Hi all,

I heard of an interesting incident which happened in a BPO company, a friend works at :

This is a typical BPO company with most of the employee population bw the age group of 21-35 yrs; largely everyone working in graveyard shifts.

An unmarried woman employee has started looking visibly pregnant. HR calls her in for a discussion (and possible termination of employment) to get to the " bottom of the matter because it may impact the ' reputation' of the company". There are further talks of having disussions with her parents.

( rest assured, her performance / productivity at work has not been impacted, lest some ppl think the discussion may have been for that purpose)

Questions:

1. Is it the company's business if an employee gets pregnant out of wedlock?

2. Can the company's "reputation" really be impacted by such an incident?

3. Why should the company take matters to the employee's parents ? is she not legally an adult responsible for her own decisions ? and if she wants to involve her parents, its strictly her own personal decision?

4. Are we treating BPO employees more like teenagers who come daily into our 'schools/ colleges' ?

( I have also heard from friends that their BPO company HR has threatened to 'notify parents' if they are absent from work ...after it was discovered that some employees took a casual leave ( valid leave - not truancy) and went to some resort without telling their parents)

5. Should we be more considerate and respectful of employee's personal boundries? Is it not necessary to have clear boundries bw employee's personal and professional lives?
P.S - would appreciate if the discussion does not go into realms of 'morality' of the out-of-wedlock issue. this is not the forum to be social and moral crusaders and bash the poor woman for her life choices.

lets limit our views only to the HR/Company involvement angle of it.

regards,

eChoice Training

Hi,

I don't think that these kind of incidents should really reflect or affect the Image of any organisation by anyhow. Moreover i would like to add that the organisation should only concern about the employee's performance, which should not be affected.

Additionally, yes their should be a decent working environment in the organisation.If this environment is disturbed by any employee,then the role of HR comes into the picture.If any employee is pregnant(married or unmarried), this is no point to be raised.

Jas