HR Tells New Mom That Pumping at Work Is ‘Unprofessional’
Balancing a career and a new baby is no small feat. But for one working mom, her effort to manage both efficiently was met with criticism, not support.
According to a now-viral Reddit post, a new mother was calmly pumping breast milk in the privacy of her shared office when the Director of HR pulled her aside to say her setup, a small bottle drying rack and zipped pump case on her desk, was “unprofessional.” The kicker? The office is not customer-facing, and her only office mate was fully supportive, even stepping out during pumping sessions to give her privacy.
To comply with HR’s request, the mom now has to take significantly more time out of her day to walk across the facility to the designated pumping room, turning a 20-minute task into a nearly hour-long ordeal. Productivity? Down. Morale? Even lower.
And while the HR complaint doesn’t technically violate the law, there is a pumping room available, and breaks are allowed under the Fair Labor Standards Act, it raises serious questions about workplace culture and support for parents. This isn’t about legal compliance. It’s about common sense and basic empathy.
As one commenter pointed out, the average employee wastes nearly two hours a day on non-work-related tasks, according to a Salary.com and AOL survey. So why is it a problem when a mom tries to be efficient while caring for her baby?
This story is just one of many that highlight how far we still have to go in supporting working parents, especially mothers. The optics of a breast pump should never outweigh the importance of making the workplace inclusive and human.
