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written by wei yiran

editor: wan tiannan

"it would have been better if i had gotten pregnant before being promoted. at least i could have kept my job for two years during the three stages (pregnancy, delivery, and breastfeeding)."

anxiety about fertility and fear of unemployment, when the two panics collide, some working women are forced to choose one of the two.

downsizing, layoffs, job shortages, the workplace in 2024 is facing unprecedented internal competition.

compared with laying off ordinary employees, a company has to pay higher financial compensation and moral risks when laying off a pregnant woman.

therefore, "strategic pregnancy" has become an emergency measure for some working women to fight layoffs - five parts absurd and five parts sad.

however, "preventing layoffs through pregnancy" is more of a stopgap measure under extreme internal competition than a survival strategy.

in fact, pregnancy does not mean you have obtained a "gold medal of immunity from layoffs". after the third trimester, you still have to face the risk of layoffs again.

one

give up dink, prepare for pregnancy in advance, "strategic pregnancy"

"i got pregnant urgently and am now happily waiting for my maternity leave. i have escaped three waves of layoffs."

huahua, who is in her early 30s, shared her experience under a post about "strategic pregnancy" on xiaohongshu.

many netizens praised her, but some netizens also reminded her, "the cost of raising children is very high!?"

huahua replied, "i was planning to get pregnant, this is my first child."

some people also asked for help, "how can i get pregnant urgently? the company is about to announce the optimization list!"

can pregnancy really avoid layoffs legally? lin hao, a lawyer at a shenzhen law firm, gave a positive answer.

"employers shall not reduce women's wages, dismiss them, expel them, or terminate their labor contracts because of their pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding." this is clearly stipulated in the labor law, the special provisions on labor protection for female employees, and the law on the protection of women's rights and interests.

the economic cost to a company of laying off employees during pregnancy is nearly double that of ordinary layoffs.

lawyer lin did some calculations. currently, many large companies use the "n+1" standard to compensate laid-off employees. if the employee is pregnant, the compensation is usually at least 2n (n is the number of years of work).

some netizens also said that they were laid off during their pregnancy, and after arguing for their rights, they even received 3n compensation.

take an employee with 10 years of service as an example: his annual salary is 150,000 yuan, and his average salary in the 12 months before leaving is 12,500 yuan. if he is compensated according to n+1, it is (10+1)×1.25=137,500 yuan.

if a female employee is pregnant, first of all, dismissal must be negotiated with her, and secondly, the compensation standard will usually be increased to 2n, which is 2×10×1.25=250,000.

if the fired pregnant woman has an annual salary of more than 500,000 yuan and has worked for more than 10 years, the compensation may be as high as millions.

for this reason, when laying off employees, companies may be more cautious about whether to lay off pregnant women.

since last year, when lin hao’s law firm launched online consulting services, he has received many consultations and commissions from migrant workers in shanghai, hangzhou, wuhan and other places.

most of those who come to consult about "strategic pregnancy" are pregnant women expecting their second child. they already had plans to get pregnant, but they moved their plans forward to avoid the risk of layoffs.

they think very clearly - firstly, if they are pregnant, the risk of being laid off is lower, and even if they are eventually laid off, they can get more substantial compensation; secondly, the current economic environment is not good, and opportunities for promotion and salary increase are limited. instead of being inefficient in the workplace, it is better to solve the problem of having a baby first. "in two years, when the economy is better and the baby is older, i can work hard on my career."

but there are also some employees who get pregnant just to keep their jobs.

li ying, 27 years old, is an employee of an internet company in a large central province, with two and a half years of work experience.

seeing that the company has been laying off employees, she was worried that she would be the next one, so she submitted more than 50 resumes privately, but all of them fell into the sea. in order not to lose the current job with a medium to high monthly salary in the local area, she even planned to give up the idea of ​​dink.

lin hao reminded li ying to be sober, "having a child is a major life event that should be carefully considered, and it cannot be used as a bargaining chip."

