Being penalized for using flexible working policies—remote work, hybrid work, parental leave, and more—can be subtle, or screamingly obvious.
Nicole Yelland, a communications strategist from Detroit, has experienced both. In one remote role, she was managed by a hostile boss whose explosive “Hulk-out” rages made work miserable. The breaking point came when her 5-year-old daughter was laid out sick in Yelland’s office during a call, and her manager erupted, asking what her “kid is doing in the office” in an expletive-packed rant: “You’re not paying attention! You’re not committed!” He then dismissed remote work as “BS”—as he himself was working from his large house in the country. When Yelland asked what he did when his own child was sick, he replied: “That’s what his mother is for.” She says she hid her daughter from the camera on future videoconference calls, and sent him her resignation notice shortly thereafter.
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