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In this episode, we dive into the shocking case of Reena Mathew, an HR Business Partner at Santander Consumer USA, who was placed on a Performance Improvement Plan and fired after announcing her pregnancy. Was it a case of performance management—or pregnancy discrimination disguised as poor performance?

Chuck and John break down the timeline of events, the questionable "exculpatory paper trail," and the lessons HR professionals need to learn about documentation, timing, and ethical management practices.

In the HR News segment, the team touches on the following topics and more:

• Expected increase in I-9 audits and ICE raids in the workplace - as an HR rep, what is your role in this?
• A new analysis of AI user prompts shows 57% of prompts entered are for augmenting work rather than automating. Are we any closer to AI replacing jobs?
• Hiring on skills versus hiring on past work experience.

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Do you have a situation or topic you’d like the team to discuss? Are you interested in having Chuck or John talk to your team or Emcee your event? You can reach the Team at [email protected] for suggestions and inquiries.

The viewpoints expressed by the characters in the stories are not necessarily that of The Team at HR Stories. The stories are shared to present various, real-world scenarios and share how they were handled by policy and, at times, law. Chuck and John are not lawyers and always recommend working with an employment lawyer to address concerns.