Evening all,

Got an interview next week and a baby coming in Feb. Doubt I’ll get any company Paternity leave but should I mention in the interview that I’ll be wanting to take some holiday (probably have to be unpaid) at that time?

Cheers

If I were you I’d only mention it in the 2nd interview, if you get that far. They’ll be looking for reason to slim down the list with the first batch, don’t give them any reason to bin your app.

No need you’re entitled to it and only need to give 28 days notice.

once you get the job – dont give them a reason to not hire you

I did not think you needed to work for the company for a set period to qualify though but I am not certain

Ordinary Paternity Leave
You must:

be an employee
have worked for your employer continuously for at least 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth (known as the ‘qualifying week’)
give the correct notice

https://www.gov.uk/paternity-pay-leave/eligibility

Sounds like you’ll be taking it as holiday

I took it as holiday. Leave money is shocking.

I took it as holiday. Leave money is shocking.

That depends on your employer.

I took it as holiday statutory money is shocking . I also made the mistake of booking it and arranging my work based on the due date .

I have a mini boba due in February as well and can’t afford to take the paternity hit so it’s 3 weeks holiday for me

The missus isn’t much better when it comes to maternity. I’ve woken in a few cold sweats wondering how we’ll make ends meet

I’d wait until you’re with your new Manager and they ask you if you’ve any hols booked 🙂

I took it as holiday. Leave money is shocking.
That depends on your employer.

Yep, I got 2 weeks at full pay. I am a public sector shirker though.

i got 3 weeks at full pay – NHS LPFT

Don’t worry about it. It’s no different to you taking two weeks holiday, except it won’t cost your employer a penny.

The prospect of you taking a couple of weeks of won’t put off a potential employer if you are the right candidate.

Ten days at full pay taken 2 days a week for 5 weeks on which I went for rides.

Yep mudshark, that’s what it’s there for .

Fwiw we give paid leave (full pay) private small business.

If we employed clowns like mudshark we’d soon stop offering it.

🙄

You roll your eyes son – you the man.

What professional companies don’t pay paternity pay?

As it happens my project would have struggled if I’d taken 2 weeks in one go so everyone happy.

The point being that you have the time to spend with your child and help your partner, not **** off on your bike. But you knew that didn’t you?

Isn’t statutory maternity pay a legal minimum?

Again – if this is all you get from your employer then it’s not costing them a penny.

Not much help to the thread, but… I got ten weeks and wife got 11 months, all at full pay :D. That’s one of he advantages of living in Denmark where 57% of my salary goes to the government…

Ten days at full pay taken 2 days a week for 5 weeks on which I went for rides.

Even if I hadn’t been utterly shattered during both lots of my pat leave, I’d have been divorced if I’d even mentioned going out on the bike.

Not much help to the thread, but… I got ten weeks and wife got 11 months, all at full pay :D. That’s one of he advantages of living in Denmark where 57% of my salary goes to the government…

I gave myself 1 week – that’s the advantage of being self-employed 😉

leave money is an insult. contract rabies or something?

to the OP, yes, sounds like it’ll be holiday, but ask after you’re hired. Employment law around the descrimiation side of “pregnant fathers” 😯 is still in its infancy… you don’t want to become a test case.

re the “it doesn’t cost your employer a thing” sentiment:
the reality is often quite different when you actually see it from the employers side I can assure you.
In larger organisations, managers who do not have to sign the cheques and consider how they are going to balance the books at the end of each month for the whole business typically lose sight of the “real” costs of employing staff, (and in the civil service they live in cloud cuckoo land altogether, hence the terrible mess they have got themselves into with pay structures and expectations, but that’s a whole other topic!)
As a smaller employer, with 8 members of staff, I can assure you that there very real costs and impacts associated with all staff leave. Whilst Statutory paternity Pay is usually eventually recoverable, there are often significant additional costs/impacts on the business as a result of losing that member of staff for a period of time. Slightly off subject but as an example, a recent maternity leave of just 8 months has so far cost the business in excess of £3.5 k in additional costs, over and above costs of eventually recoverable Maternity pay, and its not over yet. That’s 1% of our gross turnover. That might not seem much, but anyone who runs a business will understand knows that a 1% hit against gross turnover means probably a 3-4% cut in net profit for the business. And in these challenging times thats pretty darn significant. 3 or 4% paycut every time an employee takes maternity leave anyone?

