Campaign Team Quits After Aspiring Politician Fires Their Pregnant Manager and Refuses to Release Her Pay

Like many others, OP (original poster) and her husband were severely affected by the pandemic. He lost his job while OP was a contractual campaign manager.

She worked on campaigns, and if her candidate lost, she moved on to the next campaign. This hadn't been a problem for OP since she had been a rising star in her field.

OP was the youngest campaign manager to run a statewide race in her state in over 20 years. She is 24 years old and already at the top of her chosen career.

When the primaries came up, their candidate lost by 200 votes, and while they lost the election, her career skyrocketed even more. She was receiving offers left and right, both within and outside her state.

However, she was reluctant to accept offers from out of state as she had just recently bought her first home and found out she was pregnant. Then, she received an offer that ticked all the boxes: it was local, which meant she wouldn't have to move, plus she would be the candidate's campaign manager.

OP accepted the offer, but she soon found out that the politician she was working for was not her cup of tea. The female politician was preaching unsolicited advice about how real women are supposed to give birth naturally and breastfeed their babies.

This hit home for OP, as she would not be able to do those things. Soon enough, OP began to notice other red flags that she said were too numerous to list in her post; so OP was just biding her time until her husband landed a cushy job and she could quit her job.

Here's the TLDR (too long didn't read) version

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The email in question sent by the politician to the consultant discussing OP's termination:

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When OP joined the campaign, it was just her and the politician.

She had to use her connections to build the team and their campaign from the ground up. She signed her contract with the agreed-upon salary, with the stipulation that if they raised enough funds in three months, OP would receive a sizable raise, but at no point could her pay be lowered.

OP also got into a car accident within the first week of joining the team, and although her baby was unharmed, she suffered a herniated disc. Being pregnant, she couldn't be prescribed pain medications.

This was not a problem for the career woman, as she could essentially run the campaign from her home while the rest of her staff did the work. Soon enough, their team was running like a well-oiled machine.

OP was proud of what she had accomplished for her candidate, despite the fact that their principles didn't align. However, when the candidate's husband was deployed to a dangerous area, the politician stopped working on her campaign.

She stopped fundraising; she stopped making any effort to win. In short, all of their hard work was spiraling down the drain.

Once her husband came home, the candidate was once again all in. OP and the rest of the team had to work double to regain their momentum.

Out of the blue, the candidate called OP to tell her that when she worked as a private school teacher 20 years ago, she was making twice what OP was earning. OP's alarm bells started to blare very loudly, and she realized something was not right.

A couple of weeks later, OP informed the candidate that she would not be joining the team for house-to-house campaigning due to her herniated disc, but they would be hiring someone to take her place.

Since the candidate had stopped fundraising for some time, they weren't exactly drowning in cash, which made hiring someone a problem. This meant that the candidate would have to actively participate in the house-to-house campaign, which she did not like.

The entire team was called in for a meeting, and OP began to list everything the candidate was failing to do, at which point she snapped in front of everybody. She yelled about how OP was not doing her job and how OP's pregnancy was not her fault.

She also said that OP was to blame for all the failures and proceeded to leave the call. This is when OP began to do what needed to be done for someone in her position, but nothing more.

OP offered no opinions on the campaign, as the candidate was doing the opposite and began nitpicking every tiny detail. The rest of the team was growing uneasy, but OP convinced them to hold out longer.

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You can read the first part of the post below:

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200 votes is a very small margin of loss.

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An estimated due date being the week of the election sounds like chaos!

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"She stopped putting in the legwork to win."

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"I told her I would need to take a step back from doing the other staff members' jobs."

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Lower-level staff duties? No thanks.

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The politician called her pregnant campaign manager to give her an ultimatum.

OP was told that since she was pregnant and unable to do door-knocking, she could either get paid the state's minimum wage or find a new job. The candidate thought that OP had no option since her husband was out of a job, but unbeknownst to her, OP's husband had received a job offer that day.

OP cut her off and thanked her for the opportunity. She informed the candidate that she would comply with her contractually obligated 30-day notice at her current salary, after which she would leave the campaign.

The politician once again began yelling at OP about how she wouldn't pay her a dime and enumerated everything she thought OP had done wrong.

OP stopped the tirade and told her that her tasks would be completed once she received her late salary from the previous month, as well as pay during the 30-day notice period. OP waited for a few hours for the formal termination, but nothing came.

She sent an email to the candidate detailing everything they had discussed on the phone. She received a nasty reply from the candidate stating that she wouldn't be paying her anything and listed everything OP had done wrong, including the fact that OP did not always wear makeup at work.

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OP forwarded the nasty email to the rest of the team, and they all quit, save for one campaign consultant who couldn't leave because of his contract.

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The rest of OP's rightful revenge can be read below:

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OP got a call from the police because the candidate was claiming OP was embezzling campaign funds.

OP proved to the police that she did no such thing, but the candidate was blowing everything out of proportion because she didn't know how to access the funds since OP used to handle that for her.

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The police informed the candidate that withholding salary is larceny, and they asked OP if she wanted to press charges.

OP replied that if the candidate didn't send her the check, then she would. Within two days, OP received the check with the full amount in the mail, along with an extra $700 from the politician.

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The cherry on top is the candidate losing the election.

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Plus, OP received more upvotes on Reddit than the votes received by the politician during the election.

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That's politics for you.

Jjustingraham

Some Reddit sleuth found out that OP lives in Virginia.

boringhistoryfan

The candidate losing a state that was predicted to vote for her is a colossal display of incompetence.

boringhistoryfan

That has got to violate several labor laws.

p4madeus

Since the campaign has no funds left, suing her would be pointless.

9998000

She kept digging herself a deeper hole.

CJs_goldfish

Yeah, OP, how's your election baby?

b4-9in

The baby is doing fine, and thankfully, OP is no longer working for politicians.

joke_on_you9719

Sadly, OP's case is not isolated.

Snarky75

People would say this is fake without OP's proof.

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Given the detailed account, people were justifiably worried about OP getting doxxed.

SheridanVsLennier

But the incompetent politician didn't make OP sign an NDA, and illegal practices (e.g., firing pregnant women for being pregnant) won't be covered by the NDA anyway.

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It really was a chef's kiss ending.

ke4ukz

If you are going to do anything illegal, like terminating your pregnant employee for being pregnant, please don't be foolish enough to put it in writing. Thankfully, this politician is not making important decisions for an entire state, because that would be disastrous.

After years of working for politicians, OP is no longer in danger of egos like her previous employer. She is happy with her new job, her baby is healthy, and she can sleep soundly knowing the candidate did not win.