I met one of my college friends yesterday at a bar. She got married last year and was laying down the struggle of finding a new job.
Now, apparently in many interviews when she reached the final few rounds, the HR or the Hiring Manager enquires about marital status and whether she has any children.
When she mentions that she recently got married and that she does not have any kids, the company stops responding to her.
She elaborated that although they might have found another fit for the role but she is a T-1 grad who did her Masters from an Ivy League college and has worked for 4-5 years in both NA+EMEA and India.
It is becoming more apparent to her that, HRs and Hiring Managers have a strong bias because they are definitely presuming that since she recently got married and will likely have a child soon, that she will use up her maternity privileges leading to significant productivity drop. Meaning, that the company will likely have to hire someone else to make up for productivity loss.
She does not plan to have kids for another 3-4 years but getting married is proving really hard for her. Especially in the Series B+ startups that she is applying to.
All these issues root from this being an employer market. We won’t see this as much in good times.
In my first job, a lady was put into dev plan and eventually fired few weeks before she was supposed to go on maternity leave. This wasn't in my team but in the same department.
Sorry to hear this!
Discrimination on basis of T1 and T2 college is quite common across tech ecosystem. Know many friends who're smart but usually get rejected on basis of their college even after spending significant amount of time in the industry.
6 month fully paid maternity leave is mandated by law in India, and companies are supposed to bear 100% of the cost.
This is unlike western countries, where the government generally takes care of at least 50% of the age bill during maternity (which makes sense, because the state gains an additional future taxpayer). In the US, the concept of legally mandated paid maternity leave doesn't even exist.
You'll see more of such "discrimination" (or rather, companies covering their ass) when the government enacts such draconian laws without consulting all stakeholders.
An old lady (50 yrs) i know couldn't find jobs because of her age. One would think experience matters but only upto a certain number it seems. After that it's just struggles for women regardless of education or experience.
@KuchNaKaho I couldn’t agree more.
All fair points made in this discussion. A company shouldn't have to pay for a personal choice the employee has made. A fairer approach would be something like the employee should only be able to take a paid maternity leave after 12, 18 months etc.
That being said, this discrimination exists for married men too, especially in startups.
Well she can just tell them she's unmarried.. not like they're gonna come home and check
Really sad that this discrimination is still happening in 2023.
I would like to bring another related viewpoint. My wife's current job is a bit hectic at times. I was discussing with her to switch jobs maybe but she doesn't align "ethically" with the idea of moving to another organization as we are planning to have a child in the near future. So basically these types of negative viewpoints against women have been such rampant in corporates that it deters women to plan kids and even think that this is unethical.
This is a product of the 6 month maternity leave borne fully by the company law. Generally, companies will find a way to reject women candidates who are probably going to have a baby in the future because why hire someone who will be gone for 6 months and will need WFH support and lower productivity when she has a small baby.
Sucks that the system works this way.
Can understand the side of the company. Though she should just do an A/B test for the marriage thing. Could be another issue which she could have missed in the interactions.
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