The founder of trendy baby clothing brand Kyte Baby is facing a TikTok tantrum after she denied a new mom's request to work from home so she could care for her premature adopted baby who was struggling in the NICU of a hospital in Texas.
Ying Liu founded Kyte Baby in 2014, after her own little girl developed a chronic case of eczema, according to the company. web site. The brand includes children's clothing and sleeping bags made from breathable and sustainable bamboo materials.
“We're parents too,” says Kyte Baby. “Kyte Baby may have started as a mom on a mission, but we couldn't do what we do today without our team: a diverse group of parents and sustainability advocates from around the world, from our headquarters to USA to our team. manufacturing facilities in China, even Canada and the UK.”
But when a member of this team – an employee identified as “Marissa” by TODAY.com — Liu asked to work remotely to care for her hospitalized newborn, Liu admitted she said no, a decision she now regrets.
With calls to boycott TikTok, Liu posted an apology video on Kyte Baby's official account.
“Hi guys, it's Ying,” he began. “I wanted to get on here to sincerely apologize to Marissa for how she communicated and handled her parental leave in the midst of her incredible journey of adoption and raising a family.”
“I've been trying to get in touch with her to apologize directly as well,” Liu added in the video, which has received more than two million views.
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“Kyte Baby is proud to be a family business,” he continued. “We treat biological and non-biological parents equally.”
Liu emphasized that she has “the utmost respect for babies, families and the adoption community.
“However, this respect and good intentions were not fully communicated to Marissa in the discussion of her parental leave,” he said. “It was my oversight that she didn't feel as supported as we always wanted.”
The company's founder assured viewers that Marissa was offered a position “whenever she decides to come home from work.”
According to a statement to TODAY.com, Marissa has “declined” that offer. Liu promised that Kyte's human resources policies would be reviewed to “avoid harming our staff and our community in the future.”
The speech fell flat, with many accusing Liu of reading a disingenuous, lawyer-prepared statement.
“Dozens of moms made videos saying they used to be loyal Kyte customers but are now boycotting the company,” reports TODAY.com.
Liu tried again and posted a second video later that day.
“The comments were right,” he admitted. “It was a script.”
“It wasn't sincere,” he added, “and I've decided to go off script.”
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He admitted to being “selfish” when he made his “terrible” decision.
“I was the one who made the decision to veto her request to go remote while she has to stay in the NICU to take care of her adopted baby,” Liu said. “And when I look back, that was a terrible decision: I was insensitive, selfish and just focused on the fact that his work had always been done on-site and I didn't see the possibility of doing it remotely.”
“I can't imagine the stress she had to go through, not having the option to go back to work and having to deal with a newborn in the NICU,” she continued. “So looking back, it was really a terrible mistake. I have 100%.”
He acknowledged that his second attempt to apologize will appear to many as a shot to “save face” and rescue his company.
“As a mother, as a woman who owns a business, and especially a children's business, I feel like I need to set the record straight: that I fully realize the impact of my actions … I did not fully accommodate Marissa and I didn't even contact her personally, I didn't even talk to her about what happened to her until today,” Liu said.
“I want to take this opportunity to say I'm sorry,” he said on TikTok. “As for Marissa, she's a great woman, she has the biggest heart and … I love her as a worker and enjoy working with her every day.”
Marissa would receive benefits and the remote position she requested, Liu promised.
But TikTok is not known for its indulgent nature.
Many of the thousands of comments claimed Liu's mea culpa was inspired by “pure panic” and came “too late”.
“We continue to apologize to both Marissa and our Kyte Baby community for how her maternity leave was handled…we are revising our maternity policy to give all new parents more time off and creating a process to better support our team,” said a Kyte spokesperson. Baby told TODAY.com in a statement.
“Marissa was an on-site Kyte Baby employee who worked in our photography studio for a little over seven months,” the statement explains. “Based on our maternity policy at the time, all parents, biological or non-biological, who worked for the company for at least six months received two weeks of paid maternity leave. As part of that agreement, they were required to sign a contract stating that they would return to their workplace for a minimum of six months after their paid leave ended. Female employees who had been with the company for more than a year received four weeks of paid maternity leave with the same six-month requirement.”
Marissa was offered the standard package “but given her son's situation, she was unable to sign the six-month contract,” the statement continued. “She proposed a remote option for her job, but given that her role was largely on-site at the time, we did not believe the proposed plan would meet the responsibilities of her current position. We told her we understood his situation and informed him that his job would be here if he chose to return.”
“However, after reflection, we should have taken more measures to adapt to his situation,” the spokesman admitted. “Since then we have realized that Kyte Baby needs to uphold our values of being a family-owned and women-owned business. We have reached out to Marissa directly and reiterated that her job is here if and when she is ready to back. We have also offered to work with her to find a remote position within the company. At this time, Marissa has declined our offer.”
“In a 2021 company blog post in honor of International Women's Day, Liu praised her employees, many of whom are mothers, and the benefits of remote work,” reports TODAY.com.
“I have no problem with my employees staying at home and working while taking care of their children,” Liu said at the time. “Why should they have to go back to the office five days a week when they're still very productive and can work? … Women are amazing. I hope this raises the status of female employees because all this has shown is that they don't need to be in the office 8 hours a day. They can still be productive and take care of their families.”
On February 1, Kyte Baby said it will unveil a revised maternity policy.
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