Background:
There is a certain position that I have been trying to get for years. This is my third time applying for the job. I always pass the pre-employment test and make it to the first interview stage. This time, I’ve made it to the second interview, which involves sitting in to experience the job for a few hours.
Here’s my dilemma:
Now I’m pregnant. When I applied for the job and took the pre-employment test, I was not. I didn’t really think about it during the first interview, mostly because I’ve never made it beyond that point. Now I have the second interview and I’m wondering if I should mention something. I feel like if I tell them, they will find a reason not to hire me. I really want this job, but I would feel guilty starting, having them train me, and then going on maternity leave. (I’m about 13 weeks along)
So do I tell them now? Wait until they actually offer me the job? Tell them a month or so after I’m hired?
Employers are not legally obligated to offer you maternity leave if you have not worked for them for 12 months. Refer to Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 - Wikipedia. Additionally, employers with less than 50 employees are not required to offer maternity leave at all.
You need to tell them about this up front and let them decide what do about it. They are not legally required to offer you maternity leave, but maybe you can work something out.
If you failed to tell me during the hiring process that you were 3 months pregnant and then demanded maternity leave 6 months later, I’d be furious and would probably fire you. In no case would I actually allow you maternity leave!
It depends on the type of job you are applying for as well. If you’re applying to a large company and will be largely interchangeable with other employees, it’s probably not a big deal. If you’re applying to a smaller company, or will be difficult to replace to some degree, it might be harder.
Definitely do NOT tell them. They are not allowed to ask and you do not have to tell them your marital status, age, ethnicity, state of pregnancy, etc.
If they offer you the job then you can think about when to tell them. See what the other posters say. But I strongly disagree with Absolute.
But if that person said “I’m pregnant!” in the interview you’re not going to reward her for her honesty. You’re just not going to hire her in the first place! So how is she any worse off withholding this information from you?
As a former HR person, I recommend not saying anything, unless asked.
You were truthful when you filled out your application and things change.
Of course employers are not allowed to ask directly but they can ask other questions.
You can’t say ‘Are you pregnant’? But you can say, ‘Do you have any events in your life in the next six months to a year, that would prevent you from doing your job’?
You cannot fire someone for being pregnant, in fact, you have to make reasonable accommodation for any condition.
The other thing I would like to know is, this a different company or is this a new job in the same company?
Don’t feel guilty, supposing in a few months the company isn’t as profitable as it wants to be. They’d fire you without a second thought.
Keep your mouth shut, but don’t lie if asked. Like I said, it’s highly unlikely the will say “are you pregnant,” but they’ll use phrases, like the one I noted above to weed out information.
Besides if you tell them, and you don’t get the job, you’ll always wonder, ‘would I have gotten it’? If you’re overwhelmed with guilt once you get the offer, you can then inform them and leave it up to them.
10 years ago, when I joined a then rather large, but now much smaller, cell phone manufacturer, I was asked to fill in my ethnicity on a form. I expressed surprise that they could ask me that. They told me that they were classified as an Affirmative Action company, and had to report on their hiring practices to the government.
I’m not sure the rules are quite as cut and dry as we’d like them to be.
For the OP - without a little more insight into the situation, I don’t really have any good advice.
-D/a
This is why I don’t want to be told during an interview. If I’m not allowed to ask, I don’t want to know. Knowing leads to accusations and suspicions and I’d rather not have that. Hiring is stressful enough! The last thing I want is to think “sheesh, now if I don’t hire this person, I may get sued.” You don’t want your interviews to be causing the your interviewer aggravation and stress!
You have to keep a record of your interviews and applications. This is voluntary. The forms will say, sex, Male/Female/I Choose Not To Disclose.
Race (List of faces) or I choose not to disclose
Veteran Status, Yes/No, I choose not to disclose
The purpose of this is when your audited to prove you are giving everyone an equal chance.
The information is never to be used for hiring. But when your audited, it’s carefully looked at. The auditors know pretty much what response rate you should have. If you have too many “I choose not to disclose” or other responses which don’t fit the norm for your industry you’ll be scrutinized closer.
Even before this requirement, we used to use our own classifying system of numbers on top of applications.
This is off topic, but I was in HR and I had a job interview for an HR position, where the interviewer started asking me some questions I knew were not legal. Then I was thinking, 'OK how do I answer this? Should I point it out to her? Maybe she’s testing whether or not I know employment law." After considering whether or not it was a test, I did nicely tell her she wasn’t supposed to ask the questions.
I didn’t get the job, so I guess it wasn’t a test.
I would not say anything. As a previous poster said, you were truthful on the inital application and that is sufficient. Do not give them a reason to dismiss your application at this stage.
I do not believe that most employers would have the balls to risk the legal fallout that would rain down on them if they were to fire a woman because she was pregnant.
Will being pregnant affect your ability to do the job? Meaning, will being pregnant mean you can’t lift heavy objects and will need them lifted for you (and will you or your assistant routinely have to lift heavy objects)? Or will you have to be extra careful around hazardous chemicals?
If so, I think you ought to tell sooner rather than later, because while you filled out your original paperwork in good faith, things have changed.
But if being pregnant won’t affect your ability to do the job (at least for a few more months), I agree with the advice to not lie, but don’t disclose your pregnancy now. A lot can happen in six months, and you may find that the job isn’t one you’d be interested in working after the baby is born, in which case you can quit at your convenience.
And maybe they won’t hire you because someone even better is available, and your question will prove moot.
You know that’s illegal, right? I mean, you can deny the leave, but you can’t fire her just for being pregnant. (Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978).
What’s even more awesome than the fact that Absolute would probably fire you – he/she might not fire you, but would definitely not give you maternity leave! Sweet, so I guess you could come in with the umbilical cord still coming out of you and attached to your baby, and then just you know, keep gettin’ the job done. I hope he/she doesn’t mind a little blood on the floor under your desk. And, you know, the fact that you will need to feed the baby every two hours. So I guess the baby will have to come in to work with you. But at least you will still have a job. How dare you propagate the human race and simultaneously believe that you should be able to have job prospects as well. It’s shameful, really.
And in the US if you did this you would lose big in the eventual court case. It’s called sex discrimination, in particular, you would be in violation of the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act.
An employment relationship should be based on mutual respect (yeah, so I’m Pollyanna, sue me!)
But really, it’s not just about maternity leave, it’s also all the leave that will be needed ante natal. The visits really ramp up in the last trimester. Further, chances are for the last two weeks or so it is probably a good idea not to be at work.
FWIW, I have heard about a number of case studies done in New Zealand. Essentially, efforts made to retain mums, give flexibility in maternity and childcare leave, flexiwork arrangements and the like more than paid a very positive ROI - so you might want to think about that Absolute
