People on TikTok are urging a woman to contact a lawyer after she was laid off days after her return from maternity leave. Since then, she says she’s found her position listed on LinkedIn three times.
In the viral video, which has more than half a million views as of Tuesday morning, Brittany Naumann (@brittanynaumann1) says she was laid off four days after returning to work from her maternity leave.
While the company claimed her position was eliminated, in the ten months since she was let go, her role was posted on LinkedIn on three separate occasions.
“Corporate math,” Naumann calls it.
While many companies, particularly in the tech space, have boasted generous parental leave as one of their benefits, we’ve seen in the last year that those on paid family leave aren’t legally protected when layoffs come, the New York Times reported.
Viewers flooded her comments section with advice about how to move forward with the situation, ideally by getting a lawyer and hopefully a fat settlement check.
“I know it’s been said but please retain a lawyer. You don’t need to pay them, they will get you a big amount and take a cut from that,” a person said.
“This happened to an old coworker of mine at an old company. They won a 400k lawsuit for wrongful termination,” another shared.
Others shared their own stories.
“My position was ‘restructured’ while I was on mat leave so I was forced to either take a lesser paying role or be let go 2 weeks after returning,” a commenter wrote.
“Same thing happened to me but after coming back after my pregnancy loss,” another shared.
@brittanynaumann1 #corporatemath #girlmath #layoffs #linkedin #maternityleave ♬ original sound – Brittany Naumann359
In a follow-up video, Naumann urged people to learn from her mistake and not accept the severance agreement a company offers.
“Do not sign sh*t that a company gives you if they lay you off, because that kind of eliminates all of your options,” Naumann says. “So learn from my mistake. Do not ever sign a severance agreement.”
A labor lawyer on TikTok shared the same advice and urged people to speak with a lawyer before signing any agreement with a former employer. Once the severance is signed there’s little a lawyer can do to help.
“It is not advisable to sign a severance without talking to a lawyer first. The severance amount may be a low-ball,” said Ryan Stygar (@attorneyryan).
“If you have served a fairly long tenure then its customary to offer more. If you have a potential legal claim against the company then the severance should be higher to reflect the value of the claim.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Naumann via TikTok comment.