in fact, compared to li ying’s experience, lin hao has heard of more speechless cases.

in order to avoid the wave of layoffs, anping, a female master's degree holder who was prone to miscarriage and was relatively indifferent to having children, experienced a cycle of "pregnancy-miscarriage-pregnancy-miscarriage".

an ping is 33 years old, married and childless. although she has just obtained a master's degree and has already entered the narrow door of the workplace, she is worried that once she is laid off, she will never find a good opportunity again. an ping also chose a "strategic pregnancy."

according to the "college student employment survey report" for the 24th batch of graduates from china zhaopin.com, the offer acquisition rate for master's and doctoral graduates from general universities this year was 33.2%, a decrease of 17 percentage points from last year.

in the third month after joining the company, the hr team talked to anping and planned to fire her for failing the probation period. she took out the pregnancy test report from her pocket and it said she was one month pregnant.

although anping was able to keep his job, he was unable to keep his child.

unfortunately, after 3 months, the embryo stopped developing. anping applied for abortion leave. but after returning, she was not in good shape and always made mistakes at work. a month later, hr talked to her again and asked her to choose between "transferring to a new position and reducing salary" or "resigning voluntarily".

anping refused to make the choice because she was pregnant again and the company kept her again.

the "strategic pregnancy" caused damage to anping's body, and her work performance was greatly reduced due to her poor condition. she knew that even if she could continue to stay in the company, she would hardly have good development opportunities.

two

unwilling to pay a million-dollar compensation, the company set up a trap for the pregnant mother with a second child

can “strategic pregnancy” really ensure peace of mind in the workplace?

the reality tells you that it is not the case - some companies are not soft-hearted in their "battle of wits and courage" with strategically pregnant women.

last year, lin hao received a commission from wu yu, a pregnant mother who was expecting her second child. she was an employee of a technology company in wuhan, 38 years old, with a monthly salary of 50,000 yuan, 10 years of work experience, and had already reached a management position. moreover, she was about to sign an open-ended contract.

"the first and second labor contracts can be signed for fixed terms. the third time, you can negotiate with the company to sign an open-ended contract, but the company has the right to refuse. the fourth time, you can request an open-ended contract. if the company refuses, you can apply for compensation," lin hao explained.

wu yu, who possessed the above conditions and was pregnant with her second child, became a thorn in the company's side.

soon after, she was set up by hr.

one day she went to the bathroom and found a cell phone on the floor. she picked it up and wanted to hand it over to the company's administrator, but then she thought it was too much trouble and just put it on the table in the corner.

it was this action that brought her trouble.

that afternoon, the company's hr sent a notice to the work group, saying that wu yu was fired for stealing a mobile phone. wu yu was very angry and strongly demanded to check the surveillance to prove that she did not steal the phone. however, she was told that the surveillance camera was broken where she put the phone.

at this time, wu yu realized that he might have been set up.

before this, she had seen similar cases online, "i never thought it would happen to me one day!"

someone shared that he had filed for labor arbitration due to salary issues, but the company counter-sued him for suspected commercial bribery. the reason was that he used his work account to steal red envelopes sent by customers in the work group, totaling hundreds of yuan, and his superiors had tacitly agreed that he could keep the red envelopes, but later refused to admit it.

there was also a person who, when she resigned and asked for compensation, was falsely accused by the company of not handing over work equipment and had to call the police, but in fact she had simply forgotten to fill out the item handover list.

wu yu recalled that after the company knew she was pregnant, they planned to change the subject of her labor contract and also proposed to reduce her salary. however, since the amount was not large, she did not care.

helpless wu yu found lin hao. finally, the company agreed to apologize to wu yu.

at that time, lin hao suggested that wu yu take the compensation and resign, and then apply for reputation compensation from the company.

wu yu refused. even though she was already in court with the company, she still didn't want to leave and only asked the company to apologize to her.

