The Consequences of Pregnancy in the Workplace

This morning I got stuck walking in the cubicle aisle behind this five foot wide woman with an abrasive, annoying voice.  She was clad in a green sweater dress, and her frame was taking up the entire pathway, so I was forced to overhear her conversation.  It went like this: "I mean, she's not doing anything explicitly illegal per say, but I mean...I hired this girl and now she gets pregnant six months later.  I mean I hired her, because she was this scrappy, ambitious person.  Now exactly 6 months of employment later, ie - when benefits kick in, she gets pregnant.  I mean, I'm just pissed off.  I'm going to have to replace her one way or another.  I'm having Legal comb through her emails."

Wow.  Never before have I been so conscious of the discrimination that women risk when they become pregnant.  More disturbing is that this comes from another woman...an angry, frustrated and nasty eyesore of a woman.  Then, there is the bigger picture that disturbs me.  That is that the corporate environment still fosters and allows this kind of thing to take place.  If I felt like it would not blow up in my face and thereby risk my own employment, I would go to HR to report what I heard.  This woman needs to be stopped.  I reject a World where my ability to subsist is dependent upon a structure where this sort of malevolence is the rule rather than the exception.  

This is not the first time that I have realized how soulless the workplace is.  There is no true empathy or friendship there.  I realized this a long time ago, and that is precisely why I do not have photos of my children or family members up on display at my desk.  I do not email photos of my newborn to co-workers or managers.  I am a professional, and I remain professionally distant and disengaged when operating in this treacherous, cutthroat environment full of phony people and their manipulative, self-serving agendas.