Planned Parenthood Of Southwestern Oregon

I have never been treated as poorly as I was by this organization.

Before I began working at PPSO I has a high opinion of PPSO and Planned Parenthood in general. I had dreamed of working with Planned Parenthood in some capacity since I was in middle school. It took less than 2 months for me to lose all respect that I have for Planned Parenthood and the individuals who work at PPSO.

During my interview process, everyone I interviewed with was extremely polite and friendly. All the staff members I met seemed to be genuinely excited about hiring me onto the team. During the interview process I was very upfront about the fact that I didn't live in Oregon, and would have to relocate myself and my family for this position. I was repeatedly told this was not an issue, and was even guaranteed relocation assistance as part of my offer letter. My manager even connected me with their sister-in-law who is a relator to help my family and I find a place to live.

I began working for PPSO remotely, as I needed time to finalize my moving plans and secure housing, and at first, everything seemed great. The team I was a part of was (in the beginning) extremely friendly and helpful. I was even emailed a week before my start date by my manager who said “If there is anything we can do to support you. You are our community now.”

Not even two weeks into my employment I was pulled into a meeting, under false pretenses, with my direct manager and my assistant manager. I had requested this meeting, as there was a section in my offer letter than I wanted some clarification on. Instead of discussing this, the meeting almost entirely was my manager and assistant manager telling me that I needed to consider the ‘fessibility’ of my continued employment at PPSO. I was told that I would most likely need to adjust my hours to better meet the organizations needs and account for the time zone difference. I told both individuals that I would be willing to be flexible (within reason) and that I was extremely committed to my position and work at PPSO.

Following this meeting I requested, via email, that my managers relay to me what hours they would like me to work in order to best meet the needs of PPSO. I was never given any information regarding what changes they wanted me to make, despite it being the crux of the entire meeting.

Regardless, I continued to do my work. Even after the aforementioned meeting I was consistently praised by my lead manager both in private, and in team meetings, for the quality of my work and how crucial the work I was doing was to the organization. Despite the hiccups and a few odd conversations, everything seemed to be going well.

On January 10th, 2023 I had a meeting with my manager so that we could discuss some questions I had regarding a specific task I was working on. My manager clarified some information for me, once again praised the work I was doing and thanked me for my diligence, and then we ended our meeting.

3 hours later I had another meeting with both my manager and my assistant manager; this was supposed to be one of my routine weekly checkins. However, as soon as the meeting started my manager told me that “this isn’t working out”. They never said the word fired, they never said I was being let go, they said ‘terminated’ once in the whole meeting and just kept repeating that “this isn’t going to work out”. I asked why, if there was something I had done or a reason I was being fired. The only explanation given? “This isn’t going to work out”.

I sat there, crying, telling my managers that this job had been my lifeline - that I had no support from family and no friends I could lean on, I told them I had no community support htat I could fall back on (and these were all things that they knew before they even hired me). I told them how even with this job I was still paying for groceries with credit cards because I couldn’t afford groceries after paying all my bills. I told them how during my interview they had focused so much on intersectionality, diversity, and equity - and how firing me 10 days into the new year with no warning and for no reason (and without any severance) was completely inequitable and did not take into account diversity or intersectionality.

My manager looked at me as I was crying and shaking and asked me if I still had the boxes my equipment came in, and proceeded to ‘think out loud’ about how they were going to get me to ship the equipment back. To the issues I raised regarding equity, all they said was, in a monotone voice, “you may not believe it right now but we are sorry”.

My family and I were less than 3 months away from moving, we were actively working with a relator (who I will once again state was my managers sister-in-law) and a banker to purchase a home in the area. In trying to asses purchasing a home I applied for a home loan, in doing so, had to have my credit checked. So now, 10 days into the new year, I am unemployed with a sub-par credit score and a lease that ends in March with nowhere to go and no way to finance a move.

PPSO ruined my life, they threw me out into the cold without a second thought