Table 3 Participant employment experiences

 Reduced duty hours

“They understood I worked another job besides them, so they didn’t want me to overwork myself so they would like have me come like, all the way to [street name] like, two days a week, whatever, which really wasn’t worth my time you know, just to go to the bank or whatever for the what, twenty dollars, ten, twenty dollars. That’s all I really made a week you know, for those two days [food service worker, age 31].”

“That’s why my hours are cut now because I kept having to get off early, like take off on these days just to go to get my [prenatal care]. So that’s really the conflict [retail worker, age 25].”

 Unpaid leave

“[Taking time off is] pretty much what was interfering and like I told them, I am pregnant, I do gotta receive prenatal care, so if you don’t feel I’m reliable because of that then, go ahead, do what you gotta do…. ‘cause my child’s life is more important than this freaking job. The same way I got this job, I can always find me another one… she tells me, I’m pregnant and I’m not reliable. Okay, that ain’t a good reason to let somebody go. That’s just discrimination on your part… [food service worker, age 31].”

“Oh, it just you know, makes the paycheck a little smaller, but other than that, that’s it [retail worker, age 37].”

 Consequences for non-hourly employees

“I usually take off, when I have to go in the morning I’ll do like from 9:00 to 11:00, so I try to do like two, three, about two hours. …the only thing it really messed with is like my adherence at work. My adherence and my, basically my adherence and attendance. It kind of messes with those… Adherence is just your time on the phone, time away from the phone, and being on the phone when you’re actually supposed to be on the phone [customer service, age 29].”

“I would say, just because I am being monitored more closely [by my doctor], I do have a fair number of more doctor’s appointments than I did last time. I will say it has been a little tricky with the balance of you know, work and then having my workday kind of interrupted with an appointment. I never would skip my appointment just because I feel like I have to be at work, but there are some times where I feel you know, a little guilty, oh I’m missing that meeting or something like that. But like I mentioned before, my boss has never once said like, no you really need to be here, you can’t go to your doctor’s appointment you know, kind of thing. It’s more of a, I just personally feel a little guilty, yeah [scientist, age 32].”

 Collaborative employer/employee accommodations

“So, it’s usually, it’s a fairly loose working environment. I mean the schedules are pretty flexible and our boss is extremely understanding of just you know, family and personal needs and so we’ve kind of you know, as long as we’re there for you know, our eight hours a day and we’re actually making progress on our work, we kind of the ability to be pretty flexible with what we do [scientist, age 32].”

 Employer initiated accommodations

“… we talked about when I get further along, closer to my due date, instead of me serving, we’ll move to a different position, it’s hosting, so it would still require me to be on my feet, but I wouldn’t be walking as much and it’s not a lot of lifting like, of trays and food and drinks and things like that. I would just be picking up things and wiping off \s and that stuff [food service worker, age 29].”

 Medically recommended accommodations

“And I didn’t really work there too much longer after that ‘cause I was like you know, they don’t want to be supportive then, you know, they can just kick rocks and I can be happy with my healthy baby [food service worker, age 20].”