HR hounds woman on maternity leave to complete trainings, boss constantly reminds them not to bother her: 'Your current management just threw you under the bus instead of taking 5 seconds to check the email chain'

Author image for JR Atkinson
JR Atkinson • Writer and Editor
Dec 8, 2025 10:00 AM EST

Maternity leave is sacred. You're busy rearing a child, and that happens to take up a lot of your life. You don't always have time to stop and answer an email. And your team should know this. They should know to respect the boundaries of your leave and not bother you with stuff that can easily wait until you get back. But that doesn't stop some people from doing way too much. Some folks just want to make everyone else suffer so they can feel a little bit better about themselves. That's what happened in this story. 

An employee was on maternity leave and understandably didn't check her email. She was on leave, after all. And when she came back to do the difficult work of sorting through all her emails, she made sure to catch up on training that had come up when she was gone. The problem was that her company didn't believe her. They thought she was slacking on her duties and did their best to make her feel bad about it even after her boss had defended her. 

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  • A pregnant woman sits on her couch and looks at a computer.
    via Unsplash+ (Brooke Cagle)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • So she took to the internet with her story, and wondered if she had done something wrong in the process. She was frustrated with having to constantly remind the higher-ups of her leave and was left feeling generally disrespected. Read on to see what happened in the story and what you would have done. 

  • Being harassed for not completing trainings while I was on maternity leave...

    I just came back to work 2 weeks ago after being on maternity leave for a year. During that year there were several company wide trainings that employees had to do, y'know stuff for HR and data security etc. I had at least 6,000 emails to go through when I came back, and while I was going through the past year's emails I
    via u/VulcanHumour
  • saw multiple emails from HR reprimanding me for not doing the trainings, and my boss. replying to each and every one of them saying "she's on maternity leave, postpone her due date." I literally finished up the last of these trainings yesterday, there were about 8 hours of all the
    via u/VulcanHumour
  • trainings total and I've been busy also retraining for my role bc it has 100% changed since I left (company restructuring, including a new boss who is different than the guy emailing everyone about my maternity leave). Anywho, about 12 hours after I finished the very last training, I'm added to a teams chat with my boss, her boss, and his boss. So all 3 levels above me. The big boss had
    via u/VulcanHumour
  • created the chat and sent a really passive aggressive message about me not finishing the trainings, saying "They have been published as required for a long time. Confirm that you will get these done." Now I've never met the big boss, let's call him Hal, he oversees 200+ people, but I've definitely
    via u/VulcanHumour
  • spoken to my boss and her boss, they both knew I was on maternity leave. But instead of correcting the big boss, they double down, saying I need to email them a confirmation of my completing the trainings (that's not a standard thing we do for these trainings) and that I'm putting the team in potential violation for mandatory compliance.
    via u/VulcanHumour
  • I'm fucking raging because this is not the first time my company has fucked around with me, y'all don't even want to know the shit they said about my dad's funeral. I don't care that everyone sucks up to Hal and see him as such a big honcho. So I reply saying "I wasn't aware that I was meant to do trainings on maternity leave" and "I completed all of my
    via u/VulcanHumour
  • trainings yesterday, 12 hours before you sent this teams message Hal, just fyi." I then proceeded to forward him all the emails my former boss sent HR about me being on maternity leave and not being able to do the trainings, as well as the two dozen emails confirming each training was completed.
    via u/VulcanHumour
  • I know I probably shouldn't be so openly aggressive to Hal, especially in front of my boss and her boss, but fuck them for not standing up for me I've literally done nothing wrong.
    via u/VulcanHumour
  • A pregnant woman sits on a couch next to a little girl.
    via Unsplash+ (Brooke Cagle)

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • Commenters sympathized with this woman.

    JFK11a 8h ago The fact that your old boss had to repeatedly email HR saying "she's on maternity leave" and they STILL harassed you is wild. And then your current management just threw you under the bus instead of
    via u/JFK11a
  • taking 5 seconds to check the email chain? Nah, you handled that perfectly. Hal needed that reality check, and honestly your bosses deserved to look stupid in front of him for not doing their jobs.
    via u/JFK11a
  • Odd-Egg57 . 7h ago Oh, the first email I saw from HR I'd have been like, "Can you just confirm you require me to undertake training whilst on maternity leave. I'd have said the same to the big boss, but request he put this in writing. See if anyone is stupid enough to put you in a position to sue them.
    via u/Odd-Egg57
  • Content-County-... • 7h ago Nah, openly aggressive would be openly letting them know you are reaching out to lawyers on discrimination related to maternity leave.
    via u/Content-County-9347
  • Renbarre . • 8h ago Best answer is passive agressive. When you are angry never send the email you just wrote, keep it on the back burner then go back to it. Most of the time you will rewrite it. As a sample:
    via u/Renbarre
  • Dear boss, this is to inform you that since my return from my (length of time) maternity leave on (date) I have made sure to complete my training as required. I am now up to date on all the training sent by HR during my leave.
    via u/Renbarre
  • Nenoshka • ⚫ 7h ago I would have replied the same as you. IMO, that's not aggressive, it's stating the facts (again, for those who chose to ignore them in the past).
    via u/Nenoshka
  • thellamajew ⚫ 6h ago Be petty. If you were CC'ed on those HR emails I would individually forward them one by one to the big boss. and whoever else is annoying you.
    via u/thellamajew
  • NightBanditX 8h ago • Man, same boat bro. Like, legit noone gets paid enough for that BS.
    via u/NightBanditX
  • voxam72 6h ago . You should also forward all of that to a regulatory agency. Not sure who covers maternity leave, but I'd start with the local labor department.
    via u/voxam72
  • Chefblogger 7h ago that was the perfect way to respond - its not your problem that your bosses. play stupid games
    via u/Chefblogger
  • Honeybadgermay... • 6h ago Lmao should have said them "sorry, you're most likely confusing me with someone else, i guess you might want to check your facts one more time and I'm really busy now with important work of reading 6000 emails soo i probably should go" or something
    via u/Honeybadgermaybe
  • RustyNards • 7h ago You got a full year for maternity leave? Is this in the US?
    via u/RustyNards
  • throwawayjaaay • 2h ago yeah that's super messed up, and also such a perfect example of how these systems are built to ignore anyone who isn't a constantly available worker drone, and i think I'd screenshot/save those emails where your boss
    via u/throwawayjaaay
  • clearly says you were on leave, then ask HR to confirm in writing that there's no negative record against you for missing trainings while on maternity leave. Even if your boss had your back, it's worth protecting yourself because HR loves to "forget" context when it's performance review or layoff season.
    via u/throwawayjaaay
  • Internal_Set_65... . 12m ago If I was Hal I would be PISSED...not at you. At HR. Why do they not have the systems in place to handle maternity leave? Why are they trying to make my Division look bad due to their incompetence?
    via u/Internal_Set_6564
  • I have been Hal at two companies. If you gave me something to counter HR with, I would use it. Let's hope "real Hal" will do the same.
    via u/Internal_Set_6564

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