“I’m not going to turn my back on them for a job.” 
 
 So, at 4 a.m. on the first day of the year, Austin, 30, drove his 26-year-old wife, Lindsay Austin, to Concord Hospital from their home in Pittsfield. Since then, the military veteran and father of four has received at least three job offers, an outpouring of support and a fundraising page dedicated to helping his family financially. “SPS is not in the practice of releasing employees for reasons stated in the article you published but must be cognizant of the product we give our clients!” 
 
 Family support 
 
 The story struck a chord with readers who questioned whether an employee could be fired for missing work due to the birth of a child. “It definitely happened for a reason.” 
 
 Austin said she hopes other workers won’t have to make the same choice her husband, Lamar, had to make – go to work or lose his job. Lindsay and Lamar video-chatted Lindsay’s mom from their hospital room, and she reported that Cainan’s brothers and sisters are very excited to meet the family’s newest member. “It was hard, but if I have to choose between work and family, I’m always going to pick my family,” he said, gently patting his son’s pink-and-blue striped hat as he slept in his mother’s arms. It’s hard to know if SB416 would have worked out for Austin and his former employer Salerno Protective Services. “Being shrouded in confidentiality we are unable to comment until all business with Mr. Austin has been concluded,” president and CEO Anthony Salerno said by email Wednesday. His nine-months-pregnant wife, Lindsay, was in her second day of early labor, but his boss was telling him if he didn’t show up for his shift as a part-time security guard in Manchester, he would lose his job. Glenn Brackett, president of the NH AFL-CIO union, agreed that New Hampshire needs some kind of legal mechanism for citizens to get time off to care for their families. Because New Hampshire is an “at-will” employment state, an employer may generally terminate an employment relationship for part-time or full-time workers at any time and for any reason, with a few exceptions. “And if they’re similar to that security company, I can tell you they’re going to get a hard time from me because they’re not respectful to their employees.” 
 
 Job options 
 
 Lamar Austin is now eyeing a shot at a new career as an electrician – or one of the multiple job opportunities that poured in after people read his story. After reading in the Monitor that Austin was hoping to get into electrical work, Denis Beaudoin, the business manager from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Concord, offered Austin the chance to apply for an apprenticeship. In 2012, Lamar arrived in the Granite State hoping to spend more time with his daughter, but he wasn’t able to find housing or a job right away. “We never thought it would actually happen.” 
 
 Lindsay is a stay-at-home-mom, and she said it’s the best job there is. A GoFundMe account created by Sara Persechino, a mother of two from Hopkinton, already exceeded the account’s goal of $1,000 in one day. “I didn’t expect this at all,” Lamar Austin said. At 1 a.m. on New Year’s Day, Austin said he got a text that read: “As of now, you are terminated.” 
 
 The company said Tuesday it wouldn’t comment on an employee’s status. After what the couple said felt like four short hours later, their son, Cainan Austin, was born. He arrived at 7:44 a.m. – the first baby of the year in Concord. I can’t blame him for that.” 
 
 (Leah Willingham can be reached at news@cmonitor.com.)
– A month ago, Lamar Austin was hired by a security company for a 90-day trial period that involved him being on call 24/7. On New Year's Day, Austin's son was born. Austin, who had already had to miss one shift offered to him due to a doctor's appointment for his wife, ended up missing shifts on Friday and Saturday. Son Cainan was born Sunday, and at 1am that day, Austin got a text notifying him he'd been terminated from Salerno Protective Services. Austin's story made headlines, especially due to the fact that Cainan was the first baby born in Concord, NH, in 2017. "If I have to choose between work and family, I’m always going to pick my family," Austin told the Monitor shortly after his son's birth. Since then, people have been stepping up to help Austin, a 30-year-old military veteran and father of four, big-time. He's gotten offers for at least three jobs, plus money raised for him on a GoFundMe page set up by a mother who was upset by what happened to Austin—even though, as experts explain to the Concord Monitor, it's perfectly legal in an "at-will" employment state such as New Hampshire. In a statement reported by WCVB, Anthony Salerno Jr. cited confidentiality in not commenting on the particulars of the situation, but did say "SPS is not in the practice of releasing employees for reasons stated in the article published in the monitor [sic] but must be cognizant of the product we give our clients!" But there's no bad blood, Austin tells the Monitor. "[Salerno] had his company, which is like his baby, and I had my baby ... Naturally, he’s going to pick his baby over my baby. I can't blame him for that." (This waitress lost her job for firing a shot at robbers.)