"i'm already 38 years old. it may be more difficult to find a job later. there are limited good job opportunities in wuhan."

lin hao speculated that after the third period, the company would most likely fire her, and suggested that wu yu make preparations in advance and adjust her mindset.

wu yu’s predicament is not an isolated case among the cases and consultations that lin hao has taken over.

a female employee in her 30s has been walking on thin ice since she became pregnant. the company deliberately added extra workload to her and even installed surveillance cameras near her workstation to collect information on her violations.

the department leader even avoided her, formed a small team work group, and set new kpis without informing her. the female employee couldn't stand being excluded, targeted, and isolated everywhere, so she decided to file a labor arbitration.

in fact, not all pregnant women are so brave. among the labor rights protection cases handled by lin hao, those related to the third trimester do not account for a large proportion.

he concluded that there are three reasons: first, many pregnant women want to keep their jobs and do not want to break up with the company; second, some female employees do not want to spend money and energy on lawsuits because the compensation is not high; third, family members do not support them, especially the parents-in-law, who will ask them to give up fighting for their legal rights on the grounds that it is too troublesome and will affect the fetus.

of course, there are also some female employees who are afraid to assert their rights because they are threatened. in companies with a certain reputation and influence in the industry, some hrs threaten to conduct background checks, saying that if arbitration is conducted, pregnant women will be tarnished and will not be able to find a job after the third trimester.

three

being proud of being pregnant has made her a natural enemy of her colleagues

"although in most cases, workers are a disadvantaged group relative to the company, there are also some employees who are difficult for the company and their colleagues to deal with."

lin hao calls these people "quasi-bullies" in the workplace. for example, some women in the workplace, once they have successfully "strategically become pregnant," begin to use this to manipulate the company and their colleagues.

not long ago, a company found lin hao and asked him to help lay off a pregnant woman.

the female employee was 26 years old and had been working for the company for more than two years. her labor contract was due to expire in a few months, but she became pregnant before the contract expired.

in the first month of pregnancy, the female employee said to her colleagues, "i'm pregnant. please help me share a lot of work. pregnant women cannot be tired."

the department leader once took the initiative to reduce her workload by one third, but the female employee still found it difficult to complete the task. she pushed most of the work at hand to her colleagues and had very poor cooperation. she argued with her colleagues, her leader, and customers, causing complaints from the entire department.

coincidentally, in may this year, there was a similar trending search on weibo: i quit my job after my colleague got pregnant. so far, it has been read 69.18 million times and discussed 6,292 times.

there were all kinds of complaints under the hot search. one comment said, "after my colleague got pregnant, she asked for leave in various ways, with various excuses, such as not being able to sit in front of the computer for a long time because she was afraid of radiation, and not being able to sit for a long time because it would affect the pregnancy. anyway, she pushed all the work to me, and i didn't want to do it anymore."

there are also complaints, "i'm already depressed. my colleague took 40 days of maternity leave to protect her pregnancy, and i had to work overtime for 40 days. i reported it to my leader, but he asked us to coordinate privately. when she finally came back, she seemed like a different person. she couldn't smell strange smells, couldn't attend morning meetings, couldn't walk too much, and i still had to do all the work."

lin hao believes that those who complain may not have been mothers themselves and cannot empathize with the hardships of pregnancy. however, pregnant women who are complained about in the workplace are not completely innocent.

