調(diào)查：生育成女性求職禁忌話題

'I know I'm due today but my boss still hasn't mentioned maternity leave': The survey found one in five feared they would be putting themselves at risk of redundancy by asking questions about maternity benefits

What would you ask potential employers about in a job interview? Your salary, holiday allowance, pension plan or healthcare benefits, perhaps. But would you ask about the company's maternity package?

For almost four out of five women the answer to that questions is 'no'. The overwhelming majority of women feel that any reference to harbouring a working uterus could jeopardise their chances of landing the role.

The survey carried out by Glassdoor, an online jobs and careers community, polled 1,000 working women in the UK - 500 of whom have already taken maternity leave and 500 whom plan to do so in the future.

Why do women keep schtum on the topic of maternity benefits? Half said they would be scared potential employers would assume they are already pregnant.

Perhaps more worrying though, one in five women feared they would not be taken seriously by employers if they mentioned the 'm' word, almost a third (31 per cent) felt it would hinder their career progression even if they did land the role and 15 per cent felt it would stop them getting a fair salary.

Speaking to MailOnline about the study, employment relations minister Jo Swinson said: 'Pregnancy discrimination is unacceptable and illegal. Women deserve the right to pursue their goals and not feel they have to choose between having a successful career or having a baby.'

The survey also highlighted that women's reticence to make reference to maternity benefits doesn't end when they're in a job.

Twenty two per cent would wait until they had passed their probation period to ask their line manager about their maternity rights.

Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) would avoid discussing it with their boss altogether and opt to discuss it with a trusted colleague instead.

Why the need for detective work? The poll found that information about maternity leave is not easy to come by for female employees.

Nearly two in five (39 per cent) of those polled felt the information was difficult to find with 13 per cent saying it was downright impossible, claiming details of maternity benefits were not made available to employees at all, unless specifically requested.

Only 32 per cent of female employees were given information about maternity benefits when they started their current job.

The survey also found that 42 percent of female employees would only ask their employer about maternity benefits if they were announcing a pregnancy.

The reasons ranged from being worried employers would think they were already pregnant (43 percent), worrying it would be perceived that they were trying to get pregnant (37 percent) and feeling it was 'not professional' (30 per cent).

Most alarmingly though, more than one in five (22 per cent) feared they would be putting themselves at risk of redundancy by asking questions on the taboo topic.

So what do women feel can be done? Half said it should be compulsory for all organisations to have a transparent benefits package from the start of the recruitment process.

Women also felt that businesses with a competitive package should actively use it as a marketing tool to attract top female talent.

A spokesperson for Glassdoor, who recently added an anonymous benefits review service to their site, making it easier to compare packages and perks of potential employers, said: 'There are more than 13 million women in the workplace and amongst these more than 5 million are working mums.

'These women are an important part of UK businesses so it seems pretty short sighted to keep maternity benefit details under lock and key.

'A more honest and open attitude towards maternity benefits could improve the quality of candidates.

'It may not be an intentional decision for employers to keep this information from female employees, however forcing them to ask for it is clearly causing a great deal of distress for many women in the workplace. Transparency around benefits can actually build greater trust.'

在面試中你會(huì)問(wèn)潛在雇主什么問(wèn)題呢?或許是你的薪水、假日津貼、養(yǎng)老金計(jì)劃、醫(yī)療保險(xiǎn)，但你會(huì)問(wèn)及公司的產(chǎn)假方案嗎?

幾乎80%的女性都會(huì)回答“不會(huì)”。絕大多數(shù)女性認(rèn)為任何涉及懷孕的事都可能降低他們應(yīng)聘成功的可能性。

網(wǎng)上求職擇業(yè)社區(qū)Glassdoor對(duì)在英國(guó)工作的1000名女性進(jìn)行了調(diào)查。其中，500名女性已經(jīng)休過(guò)產(chǎn)假，另外500名計(jì)劃今后休產(chǎn)假。

