It takes so little effort to be a decent manager. A little bit of empathy and a basic level of common sense – it really is! Yet so many managers do their absolute best to be the exact opposite.

For a worker on Reddit, her boss’s actions are truly baffling in their insensitivity, to an extent that may even be a violation of labor law.

The pregnant worker quit on the spot when her boss refused to make basic accommodations for her.

Working even the simplest job during pregnancy can be a real challenge, but when your job requires you to be on your feet every day like this mom-to-be, it can be downright unbearable.

But this worker was confident that her requests for basic accommodations during pregnancy would be no big deal, “after nearly two years of being flexible about covering shifts, switching shifts, and changing schedules multiple times at my boss’s whim.”

She’s scratched the boss’s back, so surely the boss will be willing to scratch her, right? Absolutely not, as it turns out.

“I worked at a restaurant attached to a bar,” she explained her Reddit postwhere there is “lots of gambling, lots of drunk people and great customers, and even more cigarette smoke.”

Her boss had already been nagging about her pregnancy despite being asked not to. But then the manager decided to add potential injury to the insult.

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When the worker asked to be moved away from cigarette smoke and allowed to sit down, her manager refused because she did not “look disabled.”

“The cigarette smoke has been terrible recently, and since I was newly pregnant, I contacted my doctor to get a note (because my boss always demands one),” the worker explained. When she then approached her boss about the matter, she was politely asked “If only I hadn’t intended to work anymore.”

The manager then scolded the worker for being seen on security cameras “sitting at the register while taking orders” without a doctor’s note and said she had to sit down.

The mother-to-be was obviously shocked, but it got worse from there. “She then proceeded to tell me how she doesn’t understand why I can’t work with the cigarette smoke and why I had to sit because I didn’t look disabled.'”

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What’s really absurd, aside from the cruel indifference, is that the worker actually HAS a chronic health condition that qualifies as a disability that she has documented with the manager in question.

Roll it all up, and as soon as the boss mentioned disabilities, the worker writes that she “snapped” and “threw out” and immediately filed a complaint with HR about the argument with her boss. “I’ve worked a long time,” she went on to say, “and it’s sad to think that I I don’t think I’ve ever had a good boss.”

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What her boss did is not just cruel. It is illegal in some cases under both the ADA and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act.

In her post, the mom-to-be asked fellow Redditors if she has “any legal recourse” over her employer’s actions, and there are two ways she can. One would be under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), although of course that would depend on the type of disability she has.

It is also important to note that many pregnancy complications qualify as disabilities under the ADA and the law requires employers with more than 15 employees to accommodate them.

But the latest landmark legislation may well be this woman’s best bet. Pregnant Workers Fairness Actwhich went into effect in 2023, requires employers with more than 15 employees to provide “reasonable accommodations” for any “limitations that are related to, affected by, or arise from pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.”

Having to sit down and not inhale cloud after cloud of cigarette smoke seem like things that would fit easily under this umbrella. And if it doesn’t, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says there are more than 30 states and cities with legal protections for pregnant workers, so be sure to check your local laws if you’re in this situation.

The worker told her fellow Redditors that she would definitely investigate potential violations of these laws at her job. Hopefully it works out in her favor – and her employer learns for the future now to avoid unnecessary drama by simply being nice and reasonable. It’s really not that hard.

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John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer covering pop culture, social justice and human interests.