Do you think employing young women/girls is a liabilty?

[RATTER15]

We tend to employ mostly young women at the home where I work, this is great, I enjoy working with them. The problem we experience is as follows:

Once a month they are too ill to work and need a day off at least or they arrive in a foul mood and cant do anything.

A few weeks after starting work they announce they are pregnant, they are then so worried about their baby (and rightly so) the rest of the staff have to carry them, this is not always easy when we are short staffed.

So they have their baby and they will now be off work for up to 12 months and often will never return.

They have children at home so they phone in sick half an hour before their shift starts, little johnny is sick so I cant come to work today.

My baby sitter is sick today I cant come to work.

It does get a bit tiresome when nearly every other day we are struggling to cover for a female due to one or more of the above excuses, we also employ men, we never have these problems with them, they work rain or shine.

Would you have a preference over employing Men or Women from an employers point of view?

[roxie_09]

I guess I'd have to agree with you, as it is expensive too, having to pay maternity leave etc, especially in a caring role, which is short staffed across the board anyway. However, I cannot say much, as I am 21 and currently in uni, and have already said that I want to try for a baby maybe a year after qualifying (aslong as the relationship is still steady) x

[daisya]

I won't be popular here when I say this is why women who have children shouldn't be at work (or wanting to start a family). Firstly as you experience it's often a problem for the workplace but I also wonder about the children and if this is what there's problems in society today because they don't have a full time mum at home. So in answer to your question I would definitely choose a man over a woman (dependent upon her circumstances) but of course you aren't allowed to "discriminate" so it's irrelevant really more's the pity.

[boxtops]

You're not allowed to, ratter, it's discriminatory - and although this might be your experience, I've worked with a whole raft of women over the years who have never missed a day's work due to the time of the month. My experience is different - yes we have maternity leave, yes we have the odd childcare issue, but we're not in the care setting - I see that the pressures for hands-on staff not turning in could be very different. In the NHS where I work, if people repeatedly didn't turn in, they wouldn't get away with it - sickness rates are tightly monitored and absence for other reasons often goes unpaid or has to be taken as holiday.

[boxtops]

^daisya - some of us never had the choice - if we had children we had to go back to work, if we didn't both earn, we couldn't afford the mortgage.

[RATTER15]

Im totally convinced that many Women get a job in advance of trying for a baby just to qualify for maternity leave.

[4getmenot]

we get alot that still live at home with parents so they dont tend to miss a days pay when off ill, it isnt their livelyhood

[roxie_09]

But if women with children shouldn't work, where would they get their money from? Especially single mums? The government? Which will then have people complaining that they are not working. Just can't win x

[roxie_09]

Ratter I believe that some probably do, but not all x

[Buenchico]

My thread (from nearly three years ago) would seem to relevant here!
http://www.theanswerb...k/Question636665.html

Chris

[erin-x]

My manager did a whole interview with a girl for a full time job and at the end when she asked if she had any questions asked about maternity leave because she was three months pregnant! Did she seriously think she was going to get the job! lol

[RATTER15]

I agree Boxy, but we are allowed to have a preference we just aren't allowed to show it.

Please don't get me wrong as most of these girls and women are great friends of mine, im not in the slightest bit sexist but these are just some of the realities im afraid.

[daisya]

I understand that boxtops, however with a whole different outlook on society today I would come to the conlusion that if women didn't "have" to work, mortgages wouldn't be so high because there would only be one wage to pay it. In the ideal world of course it might work, but we've created a society where we want everything above the usual needs, holidays etc and more than one car etc etc etc....so it's a case of eventually women seeing it as they have to work to keep to a lifestyle IMO.

[4getmenot]

would rather have women with children earning to pay mortgage than women having children just to get council place

[ladybirder]

Agree Ratter, and when they phone to say they're not coming in to work (kids sick or hangover) just before their shift starts, cover has to be found quickly. This usually means my daughter gets hauled out of bed on her day off or if she's already at work she stays on to cover the next shift. She says its the same few people all the time. It's happened once or twice a week all this summer, no wonder she's shattered.

[4getmenot]

not all, if i had a baby id have to work to pay mortgage, its not about lifestyle, we only have 1 car and have never had a holiday together

[micmak]

When my wife was with child you left your job, no alternative. No maternity pay, no guarantee of re-employment. If I was an employer i would not empoy young women. My choice would be women in their fifties. at least they are committed workers. Not the majority of the young who want to freeload from the tax payer.

[RATTER15]

And im certainly not saying that all Women are unreliable, some are very good and some men can be equally unreliable!

[roxie_09]

completely agree with you 4getmenot, I think that even in a relationship, if the child is ill, it's expected that the mother stays home with them etc. And from what I've read from peoples comments, it seems to be a select few that are like this, so maybe a warning? x

[karenmac60]

Maybe it's because all men have to do is go to work while women have to cook, clean, take care of the children and hold down a job. And as Roxie says, if we don't work we're called spongers.

[Carakeel]

Another thing that annoys me is when I hear that the younger staff take the weekend off, go out partying and then call in sick on Monday because they have a hangover... If they haven't been able to get the weekend or the time off they wanted then again ... they simply call in sick. They don't seem to care that they are fooling nobody and dropping colleagues in a right mess with their lack of work ethics!! But it isn't jsut the females that do this!