"from pregnancy to childbirth, it takes at least two years for a woman to focus on her family, which may result in her losing some career development opportunities. if she performs poorly, her future career advancement opportunities will basically be blocked."

if you really want to keep your job, lin hao advises pregnant women not to "take advantage of your pregnancy" and to complete your job to the best of your ability. if you have difficulties, you can apply for a job transfer from the company.

after all, national policies encourage childbirth, but when it comes to companies, it is a naked labor cost.

taking maternity leave as an example, the national statutory maternity leave is 98 days. among them, tianjin, shanghai, zhejiang, guangdong and hubei have extended maternity leave to 128 days.

after guangxi revised its family planning regulations, maternity leave has increased to 148 days. maternity leave in eight provinces including shanxi, shandong, anhui, jiangxi, ningxia, sichuan, liaoning and qinghai has increased to 158 days.

the newly revised family planning regulations in fujian province allow women to enjoy 158 to 180 days of leave regardless of whether they give birth to one or two children. beijing has made more flexible adjustments to the maternity leave system for female employees, allowing them to take up to seven months of maternity leave.

according to article 8 of the special provisions on labor protection of female employees, the maternity allowance for female employees during their maternity leave shall be paid by the maternity insurance fund based on the employer's average monthly salary of employees in the previous year for those who have participated in maternity insurance; for those who have not participated in maternity insurance, the allowance shall be paid by the employer based on the female employee's salary before maternity leave.

in addition, the company may also have to assume maternity leave for up to seven months, resulting in difficulties in staff scheduling.

four

pregnancy is not a life-saving talisman for work

so do companies really not dare to lay off pregnant women? the answer is no.

the aforementioned female employee who was proud of her pregnancy was eventually fired and did not receive high compensation.

lin hao said that many people only remember one sentence, "pregnant women cannot be dismissed", but in fact there are many corresponding rules that can overturn this sentence.

article 39 of the labor contract law stipulates that if one of the following six circumstances occurs, the employee can be dismissed even if pregnant, including: 1. violation of unit rules and regulations; 2. during the probation period, it is proved that the employee does not meet the employer's recruitment requirements; 3. serious dereliction of duty; 4. conclusion of the labor contract by means of fraud, coercion, etc.; 5. part-time job affects the main job; 6. criminal liability is pursued.

in the consulting case that lin hao took over, there was also a 20-year-old girl who was fired by the company during her pregnancy.

before being fired, she found lin hao and hoped that he would help her with labor arbitration, but lin hao refused.

the girl's name was xiao bei. she started working when she was one month pregnant. the company did not arrange a pre-employment physical examination, and she did not truthfully tell the company about her pregnancy.

after the three-month probation period ended, xiao bei thought she could rest easy and asked for leave to go for a prenatal checkup. but when the company learned that she was pregnant, they decided to negotiate with her.

xiao bei's monthly salary was about 4,500 yuan, and the company gave her more than 10,000 yuan in severance pay. lin hao calculated that her length of service was three months. according to the labor law, if a worker has worked for less than half a year, the value of n is calculated as 0.5. but even if n is calculated as one year, the 2n compensation standard for pregnant women is 9,000 yuan, but the company gave her 10,000 yuan, and that was on the premise that she had concealed her pregnancy when she started working.

but xiao bei insisted that she did not deliberately conceal the information, but the company did not ask proactively.

therefore, her request is to get higher compensation and have the company pay social security until the end of the third period. if the company refuses, the final request is that she must keep her job.

"we are a law firm, not a wishing well." lin hao advised her not to have wild ideas and to negotiate with the company. after weighing the pros and cons, xiao bei agreed to accept the compensation and terminate the labor relationship.

in fact, for female employees who already have plans to have children, even if they advance their pregnancy plans, "strategic pregnancy" can be considered a rational decision.

lawyer lin reminds such employees that once they are pregnant, they must report it to the company in writing, by email, wechat message, etc., and never inform the company verbally. remember, don’t hide the fact from the company just because the pregnancy is less than one month old and cannot be announced according to traditional sayings, especially for employees on probation.

in short, "strategic pregnancy" is a double-edged sword, and there is actually not much room for maneuver.

we hope that the economic "pain" will pass soon, so that working women will no longer have to use irrational bargaining chips to exchange for the development opportunities they should have, and can find a balance between work and family as they wish.

(at the request of the interviewees, all interviewees are pseudonyms.)