Company retracts offer when job applicant asks about their maternity leave policy: 'So unjust'

Landing a dream job is always an exhilarating moment. Especially for a woman, overcoming biased recruiters and landing their desired role is an achievement in itself. But imagine if such a perfect role slips away from your hand for an extremely unfair reason. That was the case for a job applicant, Sarah Brazier, who shared on LinkedIn how a company revoked the job offer right after she inquired about their maternity leave policy. As Brazier expressed her disappointment in losing this perfect job role, many users could relate to her situation.

"They rescinded my offer," Brazier's post began. After her previous employment, Brazier took a while to "decide what she wanted to do." All the cues pointed towards Sales, for which she had dedicated a major part of her career. "I knew I wanted to find an opportunity that would set me up for another 5+ year run selling at an amazing company," she wrote. In fact, Brazier was so specific about the role and the type of company she wanted to work for next that she even had a checklist of her expectations. Eventually, she managed to find a job posting that suited her aptly.

"It checked every box. I multi-threaded my way through their business, spent hours refining my final presentation and when I got the call immediately following my final round interview offering me a job, I was ecstatic," she explained. Her skills seemed impressive to the hiring manager so much that they called her final round of interview "the best" they ever had. The recruiters required Brazier to start her new job in a week. "Over the next few days, we agreed to a start date, we agreed to an OTE, we agreed to a signing bonus and we agreed to stock options," she pointed out. But there was one thing left to do and that was discussing company policies. "What I hadn't mentioned to anyone for fear of jeopardizing the opportunity was that I was a lil' bitty bit pregnant," she said.

All she did was casually ask the recruiter about the maternity policy, which backfired. A couple of days later, the company notified Brazier that her offer had been rescinded. "I'm following up with an email to advise that the Company has decided to rescind its verbal offer of employment given on March 8, 2024 and that offer is no longer open for acceptance. We wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors," the email from the recruiter read. They didn't give Brazier a straight-up reason for revoking her offer. But her inner circle inferred that it must've been because she asked about maternity leave. "I was crushed. It was so unjust. So unfair," she wrote. Ignoring her ideas, spark and excellent track record, the company deemed her "unfit to sell" because she was having a baby.

Though this could've been a lawsuit, Brazier said that "the effort, the likelihood of winning and the sheer hurt" made her not fight against the company. However, she decided to put it all behind her and started her own company named Dimmo. The viral post garnered over 150,000 likes. "I can't believe some companies are still living in the Stone Age. They did you an enormous favor. I do hope they and other companies learn from this costly mistake," said Alex Smith. "I was fired from a job when I got pregnant. The reason? They said that mothers belong at home with their children. I was only three months along," added Donna Maurillo.