The case of Sara, the maternity employee left at the point of point in white by the influencer and entrepreneur Martina Strazzer, shows no sign of deflating. For a week now, on social media, in particular on Tiktok, there is no mention of anything else. The videos of controversy and analysis are literally hundreds and, while the wave of indignation mounts more and more, no one replies by the company. Nobody gives explanations.

For those who do not know the story, I will briefly summarize: last November, the founder of the popular “Amabile” jewelry brand, with a turnover of 7 million euros, had announced in a great pomp, with a video on Tiktok, that he had hired a pregnant girl, wandering the praise widely. The girl was Sara, an accountant by profession with over a decade of experience behind them, in the fourth month of pregnancy at the time of entry into the company, in July 2024. The announcement of Strazzer, in a country where motherhood is still seen by many companies as an obstacle to be avoided at all costs, seemed to be a revolutionary act. So revolutionary as to have made them earn a lot of views, likes and compliments from half a web within a few days. Going to strengthen the image of the inclusive and attentive company to employees, so dear to struggle, which has always been based on the communication of its brand on these values. Not a random narration, but a storytelling used as precise marketing leverage.

At that announcement, however, a bitter epilogue was followed that would never have become public if last week I had not decided to tell the ending of this story giving voice to Sara’s testimony. Eight months after that emotional and so viral video, Sara no longer works in Amabile. His fixed -term contract was not renewed: the communication arrived in May, while he was still on maternity, with the girl born for a few months. A lightning bolt, given that Sara, to enter the Amabile, had left the company for which she worked with an indefinite period for six years for a fixed -term contract. A gamble, many comment. An error of Sara, support several users. But Sara had made the decision in the face of the promises of the same strozzer, who had repeatedly assured her, in words, which would have been stabilized at the end of the first year. The months of motherhood spend, with Sara who occasionally also gives a hand to the colleagues and performs some works that are commissioned to her despite the mandatory leave, until May arrives. In that month, Sara meets the two new managers hired in the company twice: CFO and HR Manager.

After a first cognitive meeting, Sara is convened the following week and at that time a series of errors found during the budget are communicated. Errors that Sara would have made in the months preceding the entrance to maternity. At that moment, the girl understands that the much promised renewal is in the balance. But it will be in a subsequent meeting, which is held on May 16 with the Founder Martina Strazzer, who will discover the bitter epilogue. The contract, which would have expired in July, will not be renewed for professional defaults which, however, in the interview are not really clarified.

The story is unleashing a vespaio of controversy, also fueled, but I would say above all, by the lack of a reply and explanations from Martina Strazzer (who arrived late and not convincing at all). Mind you: in itself, the lack of renewal is not an illicit and a company can choose not to renew a contract without giving any motivation, even to an employee on maternity. However, the fulcrum of the problem is much deeper. Because it has to do, for the umpteenth time, with the reality that deconstructs, indeed destroys, a storytelling based on many words and not very concrete facts.

The point is all here: on the one hand the social narrative, made of values, inclusion and “different” choices and in contrast to the average and painted entrepreneurial world as a stale; On the other hand, the reality, which betrays the promises and which does not put the ethics so far in first place. But perhaps not even at the last. And yes, certainly Amabile is not the first or the only company that has not renewed a fixed -term contract to an employee on maternity. We know that these things in Italy happen every day for the most varied reasons. But the other corporate realities do not constantly paint on social networks as virtuous and different. They do not use the hiring of a pregnant woman to advertise yourself, then avoiding to make responsibility for her decisions when the contract, for any reason, is not renewed.

The brands that live in this type of social communication cannot think they can ride the narrative that is more convenient to create connections with followers and customers, using this same inclusive narrative to increase sales, and then really put it into practice in everyday corporate life. Because what really made the controversy inflamed was perceiving a clear inconsistency between the proclamations and the facts. And if the storytelling rests on precarious bases, or worse fake, in the long run the account to be paid arrives. Because the consistency for a brand that lives on fiction is not optional: if you build your image on precise values, then you have to embody them. Otherwise it’s just a play. And people don’t like to find out that behind the smiles and good actions proclaimed, scratching, only the words remain.