調查：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.'

在面試中你會問潛在雇主什么問題呢?或許是你的薪水、假日津貼、養(yǎng)老金計劃、醫(yī)療保險，但你會問及公司的產假方案嗎?

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

網(wǎng)上求職擇業(yè)社區(qū)Glassdoor對在英國工作的1000名女性進行了調查。其中，500名女性已經(jīng)休過產假，另外500名計劃今后休產假。

為什么女性會對孕期福利話題避而不談呢?一半的人說她們害怕潛在雇主會猜測她們已經(jīng)懷孕。

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

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

調查同時強調，即使工作了，女性仍然會對提及孕期福利有所顧慮。

22%的人會等到度過試用期后再詢問部門經(jīng)理她們所享有的孕期權利。

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

為什么需要事先打探一下呢?調查發(fā)現(xiàn)，對女性雇員來說女性產假信息獲取不易。

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

在她們開始目前的工作時，只有32%的女性雇員被告知孕期福利信息。

調查還顯示，42%的女性雇員說，只有在她們真正懷孕時，她們才會詢問雇主孕期福利問題。

理由有多種：43%的人擔心雇主會認為她們已經(jīng)懷孕，37%的人擔心這會被理解為她們試圖懷孕，30%的人覺得這會人感到她們“不專業(yè)”。

但最令人擔憂的是，超過五分之一(22%)的人擔心問及這個禁忌的話題，她們可能將自己置于被裁員的風險下。

那么，女性認為該采取什么措施呢?一半的人建議，在招聘程序開始時，所有機構都應該提供一套透明的福利措施。這應該成為一種義務。

女性也認為那些有這套具有競爭力的措施的企業(yè)應該將它作為一種市場工具，積極利用，以吸引頂級的女性人才。

最近，Glassdoor在其網(wǎng)頁上添加了一項匿名的福利評估服務，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，“超過1300萬的女性投身工作市場，而她們中超過500萬的人是職業(yè)媽媽。”

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

“采取更加誠實公開的態(tài)度對待孕期福利問題能夠提升求職者的質量。”

“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會給許多職業(yè)女性造成很到壓力。福利措施的透明能切實增加更多的信任。”