What kind of company would give its own employee the ax for saving her son's life?

Most moms would do anything for their child, including donating an organ without even thinking twice. That’s certainly what Claudia Rendon did when she had the chance to help her son Alex, who was suffering from kidney failure.

She saved her son’s life.

But she was also fired from her job at Aviation Institute of Maintenance in Philadelphia for taking a leave of absence to recuperate from the surgery.

Rendon filed papers to take leave and was initially told by a manager that her job would be waiting for her when she came back, only to have the same manager request that she sign a letter a few minutes later, which stated that her job was not guaranteed upon her return.

“They said, ‘If you don’t sign this letter, you are abandoning your job and quitting,’” Rendon told ABCNews.com. “I said, ‘I am not abandoning my job. I am saving my son’s life.’”

A few days before her official return to work, Rendon visited her office, despite severe back pain, and learned that her job had been filled and she was fired. “If they would have told me to come back that day, I would have done it,” she said.

In addition, Rendon’s mother recently died and her father was diagnosed with leukemia:

“Everything was coming down all at once. I felt like the best thing that happened to me this whole entire year was that God gave me the blessing of being able to give my son the kidney. I would do it all over again. No questions asked.”

This story illustrates one of the weaker forms of the human conditions in our often compassionless society. There was no need for the school (which Rendon’s ailing son Alex attended!) to fire Rendon. I don’t care how busy they were, they could have hired a temp. Of course, it might have meant more work for the manager. But I have been a manager and the one thing that you need to do is support your team…in every way possible. On a purely human level, how can you possibly work with someone day in and day out and not be sensitive to a mother whose son would die without the operation, and who has a father diagnosed with cancer, and a mother that just passed away? It’s incomprehensible.

Our society has many evils, but greed accounts for the majority of the problems. I have worked in so-called family-friendly corporations that have sneakily fired new mothers and elderly workers. It’s not uncommon, unfortunately, but it is completely unnecessary. Witnessing it firsthand, I resolved to never again work for a corrupt company that didn’t value its people.  As a whole, we need to stop valuing money over people. If we did, our country probably wouldn’t be in the financial mess we are in right now.

I sincerely hope Rendon contacts the Department of Labor and gets justice. If more people who are wrongfully (and in many cases, illegally) treated by their employers report them, the companies will be essentially forced to act appropriately.

Our kids are back in school and all across the country, they are being taught to be respectful, share, and help one another. It’s just a shame that those values disappear as adults in many cases, and it’s a disgrace when a company blindly turns their back on one of their own, not to mention to a mother in need.

Image: Stockxchng

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