In Scandinavia maternity/paternity leave and rights are aproximately equal, and as a result pay is much more equal.

My wife was back at work (all be it part time) 3 days after she gave birth, no drama.

Yeah, see that would DEFINITELY be a drama here 🙂

How did you cope? Was she able to take the baby to work or something? What about feeding etc?

I accept that works for some folk, but I can’t imagine how it would work for us.
My wife was still in hospital after three days!

How did you cope? Was she able to take the baby to work or something? What about feeding etc?

Baby came to work with Mummy and Daddy.

Baby came to work with Mummy and Daddy.

Ah! See MrsGrahamS is a hospital registrar, so that isn’t really an option.

Doubt any man would run and grab the opportunity of sitting in cafes bored out of their brains whilst smearing copious amounts of shit out of their pride and joy

Why not? I look both ours and have done since they were born. My Mrs went back to work when they were 3 months. Even before that I’d look after them for the day so she could have a break. All part if being a father.

What evidence? You simply do not have any evidence that that woman is going to have a years mat leave.

TJ- I think there’s a reasonable amount of evidence that a woman is more likely to get pregnant than a man. Certainly more than there is that Lance Armstrong took drugs

All part if being a father.

+1.

If the proposed changes to paternity/maternity go through then if/when number 2 appears she’ll probably take the first 6 months and I’ll take the second.

It would seem to me that your interviews were badly conducted. If you had asked the candidates for their interpretation of the off side rule you would clearly have been able to distinguish between the two candidates.

ask then about the off side rule?

I’m not some sexist bigot you know! As long as they can make the tea and are easy on the eye they can probably have the job anyway. 😉

For what it is worth, this late in a thread, I agree that there should be non-discrimination but think it would be better if there was a more balanced approach than ALL PEOPLE ARE EQUAL. I am not sure how to implement it but everybody should be able to take account of other peoples strengths and weaknesses. Ideally on an individual basis although this is not always practical.

the best way to understand events is to cause them, so unless you’re planning to be the father I would say you have no understanding of what the next 5 years holds for her. you may find that the career delays any thoughts she had of having a child, you might not. she may add so much value to the business in tangible or intangible forms that maternity leave becomes an irrelevance. she may not. give the best person the job and stop pretending that you have any idea about what might happen in the future, or indeed that whatever it is will have any consequence on a business.

You have already filtered* out the unlucky candidates haven’t you? You don’t want jinxed people working for you, that would be really bad.

*Randomly throw away half the applications before looking at them.

Don’t forget to add to your evidence that men are more likely to do stupid things like ride down a mountain on a bicycle and render themselves unfit for work.

All this advice and I am not even recruiting. It was just a hypothetical based on a winge I heard from an HR LADY when another ‘pretty young thing*’ applied for maternity leave.

*her phrase not mine.

Couldn’t you check how fertile she’s likely to be?

I’ve not read much above, but surely this is exactly why the changes in maternity leave to allow it to be shared equally between the mum and the dad are coming in, to stop employers who make this kind of silly judgement.

you as the company will still have to pay them for some of this time

Also, A lot of people don’t know this, but statutory maternity pay is paid for by the government, you just claim it back from them.

Its NOT TIME OFF. Its hardwork. Doubt any man would run and grab the opportunity of sitting in cafes bored out of their brains whilst smearing copious amounts of shit out of their small pride and joy

I’m doing 3 months of baby looking after right now (8 month old), it is brilliant fun, she is learning new stuff every day (standing up,climbing stairs, going from one piece of furniture to another, diving off things etc.). We get to go swimming, go to the swings, do the soft play thing, do Twistin Tots* etc.,it is generally a right laugh. It’s tiring, cos she’s pretty active, and you spend a lot of time chasing her around / spotting her when she is climbing things etc., probably more tiring than my paid job, but she is still lots of fun.

She does poo sometimes, but you just switch your brain off and sort it out, I don’t understand how some people are scared of poo and sick, that is by far the easiest part of parenting, because it is obvious what you need to do.

Joe
*imagine a nightclub with a high volume PA on which the DJ is dropping the latest club classic ‘The Dingly Dangly Scarecrow’, then fill your imaginary nightclub with 50 babies and toddlers armed with copious quantities of noisemaking equipment, and you’re half way towards the madness that is Twistin Tots!

All this advice and I am not even recruiting. It was just a hypothetical based on a winge I heard from an HR LADY when another ‘pretty young thing*’ applied for maternity leave.

Ah the old “I was just joking”, “I’m asking the question for research for menu degree” get out.

I take it you told the HR person she was a moron and obviously lacked both the skill set to do her job and any understanding of what evidence based decision making was.

No, like most women in the work place, she was a complete airhead and only there to make the office look pretty. If I tried to explain it to her then her little brain would have started hurting

😉

Fair point.

Oh better warn myself.

Comment from a mate when discussing this thread in the real world – I am not sexist, more than half my videos are lesbian porn