Now please don’t get me wrong. I thoroughly support paternity leave, I really believe its a good idea ( not the mudshark model, obviously) and I encourage all father’s to play an active part in the early weeks and years of your fledgeling families life: I have no member of staff who has worked with me less than 8 years, apart from our current temp, in an industry that is typically plagued by high staff turnover rates. We pay full sick pay etc and a host of other benefits as part of a package to train and retain our invaluable team members, and we have a great relationship as a result because of mutual respect and understanding of how the business, and its team members , interact and depend upon each other. I count my blessings each day when I hear the horror stories from my contemporaries.

To get to the point of what is now probably starting to seem like a ramble, please don’t assume these things “cost your employer/business nothing”. It does.

To the OP again I say, respectfully, say nothing at interview, but after accepting an offer, discuss your personal needs then. A good employer will work with you to achieve something suitable for your situation.

I thoroughly support paternity leave,

But I do like to remind folk that I got none for my three sons, and even had to take the days they were born out of my holiday entitlement. 😕

Dirtyrider, 3 weeks? Just had 2 weeks here, back to work Monday. Bus also. Thought it was only 2 weeks? Could be very wrong though . . . . Isn’t sleep deprivation wonderful!

Interesting stuff, Drillski. What are the additional costs made up of?

Cheers all. I’ll leave it until after I’ve (hopefully) been offered.

Wallop

Example listed below is taken from a current maternity leave for an experienced Dental Nurse/Dental receptionist
This is over and above the maternity pay that is recoverable from hmrc

Time off for antenatal visits £250
Advertising for replacement £250 often much more.
Practice Managers time advising, discussing and organising, risk assessing, etc and later liasing with the employee going on leave £100
PMs time spent on person spec, job description, job app forms, interview protocols and questions £50
PM and Principals time spent assessing and short listing candidates from applications for interview £460
Time out of clinics for interviewing PM and Principal. £460
PMs time organising and supervising induction of replacement £100
Two weeks induction overlap to ease in the new staff member and fully induct in practice ethos, protocols and procedures before other member of staff leaves £700
Protective clothing/apparel £150 for temp
eCRB check £75 ( now DBS checks)
GDC registration £120
Indemnity costs£45
CPD Allowance £105
Further CPD time on course payments£105
Continued increased supervision, monitoring, mentoring and training to our standards for temp by PM and other staff £500
Increased wage bill over staff on leave due to pay differential £800

Total £4,270

Now fair enough, this is for a very specialist member of staff in a practice that believes in supporting its staff as much as is possible, and 8 months maternity leave as opposed to a few weeks paternity leave, but you get the general idea. And like I said before, my team are worth it.

And since we’re on STW, to bring it back to the usual level………… if only someone had put some latex on an old six incher, i could have afforded a fully rubbered up new 29er!!!!!!!

And of course Davidian, all the very best of luck, 😀 on both counts!

Dont think i actuall took any, and in public sector aswell. Was even in work the next morning but the nicu visiting hours apparently applied to parents.

controversial view – but are you sure you’ll want to take two weeks all in one? Sure if it’s a difficult birth / c-section for example, where having you around will be essential. But if it goes well, and she takes to motherhood well, and no issues with PND, etc. then I found it useful going back to work relatively quickly, and saving some of my paternity leave for when the novelty of having a new granddaughter had worn off, when we didn’t have a stream of helpers / visitors, and (whisper it) when the baby was more than just a crying / sleeping / feeding / shitting machine.

The time I had with my second when she was a few weeks older were far more useful and interactive for all of us, and far more rewarding for us all than the time i spent with my first sat at home dutifully doing nothing for two weeks, not out of unwillingness, but because there was very little I could offer her at that stage.

In any case, as above you’ll still get plenty of time with baby even if you are at work, ‘cos you’d better believe it, they’re bloody nocturnal for about 6 weeks imho 😉

And good luck!!

Surely her mother is more important to have round the house for 2 weeks than the father, at least she has done the practical bit already for her daughter and knows the pitfalls and pains.

Stay in work and keep uk plc running.