Returned from parental leave. Gone within six weeks.

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Anonymous
· Engineering Manager · Former employee · 2025 · 13 Feb 2025
I came back from parental leave in January. My manager welcomed me back, told me the team had missed me, said we'd ease back in gradually. Six weeks later I was in the layoff round. My performance rating from before leave was positive. Nothing had changed in my role. HR told me the decision was "organisational" and "not related to leave status." I have no way of proving otherwise, and the severance agreement I was asked to sign would have made any future claim significantly more complex. I signed. I had a young baby and a mortgage. I keep thinking about the timing. Six weeks. That's all it was.

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This story has been paraphrased from a publicly shared account on Fortune (Feb 2025) — documented parental leave layoff account. The original words are not reproduced; the account is paraphrased to preserve the experience while protecting the original poster. We do not claim this as a first-person Office Tea submission.

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