California Mom Working from Home Claims Employer Fired her for Noisy Kids

A California mom recently filed an employment law complaint suing her former employer. Drisana Rios, a former insurance account executive, was working from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Rios claims she was terminated from her position because her kids were noisy while she took work phone calls.  

Was California Mom Fired Because Her Kids Were Noisy While Working from Home? 

Rios is now suing her former employer claiming gender discrimination and wrongful termination. Rios claims that she was told that the kids could be heard on business calls with clients and it was unprofessional. In Rios' complaint, she alleges that coronavirus closures in her area left her with no childcare options for her two children, a 4-year old and an infant. During the forced work from home stint, Rios was juggling nursing, nap schedules, and children's lunches while trying to complete her work – all at the same time because her boss insisted on scheduling work calls during the lunch hour. Rios claims she suggested afternoon calls to her boss and even made it clear that her schedule allowed for afternoon calls, but he continued to schedule the calls during the lunch hour while regularly complaining about hearing noise from the children in the background. 

Juggling At Home Life and Work Life in One Space During Covid-19 Business Closures: 

Rios described her time working from home with her two young children as a time when she was working very hard – she was meeting the deadlines even if that meant she was working at night too to make up for anything that needed to get done before she started work the next day. When the media reached out to Rios' employer, HUB International, they said that while they didn't comment on pending litigation, they were proud that they had successfully transitioned 90% of their over 12,000 employees who were able to work from home for their own and the public's safety during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Experts Chime in on Parents, Expectations, and Working from Home During Covid-19:

Experts hearing more and more cases similar to Rios' are reminding parents that they might need to renegotiate expectations while they're working from home without access to childcare. Set yourself up for success in a new "work from home" stage by designating boundaries. Decide what you need to do to be successful in a work from home environment, identify what your employer needs from you, and what your family needs from you. And remember that you may be surprised by how many people on the other end of your business phone call, or web conference, or zoom meeting are dealing with very similar situations. It's easy at any time for working parents to feel like they're failing at everything, but it's a particular problem during the pandemic. Some qualifying employees consider options offered through the Families First Coronavirus Response Act. 

What Is the Families First Coronavirus Response Act? 

The act provides caregivers with the option to take leave if they need to care for a child whose childcare provider or school is unavailable or closed due to Covid-19. The act allows qualifying parents to receive full or partial pay for as many as 12 weeks. 

If you need to file a wrongful termination lawsuit or if you need to discuss other employment law violations, don't hesitate to get in touch with Blumenthal Nordrehaug Bhowmik DeBlouw LLP. Experienced employment law attorneys are ready to assist you in any one of various law firm offices located in San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Riverside, and Chicago.