Job interviews are awful. AWFUL. Nobody enjoys them, let’s be honest. It’s an elaborate dance of Q&A, forcibly bright body language and awkward pauses. So much of what goes on in a job interview is unspoken. Especially when the interviewee is female.
Baby plans? When? Are you using contraception? Is it reliable? Could you be pregnant now or is that just an empire line top you’re wearing?
But what if those questions weren’t unspoken? What if employers could legally ask them? Would you answer honestly?
They want to know because hiring somebody who is pregnant or about to be pregnant puts a serious kink in their future plans for your role and their business. It has implications for them and for your future co-workers. So are you obliged to disclose your conception intentions?
According to the Sunday Telegraph:
BOSSES and recruiters say that, during job interviews, women should disclose their future plans to have a baby.
A discussion in the UK’s House of Lords last week has sparked intense debate among global businesses, recruiters and politicians.
Prominent businessman and boss in the British television version of The Apprentice, Lord Alan Sugar, urged women to be “forthcoming” by declaring their status on children and childcare “so as to pre-empt any unaskable questions in the mind of the interviewer”.
“Employment regulations for women, whereby the prospective employer is not able to inquire about the interviewee’s status regarding children, childcare, or indeed their intention of becoming a parent, are counterproductive,” he said.
Hmmmm, “bosses and recruiters” think it’s a good idea? And that it could HELP your employment prospects. Oh sure.
But there are some recruiters, women included, who think that being up front and honest with your bosses really will be good for you (it’s still not clear exactly how). And Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce took a different tack, saying it was best just to assume a woman would want a child.
That doesn’t sound any better. Do all women want babies? Do bosses see wombs when women walk in for an interview?
The article continues from above:
Tracey Spicer“Federal Status of Women Minister Kate Ellis said businesses were mandated to employ people on merit, not on age and gender assumptions.
NSW Shadow Minister for Women Pru Goward said it was blatant sex discrimination. “Where does it stop? Do you ask a woman whether she has a boyfriend? Why don’t we ask men whether they have had affairs in the office? There are a lot of personal things that would be useful for employers to know but it doesn’t achieve anything and it is offensive.”
TV presenter and journalist Tracey Spicer says “the writing was on the wall” for her career at Channel Ten when she told her former employer that she wanted to have children.
With the introduction of paid parental leave in Australia, things are looking up. But there are some intensely private and personal issues at play here, beyond just what’s good for business. For many women, the prospect of miscarriage is real and many of us prefer to keep things quiet for the first few months of our pregnancy. Is this not our right?
And what if you haven’t yet decided if or when you want to have children? What if you’re undergoing IVF? Does your boss have the right to know that? Should you email him or her a photo every time you pee on a stick?
Discuss.
Top Comments
Before I had my first child I told my boss that I was pregnant becuase we were discussing a promotion and I felt I should be upfront with them and I knew that it would factor into their plans for my subordinate. I was only 8 weeks at the time.
Fast forward 4 weeks and I lost the baby and my boss revoked my promotion and the associated payrise as his budgeting had taken into consideration I would be having 6 months off work.
Needless to say it made the pain of the miscarriage a little worse.
My advice is before you have kids say nothing. After you have kids make it known that you plan on having minimal time off, coming back to work, you have lots of support and you dont plan on having any more kids.
Anything else and youre definitely discriminated against.
I've got 3 kids now and have gone back to work to 3 different environments and its been the same everywhere. And i'm one of the lucky ones, I have flexibility, have maintained my management level jobs & have support.
One last funny one on the subject- when I accidentally got pregnant with my 3rd child just after starting a job my boss asked me to keep it a secret for 6 months until I had 'got some run's on the board' to make up for the bad news. And he's one of the best bosses i've had- a wonderful guy.
The moral is even the good ones get it wrong.
Oh for a world where the "issue" for employers isn't whether a female will get pregnant or not, but rather an organisational consideration for setting up the appropriate support structures and role designs to enable both men and women to have flexibility in their first 3-12 months of raising a child, depending on who chooses to spend some/all time at home. Sigh.