Would you hire a working mum?

My wife is very lucky where she works. Since having our boy they have been flexible with her working hours and never once complained at all the days off from child minding issues. Luckily My mother in law is supportive and comes to do his bedtime so she can do a couple of hours in the evening, better than nothing at all on any given day. But this week, with the child minder sick, I realised that I would be reluctant to hire a working mum. Or dad of course, if he had the role of main care giver to the kid/s. I am using a mum in a scenario because they are more often in this role than dads are.

Before you sharpen your swords hear me out please.

Imagine you run a small business, only 5 employees. When someone is off the impact on the business is felt in a big way. When you are that small, or smaller in some cases, everyone is a key member of staff. So imagine you have a working mum on your team, her job is the business admin. She has a toddler in childcare and does 9:30 to 3 every day. What scenarios could cause her to  be off?

In this scenario the child minder has a toddler as well and this leaves the following reasons they would be unable to take the child for the day.

• The child minder is sick
• The child minder's child is sick
• The parents child is sick

Do you have kids? If not let me assure you the little blighters pick up all sorts of bugs and they seem to hit the adults more. When one of that group gets something everyone does. So add on all those days taken off because of the child minder when the parent is actually sick themselves and you can see the problem. The number of days taken off could disrupt the business severely.

Offering flexible hours is all well and good if they can fit in with the business and the role that person does. No point offering someone in telemarketing work outside of normal business hours, who would they phone?Mid size and larger companies are in the best position to help but even then the teams that have the working parents in may have trouble covering for regular absence.

It is a toughie this, my wife is so fortunate to have a job that can be flexible and an understanding boss. But when you think about it is it any surprise that some companies are reluctant to hire working mums? Say you have two CV's of equal quality and both aced the interview but one had a young child and the other didn't, who would you hire?

I know who I would, it doesn't make me feel good about it but from a cold and calculated business decision I would want the person least likely to need time off.

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