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I hired a publicist for a 4-month contract (a finite 4-month contract that had to occur during a specific time related to a film release, which was imminent at the time of our interview) and she went on maternity leave just over a month into the contract. She did not tell me she intended to take maternity leave when she was pitching me to hire her firm for the short-term job .

Additionally, she did not have a full-time staff to pick up the slack in her absence (also something she did not disclose -- she made it seem that she had a full staff, but she does not), so I don't feel that I was serviced properly by her "firm" without her active participation.

Should she have disclosed her intent to be absent when she was pitching me to hire her firm? Or is the more pertinent issue that even so, she did not produce the results promised because she didn't have personnel to handle the work in her absence? Or both? (I know there may be distinction between a long-term job vs. this kind of short-term contract job.)

Please advise, thanks.

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    Is this a "workplace" question per se? Seems like something that would be better suited to the Law Stack Exchange.
    – P. Hopkinson
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 20:58
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    Vote to close or migrate - the question seems to be a legal/contract question and thus belongs on Law.SE
    – P. Hopkinson
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 21:01
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    @pelonita as you say this isn't about the type of leave she took. Very much keep that in mind when painting the picture. There are excellent reasons that maternity leave is protected and perception of you being against it--even though you're not--could be harmful. Make sure this is entirely framed as her firm failing to meet the objective they were hired for in the understood timeline and that they accepted the work knowing the key resource could not be available throughout.
    – SemiGeek
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 21:07
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    Additionally, she did not have a full-time staff to pick up the slack in her absence (also something she did not disclose -- she made it seem that she had a full staff, but she does not - that's not quantifiable. A 1 person company with 1 person available has a "full" staff. A 100 person company with 99 people available does not have a "full" staff. Saying that she did not have a "full" staff makes no logical sense because you can't define what a "full" staff actually is, and everyone will have their own definition and perception of what it means to have a "full" staff.
    – joeqwerty
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 21:53
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    What does the contract say? Start with that. Since her firm wrote the contract, it's really doubtful that it is specific enough to establish a breach of contract. In the future, make a lawyer a necessary part of your budget and do hire a lawyer to write/review most of your contracts. Unfortunately, I don't think we can help you here. I'm also doubtful the Law StackExchange will be able to do much more than refer you to a lawyer either.
    – Stephan Branczyk
    Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 22:02

2 Answers 2

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If you hired a firm not a particular person, named in the contract as specific contact, her leave cannot be an issue.

Quality of service pertaining to the contract is a different mater entirely.

In the case you didn`t receive full set / quality of services, outlined in the contract, you may have legal recourse for part of the fee back, or, depending on your location, damages reimbursement

P.S. IMHO, this post belongs in Law section not here.

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This is more of a legal question, especially as this question has the tag independent-contractor.

You entered into a legal arrangement with a firm to provide a service for you. They are obliged to deliver the service in the manner detailed in the contract.

Their staffing situation is none of your concern. Their employees going on leave is none of your concern. You do not need to consider these factors.

Your contact at the firm, is under no obligation to detail to you any potential leave that may occur. Their obligation is to accurately detail the service that would be delivered to you. What is of your concern is if the service was delivered in an agreed upon manner.

If the service was not delivered in an agreed upon manner, you do have the potential for recourse. Your first step is to actually determine how they strayed from the contract.

My answer does not apply if you actually entered into an employment arrangement with a specific person. From the wording of your question, this does not seem to be the case.

It is possible that the contract specifically names an employee of the firm as the person you will be working with. That would be a valid clause of the contract. If you had the impression that you would be working with a particular employee of the firm, that should have appeared in the contract.

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