Issues facing mum's in the workplace

Issues facing mum's in the workplace

Ed had a job interview at the hospital the week after Penny had left the Neonatal Unit. He’d mentioned to the interviewer how up until a few days before we had been living on site. They talked about the unit, how Penny was now, and that was that. He was offered the job too.

Shortly after having Eddie, I was contacted by a friend and asked if I would attend an interview with a firm she had recently joined. I went along, and within the first five minutes the interviewer said “Your son is very young for you to consider returning, what will be your childcare arrangements if you were to be successful?”. The scariest thing – the role was at a law firm, who you’d hope would know better.

The title of this piece actually came from something said to a friend recently at interview – a statement that has no place in 2019.

There is legislation to protect women whilst pregnant, when on maternity leave and when returning to work, but legislation by itself is not enough. It doesn’t work – any organisation can still ask such a question in interview and then deny it happened, they can decide not to recruit a young recently-married woman for fear she’ll be heading off on maternity leave soon and just hide their decision by writing something else in the interview notes, they can tell a woman returning from maternity leave that they do have a role willing to accommodate the part time hours she now wants; it just happens to be lower paid and with less responsibilities.

Having a baby is the most wonderful, stressful, natural, tiring, all-consuming thing I have ever done. For a woman who has thus far concentrated on her career, you are suddenly at home, drowning in all manner of emotions, questioning your ability to raise and protect this beautiful tiny being in front of you, and without the professional role that you have carefully crafted and become over many years. Previously, had somebody said something to you or treated you in a way that was unfair and in many cases illegal, you wouldn’t have stood for it. You’d have put them straight, you’d have taken it to the top, you would have told others that they should be stronger too; don’t let them walk all over you. But in the haze of early motherhood, when you’re looking to return to work but your self-confidence is so much lower than when you left, when you’re getting your post-partum mental health back on the straight and narrow, when your beautiful new addition still wakes in the night and takes everything from you, you don’t have that fight within you. You don’t want to battle, you don’t want to draw attention to yourself, particularly if you’re the only new mother there. Instead, you go back to a role or hours that don’t suit, you take the demotion that’s offered, or you may even leave work altogether.

I’ve never murdered anyone, I don’t think you have either. Obviously it’s illegal to murder someone, but that isn’t the sole reason we’ve never done it. We’ve never done it because morally and culturally it’s the wrong thing to do, it goes against every personal value that we hold. We will only have effective implementation of legislation to protect women during and after maternity when organisations also change their culture and values, when they actively seek to support women on the next stage in their lives, when they acknowledge the benefits of flexible working and encourage all parents to maximise their work/life balance. Whilst we’re still in a time of organisations only being concerned with being seen to meet their legal requirements, legislation will have very little effect.

There are some brilliant people out there working hard to challenge the stigma attached to returning from maternity, and shout about the benefits of making flexible working available for all. As individuals we can offer support and share experiences, particularly examples of where it has worked well, demonstrate to organisations the positive impact it can have. We can make it clear that in 2019, we shouldn’t have to choose between a successful, impactful career and motherhood. I am an asset to an organisation because I’m a working mother, not in spite of it. Those of us in line management roles can be role models in our organisations, showing how we embrace flexible working of all kinds and how our teams have profited from it. Those of you in senior roles, you have the potential to lead a true culture change throughout your organisation, impacting many families now and in the future.

Make sure you follow the marvellous Anna Whitehouse (Mother Pukka) and her #flexappeal campaign, brilliant Joeli at Pregnant Then Screwed, the inspirational Successful Mums, and fantastic FlexNHS looking to highlight the importance of cultural change regarding working patterns in the NHS. I’ve suffered the kind of issues highlighted above in all three organisations I’ve worked in since getting pregnant nearly eight years ago, it’s time to make sure our little girls don’t face the same struggles in years to come.

(Needed to add that header graphic in here somewhere – absolutely perfect…)

 

(Originally published with full credits and links at https://lianthology.wordpress.com/2019/02/23/flexible-working-thats-just-an-excuse-for-bunking-off-isnt-it/

Votes: 0
E-mail me when people leave their comments –

CIPD Level 5 Student, L&D Manager by day, blogger by night.

You need to be a member of DPG Community to add comments!

Join DPG Community

Get Involved

Start a discussion in one of the following Zones