Are children bad for your career - for-you

Are children bad for your career?

In this age of 'having it all,' working mums now have more rights than ever before.

But despite growing acceptance of flexible hours and home-working, a third of mums reckon their employers turn against them when they return from maternity leave.

Working mums poll

According to a Bounty poll of 3,000 working mums:

Almost one in five were demoted without warning when they returned to work.
A quarter walked back into the office to discover they had been replaced by someone else.
Half claimed that having a baby had a negative effect on their career.
26% said they were forced to take a pay cut, due to the employers' belief that they wouldn't be able to do the job part-time.
49% said they had missed out on promotions and other work opportunities, despite grafting hard.

"Not enough flexibility is offered to mothers to help them balance family life with a career," says Bounty's Ian Beswetherick. "Mums should receive support from employers. They have battled with their priorities to return, so should be offered respect for doing so."

"The fact of the matter is that many mums work harder than ever before when they return to work as they are afraid to be seen as part-timers. They are keen to prove to colleagues that they are just as capable as they were before."

What Bounty mums think

Here are just a few of your experiences from the Bounty community:

"During my maternity leave everyone had a pay rise apart from me. I was told that I had just had six months' holiday!" Beccy31
"My employer has been amazing. She let me choose my hours when I came back and lets me work from home and turn up whenever I feel like it. I find it a struggle when all I want to do in the evenings is flop in front of the TV, but I'd rather do that than leave lo in daycare." Hugearse
"Having kids has actually improved my career! I wasn't able to go back to my old job due to the shifts involved. I was then redeployed to a better job with more responsibilities and higher up the ladder. I do work for a local council and appreciate redeployment isn't always an option, but for me it's been fantastic!" Smuffie
"My boss stopped talking to me when I advised him I was pregnant because it caused him great inconvenience. Since being back I've had my hours cut from full time to three days a week, but still have to fit the same amount of work in."Samanthajay
"I have only recently returned and am full time but do feel that I have to work twice as hard to prove myself and that my bosses expect me to not put as much into my job as I used to." Cazbirdy
"My old job wasn't family friendly. Very few had kids and those that did were made to feel worthless, especially if kids were ill etc. Had I gone back I would have had to pay childcare that would have been almost my salary." Sammieb747
"My manager has been great and lets me do flexible working hours and is always understanding when I need any time off. Saying that, I know there is no chance I will ever get promoted doing part-time hours, which I think is wrong." ShirlsRead
"Having kids has given me two big promotions! It was only when I had left to go on maternity each time that they realised just how important I was to the company! I only work three days a week and they want me full-time but I have said no and I'm sticking to it for the next few years at least." AK2004

Comments

Submitted by mandchapman on Wed, 25/08/2010 - 16:39.

My experience to date is the goverment legislation looks good but there are so many holes in it that it just sounds like parents (mums) get more support than they did years ago. But in reality employers totally ignore it and these days both parents have to work unless they are playing the system and obtaining handouts. Employers want full time workers. Qualifications, experience and skills mean nothing unless you are prepared to leave family at the front door and work a min. 40 hour week. There is no need for this - at most companies part time hours and job shares would work but employers are frightened to set what they see as a presidence, instigating many other similar requests. Maybe this time, with this company I will be 3rd time lucky ino my application for a 27hr working week. If not I have no idea what I should do, sell the house? but if I jack in until my DD starts school there will be no going back to the IT industry as my experience will have lapsed. How is it fair? I worked hard, I got the grades. I want to pay my own way? I want to keep our house? but I just want time with my family until they start primary school rather than handing them over to strangers at nurseries for them to enjoy the most precious and valuable part of my world.

Submitted by marsinah on Fri, 20/08/2010 - 15:51.

I returned to work when our daughter was 5 months old and received a lot of support from my manager. She made sure that I felt fit and confident to return and negotiated the hours so that my husband and I could find adequate child care to fit our work schedules. I feel very fortunate that my manager was so open to ensure there was some flexibility on my return, especially as I requested to do part-time hours. After being back for 6 months, [and our daughter about to turn 1 year old] I recently applied for a full-time position and was accepted. Yeah! I know the next few months will be tough going though in terms of handling tiredness and ensuring that I spend enough quality time with my daughter and husband, but right now I couldn't be happier.

Submitted by Jakena on Tue, 17/08/2010 - 20:42.

I've been back at work 6 weeks now. Gone back full time. Although I feel as if i've upset their plans as everyone told me I was supposed to do a different job when I got back part time, but because I wasn't wanting to change my hours I've upset their plans as they've had to give me my old job back. The person doing my maternity cover is still there doing my job and they are trying to hold onto her leaving me with not much to do so they've put me on 'projects'. Returning from work I'd rather just get on with my job rather be left floating about not knowing whats going on.

Submitted by Dandelion10 on Tue, 15/06/2010 - 23:13.

My four friends and I all were working in professional jobs before having our children. Two of us were told our only option was to go back full time at our old hours (which we couldn't fit round childcare at all) - so no flexibility at all. Two others have had to battle to get down to 4 days a week (they wanted three). Only one of us was offered genuine part time work. It seems to me that if you are professionally qualified, employers want you to pretend you are not a mother to get on a work. What a waste of our educations and skills!

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 20/04/2010 - 22:31.

I was due back from Maternity leave to work full time yesterday, both my children are ill, one has chicken pox the other a chest infection so I could not return! I'm really feeling the pressure as I think that my boss will probably try to use this as evidence that I can't do the job and offer me reduced pay work. This has happened in the company before.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 20/04/2010 - 18:28.

My workplace is very supportive of working parents - so no impact on my career there. But the real impact has been my inability to take work home and get work done on weekends and evenings. With everything I have on at home it's extremely hard to find the time and, quite frankly, I'm beat! So the real impact has been that I feel overall I'm not as efficient, I never feel 'on top of things' and the overall feeling is one of being 'frazzled'. I don't know if my employer sees the difference, but I certainly do. Suzanne

Submitted by dannythedog on Tue, 13/04/2010 - 18:18.

I was denied the reduced hours I requested so my partner has reduced his hours to look after our son 2 days a week. I have mixed feelings about being the main breadwinner - maybe if I had chosen to do it I would feel differently.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 17/03/2010 - 23:02.

When I was looking to return to work I asked for flexible working to suit my circumstances, but this was rejected and I had to go to an appeal hearing, which was very daunting to say the least, and I still didn't win my appeal. My employer wanted me back full time but as a "good will gesture" offered me part time hours which did not really suit me. I recently returned on the their terms, only to be ignored by everyone in my team. Not a nice feeling.

Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 09/03/2010 - 19:19.

I feel really guilty when I have to take time off work because my baby is ill and at the moment she is catching every bug going. I'm really feeling the pressure.

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 03/03/2010 - 18:03.

I was made redundant whilst on maternity leave. Whilst I cannot prove that I was the victim of discrimination I can't help notice that many other women have had similar treatment.

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