This is an anonymous post from an Elpha member.

Pregnant and job searching? Should you?

Zella78·Dec 15, 2022

Posted in:Advice Family & Relationships Parenting

My friend and I were debating about job searching while pregnant, versus staying in a current role. And then it turned into a conversation about how soon-to-be parents are mostly stuck in whatever job they have because most employers do not provide day 1 parental leave (assuming their company has some sort of paid leave policy). Would love to hear from folks on their opinions on this along with the following questions:

If someone was pregnant and job searching, at what point do you ask about their policies in the interview process (if not readily available on their website)?
When do you disclose that you're pregnant in the hiring process? Does this protect you legally if they went with another candidate? Or do you not say anything in case it does hurt your candidacy?

Thanks in advance!

CLG·Dec 16, 2022

Are you pregnant or is this just food for thought?

Zella78·Dec 16, 2022

My friend is.

Avril193·Dec 17, 2022

Paid leave in the US is a mess. Honestly I think we need to take a page from Europe on this issue.

Iynna·Dec 17, 2022

A dear friend is currently pregnant and went through this exact same process! She has a role who has a relatively good paid leave but she is ready for a change and a bump in her salary (esp to raise the soon to arrive baby!) so she was in talks with this firm that had a better pay but the paid leave was not readily available to your point. So she eventually asked about it (w/o disclosing that she was pregnant) and then she got the offer so she got a bit more "serious" in the negotiation. It turned out this company had never been in this situation and had to figure out what the leave would look like.

livewasabi·Dec 19, 2022

I'm currently pregnant and experimented with this! A few considerations:- Has she tried interviewing, while working during pregnancy? On my side I found it quite tiring, because of take-home assignments or setting aside time to prepare that I very much preferred spending sleeping!- Does she have job safety right now? Depending on company culture I've had women being laid off a day before their maternity leave started. This happened mainly in startups but if she doesn't feel safe it's better to start searching sooner rather than later.In my case I applied to a few companies and told them from day 1 that I was 8 months pregnant. The companies who decided to move forward were the ones who focused on the right candidate vs wanted someone urgently to fill a headcount. I made this decision because at this time I didn't need another job and doing interviews that wouldn't lead to an offer was tiring.If she needs the job then I would advise asking how urgently they're looking to fill out the role in the 1st meeting and if the answer isn't that much and they focus on the right candidate then she can go through the interview process and share this closer to the offer time. Happy to share more over DM!

Briana·Dec 19, 2022

You may find this previous Elpha thread helpful as well: https://elpha.com/posts/zhs3x2om/pregnant-and-job-searching

linzaydavis·Dec 27, 2022

I recommend waiting until you have the offer and then asking for more information about their benefits. If they don't provide info on parental leave then you should bluntly ask for it. Their response will be very telling on if you would even want to work for them or not. I wouldn't disclose pregnancy until you've received the offer or maybe even after accepting. If they don't like it, take your parental leave and then run with no guilt (they're not the kind of people you want to work for). It's not your fault they aren't a supportive, progressive employer.