SHOULD WOMEN TELL EMOLOYERS EVERYTHING?

SHOULD WOMEN TELL EMPLOYERS ABOUT FAMILY PLANS?

(Sunday Telegraph March 20^th 2011) By: Helen Pow. (NEWS)

Bosses and recruitment experts are urging women to disclose during job interviews their future plans to have children.

While it is illegal for employers to ask women about babies, several bosses told The Sunday Telegraph women should be open about their family plans when applying for a job – some believing it would actually help them secure the position.

But the suggestion – prompted by debate in the British House of Lords – has divided Australian recruitment experts and outraged leading Australian politicians.

Businessman Lord Alan Sugar, urged women to be forthcoming by declaring their children and childcare status to pre-empt any unaskable questions in the mind of the interviewer. He said laws banning employers from asking delicate questions about family plans were counterproductive.

His position was backed by Australian head-hunters. Victoria Bethlehem, from Adecco, one of the world’s largest recruitment firms, said women should open up because interviews would make assumptions – whether they intend to or not – about women of a certain age anyway.

Ms Bethlehem told her boss of her plans to have a third child and believes it helped her secure the role. I said I guarantee I will be able to do this role for 18 months before I take maternity leave and I take six months, she said. It meant that when I began my boss and I both knew what the playing field was. He liked that I was upfront and he knew exactly what to expect.

Quay Appointments recruitment Agency owner -Winsome Bernard said she recently hired a woman who confessed she was six weeks pregnant during the interview.

And Nikki Beaumont, of Beaumont Consulting, said: That frankness in an interview starts you off on a much better relationship.

When asked his views, Harvey Norman owner Gerry, Harvey said: If I told you what I thought, I’d get really bad publicity.

Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt was outraged at the idea of revealing baby plans as was NSW Shadow Minister for Women Pru Goward. Where does it stop? Ms Goward asked. Do you ask a woman if she has a boyfriend? Why don’t we ask men if 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, she said.

Businessman Jack Singleton said employers do make gender assumptions. You look at men and know men can’t get pregnant, he said. An employer should look at it and say look we are employing this woman, she could have kids and I hope she does because that is more important than bloody work anyway.

BABIES ENDED MY CAREER AT TEN

Television presenter and journalist Tracey Spicer says ‘the writing was on the wall for her career at Channel 10 when she told her former employer she wanted to have children.

Spicer, 43, said a manager at the station unlawfully asked her years ago whether she was planning on having children in the next five years.

I trusted this man so, stupidly, I was honest and I said yes, Spicer said.

From that point on, you could virtually hear the doors being slammed shut and the opportunities being taken away.

The mother of two remained at Ten for four years after that – but, soon after she gave birth to her second child, her contract was not renewed.

Spicer then took legal action against Netwwork Ten for discrimination.

The experience had left her outraged by the suggestion that women should confess plans to have children in job interviews.

It clearly leaves the door open to discrimination and I think women would be crazy to say that to a potential employer – they’re risking not getting the job by being that honest, she said.