Shockwaves in the Workplace: Maternity Leave Request Sparks Outrage and Expert Backlash

Ever wondered what it takes to earn the title of “worst boss ever”? Well, buckle up—because this tale might just redefine your idea of workplace nightmare fuel. Picture this: an expectant mom, excited yet practical about her maternity leave, only to have her employer toss out a question so offbeat—and frankly galling—it sparked a firestorm of outrage from employment expert and TikToker Ben Askins. Instead of support, she got guilt trips and awkward “family company” clichés that felt more like emotional blackmail than leadership. Can you imagine being asked if you’d consider chopping down your maternity leave? Yeah, me neither—and that’s exactly why Ben labeled this boss in his top three of all-time bad apples. Curious how this exchange played out and why it’s stirring up such a fuss? LEARN MORE.

An employment expert reckons he’s seen the ‘worst boss ever’ after seeing the request they made to an employee who was telling the she’d need to take maternity leave.

TikToker Ben Askins read out the exchange between employer and employee as the worker was following up on her maternity leave and got asked ‘is there any way you’d consider reducing how long you want to take’.

This really ticked Ben off, as he said it was ‘not a fair question’ for an employer to be asking, and then when the boss asked if the mother-to-be was ‘sure you are going to go ahead with it’, he pointed out that was ‘none of your f**king business‘.

“The reason why this is so disgusting, what he’s doing, is because he’s fully aware of what he’s doing,” Ben explained.

“He’s trying to use guilt to basically get her to kind of waive her rights to do it, because he can then go ‘oh no, she agreed with this’. Do you see what I mean?”

“Having a baby? Ok cool, but can you still make it to work?” (Getty Stock Photo)

The employee made it clear they wanted to take as much maternity leave as she could since it would be her first child and she ‘wanted to get as used to being a parent as possible’.

She said she’d make sure everything she was doing was handed over properly and offered to interview for maternity cover so the company wouldn’t miss her while she was gone.

A reasonable request, right?

Ben certainly thought so, saying the only correct response for an employer was to say yes to this, but that’s not what happened here.

Instead, the employer told the woman that it would be ‘quite a burden’ for them to pay maternity cover and maternity leave as they were a small company, telling her: “I am just not sure how we can cope.”

The woman then offered to be on call in case of emergency, which the employment expert said was a big no-no, and asked: “Is my pregnancy going to be a problem for my role in the company?”

Her employer reassured her it wouldn’t be, then uttered that phrase every employee dreads ‘we are a family company’ before saying the pregnancy was ‘just not ideal timing for me’.

“If you are not going to help out and reduce the time then nothing really further for us to talk about I guess,” the employer said as he ended the conversation.

Unhappy at the guilt tripping, Ben said he would put this guy ‘top three one of the worst bosses I’ve come across’ as he reckoned it was ‘so ugly, what he’s trying to do’.