Location: WA
I’ve been with my company for 10 years with no performance issues. I am 27 weeks (almost 7 months) with my first child.
As far as I can tell, I was the only one laid off and it was due to “changing business needs.”
According to them, they no longer need someone at my level in the position that I’m in and want to hire lower. 8 am currently a high level IC, but also incredibly underpaid with market adjustments on my review every year to bring me back to the bottom of the salary band.
Added reasoning:
Timing: in November I told some co-workers I was pregnant when I was only 10 weeks because I was seeing them in person. Not sure if someone blabbed. I then told my management chain and HR in December as we were discussing 2026 headcount and thought it would be helpful.
HR: I have gone to HR twice (December and January) since the first meeting to express issue with my scope of work decreasing and particular functions being stripped. During the second meeting I even brought up the concern about this potentially stemming from me being pregnant. I had also alerted my skip manager of some of this one time
They are offering me 17 weeks severance and 3 months COBRA. This isn’t terrible, but it still really screws me with maternity leave, so I’d like to ask for more like 35-40 weeks to cover me through that. Do I have a chance?
Edit: this is the normal severance package that they have offered to others during mass layoffs. They also made everyone sign an arbitration agreement 2 months ago.