all of the questions, I wanted to at least get a score of 60%. In the end, I only dried up on two of the seventeen questions. On Monday, I was called in about the test. And there, I learn that I completely missed it. In fact, I found out later that my score was around 60%. I was dismissed on the spot. It was in February 2018. I was absolutely outraged. I explained to my interlocutors that this child was not expected.
While I had landed the perfect job, my life was once again ransacked. I passed my tests, I behaved impeccably, I always arrived on time and I never balked at working weekends. My crime? Make babies! If I had been a man, none of this would have happened. I also think of all those work colleagues who were exhausted to the task to get rid of them… My lawyer received false letters from my employer, who claimed that I was demotivated! However, I was fully focused on my integration, on products and processes! Obviously, I was refused a copy of my exercises. What a shame ! In Belgium, we play on the small flaws. We are neighbors of France, but there are double standards. And now, how do I explain on my CV that I got fired for the first time and that I had to hire a lawyer? Then a second time? At 34, do I have to stop working and take care of my children? Despite my diplomas and my motivation. In 2018, I’m just wondering if it’s possible to have a professional career while having children. the
Interview by Jessica Bussaume