為什么女性會(huì)對(duì)孕期福利話題避而不談呢?一半的人說(shuō)她們害怕潛在雇主會(huì)猜測(cè)她們已經(jīng)懷孕。

五分之一的女性害怕提及“懷孕”類字眼，雇主會(huì)不那么認(rèn)真考慮雇傭她們。盡管這樣，或許還有令她們更擔(dān)心的事。三分之一(31%)女性認(rèn)為即使她們得到工作機(jī)會(huì)，這也會(huì)阻礙她們事業(yè)發(fā)展;15%的人認(rèn)為這會(huì)使她們不能得到優(yōu)厚的薪水。

雇傭關(guān)系部長(zhǎng)喬·斯文森(Jo Swinson)告訴每日郵報(bào)(MailOnline)，“對(duì)懷孕進(jìn)行歧視的做法難以令人接受，這也是不合法的。女性有權(quán)追求她們的目標(biāo)，有權(quán)不在成功的事業(yè)和生孩子二者上做抉擇。”

調(diào)查同時(shí)強(qiáng)調(diào)，即使工作了，女性仍然會(huì)對(duì)提及孕期福利有所顧慮。

22%的人會(huì)等到度過(guò)試用期后再詢問(wèn)部門(mén)經(jīng)理她們所享有的孕期權(quán)利。

近四分之一(23%)的人會(huì)回避與老板在一起時(shí)談及此話題，她們更愿意選擇一位值得信任的同事進(jìn)行討論。

為什么需要事先打探一下呢?調(diào)查發(fā)現(xiàn)，對(duì)女性雇員來(lái)說(shuō)女性產(chǎn)假信息獲取不易。

近五分之二(39%)的被調(diào)查者感到很難獲取信息;13%的人表示根本無(wú)法獲取，她們說(shuō)除非特別要求，孕期福利的細(xì)節(jié)雇員根本不可能得知。

在她們開(kāi)始目前的工作時(shí)，只有32%的女性雇員被告知孕期福利信息。

調(diào)查還顯示，42%的女性雇員說(shuō)，只有在她們真正懷孕時(shí)，她們才會(huì)詢問(wèn)雇主孕期福利問(wèn)題。

理由有多種：43%的人擔(dān)心雇主會(huì)認(rèn)為她們已經(jīng)懷孕，37%的人擔(dān)心這會(huì)被理解為她們?cè)噲D懷孕，30%的人覺(jué)得這會(huì)人感到她們“不專業(yè)”。

但最令人擔(dān)憂的是，超過(guò)五分之一(22%)的人擔(dān)心問(wèn)及這個(gè)禁忌的話題，她們可能將自己置于被裁員的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)下。

那么，女性認(rèn)為該采取什么措施呢?一半的人建議，在招聘程序開(kāi)始時(shí)，所有機(jī)構(gòu)都應(yīng)該提供一套透明的福利措施。這應(yīng)該成為一種義務(wù)。

女性也認(rèn)為那些有這套具有競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力的措施的企業(yè)應(yīng)該將它作為一種市場(chǎng)工具，積極利用，以吸引頂級(jí)的女性人才。

最近，Glassdoor在其網(wǎng)頁(yè)上添加了一項(xiàng)匿名的福利評(píng)估服務(wù)，以便更方便地比較潛在顧主的各種措施與額外津貼。該網(wǎng)站一位發(fā)言人說(shuō)，“超過(guò)1300萬(wàn)的女性投身工作市場(chǎng)，而她們中超過(guò)500萬(wàn)的人是職業(yè)媽媽。”

“這些女性是英國(guó)企業(yè)中的一個(gè)重要部分，因此將孕期福利細(xì)節(jié)藏著掖著的做法似乎相當(dāng)?shù)氖竽看绻狻?rdquo;

“采取更加誠(chéng)實(shí)公開(kāi)的態(tài)度對(duì)待孕期福利問(wèn)題能夠提升求職者的質(zhì)量。”

“或許雇主們不是刻意向女性雇員保留這些信息，但是迫使她們自己去咨詢確實(shí)會(huì)給許多職業(yè)女性造成很到壓力。福利措施的透明能切實(shí)增加更多的信任。”