Man slams female co-worker for breastfeeding during Zoom meeting leaving internet divided: 'She doesn’t cover up'
Social media has been divided after a man complained about his co-worker breastfeeding her child at work video conferences during the coronavirus pandemic that has seen many working from home in quarantine.
The story was first shared anonymously on Reddit's "Am I The A**hole" subreddit, wherein users can post their version of events and ask for a consensus on whether they were the villain or not.
"For work we have morning conference calls," the person explained. "These don’t require video even if you’re talking. One of our coworkers has a baby and she breastfeeds her baby while we are on a video call."
"Obviously babies need to be fed but she doesn’t mute her mic or turn off video. We don’t see the full boob but she doesn’t cover up. I asked her in a private message to shut off her video during the zoom call and she was livid. I didn’t ask publicly I asked in private. She told me it’s rude to talk with no video on and she has the right to feed her baby."
Users were split on whether the move to ask the woman to not breastfeed her baby was a bad one, with some stating that he was reasonable in his response, while others felt he had been too rude and was overreacting.
"I dont expect to sit across the conference room table and watch someone breastfeed. Zoom calls are the same thing. There is a time and place," one argued.
In response, another agreed that there was a time a place to breastfeed but a child can get hungry any time and "the mother cannot control when that is."
A third user, who identified as a woman, also agreed with the sentiment that the woman should not have been breastfeeding during the meeting because it was not something you would do in a professional setting.
"It’s not the fact that she’s breastfeeding that’s really the problem here, it’s the situation," she wrote. "For example, if I had a 6 year old, I would definitely bring them to the mall and give them some cheez its. I would not bring my 6 year old to a work meeting, and if I had to I would ensure they had eaten first."
"Babies typically tend to sleep after they eat too. She could’ve excused herself, and fed the baby. The fact that she was breastfeeding plays some role because it is wrongly socially frowned upon a lot, but he asked nicely and privately. A work meeting is a professional environment and no place for a baby, and doing anything other than participating in the meeting is distracting for others involved."
Many agreed with the sentiment, with one replying, "I am also pro breastfeeding, but not at work during a meeting. It's very understandable she needs to feed her baby, but she needs to make arrangement so it will not disturb the meeting. It's as simple as turning off sound. Background noise on calls is currently the most annoying thing at work. Doesn't matter if it's a baby, music or static. People need to mute their mics, this mom included."
"Camera can simply be turned up a bit. I'm against shaming feeding moms for showing boobs (or just women in general... free the nipple!) but during a business meeting they shouldn't be out and if they are, out of sight. It isn't a social call."
However, there were some who weren't so understanding. "You're definitely being juvenile," one hit back. "It's a boob and she's feeding her baby with it. I'm beyond my childbearing years but I do work in a white collar job and to be honest, if you asked one of my colleagues to turn off the video while feeding I'd laugh at you."
"People need to stop being so weird about breastfeeding," another posted. "The more you see it, the more used to it you will be. She should do it on the camera explicitly so that people who think breastfeeding is gross become more exposed to it."