Monday, September 3, 2012

What is the price of motherhood?

Head-hunters believe that breaks in women’s careers due to motherhood could be costing them dearly. Could that be true?

Priyanka is an expecting mother and a mid-level employee at one of Gurgaon’s MNCs. As an organisation concerned for its employees’ wellbeing, the company is allowing Priyanka, who stays at Faridabad (a good 2-hour drive away), to work from home on three days of the week. All she needs to ensure is to login at the right time and be available over the phone. “Good companies now extend numerous benefits and support to their female employees during their maternity period,” says Shalini Tewari, Head – Strategic Resource Management, ValueFirst. “Even for purposes like performance evaluation, the complete work term is taken into consideration. Employees also extend the benefit of remote operations from home and flexi-timing to women employees,” informs Shalini. Yet, most ladies do not reach the top hierarchies of companies. Recently, a survey was conducted among the top 100 head-hunters of UK, and more than half of them believed that ladies ought to skip motherhood if they wish to see themselves among the top brass of a company one day. They felt that women lose out on opportunities during their career breaks.

Where three months is the time the government allows the ladies leave with pay and to get back in working shape, six months is the more accepted break in India. Ladies with lesser support system at home even return to work only once the baby is old enough for the crèche – a good two to three years later. Companies are usually happy to take them back into their fold, especially those they know are hardworking employees. Archana Kashyap is one who believes that performance is what really counts. “My son was born shortly before 9/11 happened, and when I joined back work I was one of the few people who were not given the pink slip, in spite of me joining back after maternity leave.”


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