The founder and CEO of a trendy baby clothing brand is the internet’s latest main character — that is, she’s is the latest face of controversy online — after a new mom says she was fired after asking to work remotely from near the neonatal intensive care unit and her premature infant. Kyte Baby CEO Ying Liu’s decision to adhere to company policy and limit the new mother to two weeks of maternity leave is a reminder that even brands that claim to cater to moms and babies often offer up nothing more than empty platitudes and corporate, advertiser-friendly buzzwords.
Even at woman-owned companies such as Kyte Baby, profits often supersede the well-being of new and expectant working moms and their babies.
It’s yet more evidence that in corporate America, even at woman-owned companies such as Kyte Baby, profits often supersede the well-being of new and expectant working moms and their babies.
According to the family’s GoFundMe page, Marissa and her husband spent three years trying to conceive. She underwent painful IVF treatments and survived a surgery that briefly left her clinically dead. After deciding to pursue adoption, the couple were notified in December that their baby had been born in El Paso weighing slightly more than a pound at 22 weeks gestation. Marissa made the reasonable request that she be allowed to work remotely in El Paso, nine hours away from Kyte Baby’s headquarters in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Kyte Baby said in a Jan. 19 statement to TODAY.com that Marissa, 26, had been mistakenly denied remote work and “declined” the company’s offer to return to work. Marissa says she was fired.
“It was never my intention to quit — I was willing to work from the NICU!” Marissa told TODAY.com in an interview published Tuesday. “I did tell them, ‘This is a slap in the face … My child is fighting for his life.’” MSNBC.com, as TODAY.com did, is withholding Marissa’s last name to protect her privacy.
A Kyte Baby spokesperson told…
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