Can I Start a New Job While Pregnant
Starting a new job is never easy. Now imagine doing it when you also happen to be growing a human life inside you. Not only are you dead tired and potentially nauseous, but the federal government's maternity leave policy, and that of many employers, makes it uniquely challenging for pregnant women to change jobs.
An estimated 58 percent of companies in the U.S. offer some sort of paid maternity leave, according to the Families and Work Institute's 2014 National Study of Employers. (In some cases it may be a single week.) But just because your company offers it doesn't mean you're eligible. Many employers only extend full benefits, including paid maternity leave, to employees after they've been at the company for a year. That makes it impossible for most pregnant women changing jobs, who, scientifically, are only pregnant for nine months and would therefore need these benefits before they're eligible.
And whether you get paid leave or not, changing jobs while pregnant comes with no official guarantee of whether your new gig will be there when you get back: The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), the federal policy that protects a pregnant woman's job (or a similar job at the same company) for 12 weeks of unpaid leave, also only kicks in after an employee has been at a job for a year and only applies to companies with more than 50 employees. Wondering whether you're going to be replaced in your post-birth days is a daunting prospect, emotionally and financially, especially when your costs are about to go way up (hospital bills, child care, diapers, etc.). It can make it tempting to stay at a place where you've already proven yourself and have logged enough time to quality for any benefits.
On top of concerns about job security and benefits, job-hunting during pregnancy presents an additional set of anxieties: Will employers judge you on your talent — or disqualify you because you'll be taking a big chunk of time off in the very near future? Pregnancy discrimination is unlawful, but it's still a persistent source of stress for pregnant interviewees.
So why bother applying for a job while pregnant? For some women, having a baby is an incentive to find a more family-friendly company or pay the bills in order to finish college or stay on track in a high-powered career that's all about leaning in. And, of course, both job opportunities and pregnancies can come out of nowhere — if a job search or an interview process takes a few months, you might end up pregnant at your final interview, even if you weren't planning on it.
Four women opened up with Cosmopolitan.com about how they made it work.
Yoliyy Gamboa, 22, program assistant at Austin Sunshine Camps, a nonprofit for low-income students, Austin
Courtesy of Yoliyy Gamboa
I got pregnant at 19, 2.5 years into college at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. I'd never had a sex ed class. Ever. I was born and raised in a rural little town called Hatch, New Mexico, and my family is Mexican and really traditional, so they didn't believe in talking about safe sex either.
The only options I was seeing were to have my mom take care of my baby until I graduated or quit school, which I didn't want to do. I was majoring in psychology and education and wanted to go into education, specifically intervention for lower-income communities like Hatch.
Everybody laughs at me when I say it, but I didn't want to be another statistic. Coming from a rural community, a lot of girls would get pregnant and give up and go back to their families. I was thinking about my daughter. If I gave up college and she went through the same situation, she would be like, "Well, my mom gave up, why can't I?" That's what led me to say, "I have to make this work." I had to find a job and pay for daycare or a babysitter to help watch my daughter while I finished school. My partner, Arik, had come out of the military and was working at a warehouse, but things were tight.
I was already working at Payless Shoe Source, but when I got to be around four months pregnant, and I got bigger, I couldn't do a lot of lifting and the schedule was really unpredictable, which was hard with my classes. I needed something that would work with school and being pregnant, but it's really hard to get a part-time job that will give you time off after labor and guarantee your job when you come back. Once the baby came, I needed shifts that would get out before six, when most daycares close. I did a lot of interviews, and I would always wait until the end to tell them, "I'm pregnant." Every time I would mention it, they would hesitate. They'd say they needed people who could be flexible about their schedule and work long hours if need be. I never got any of the jobs.
Out of the blue, I got an alumni email from New Mexico MESA, a nonprofit that helps lower-income high school students pursue a higher education in science and tech, saying they were looking for a part-time office assistant. It was flexible hours, no heavy lifting. It was perfect. When I went to go interview, I put on a fluffy shirt and kinda tried to hide that I was pregnant. It was my first child, so I wasn't really showing. It just looked like I was fat. I interviewed with the deputy director, and when she asked if there was anything that would conflict with getting this job, I told her I was four months pregnant. She just said, "That's fine," and even said I could take time off when the baby came. She asked if I planned to return to work, and I said, "Yes. Of course." I couldn't believe it, but I got hired.
After I got the job, my life just became really stable. I went in whenever I didn't have class, and I even founded the MESA club at UNM while I was pregnant, to get college students to mentor the high school kids. I thought a pregnant girl recruiting for a club next to all of the sorority girls would throw off a lot of the students, but it didn't. Sometimes I'd feel sick in the afternoon at work, and I'd have to go home. But I worked until I started getting contractions about a week before I had my daughter, Arika, on New Year's Eve 2012.
I came back to school two weeks later. I didn't get paid because I was part-time, but MESA was great enough to give me a month off to just focus on the baby and school. I did a lot of online classes so I could stay home with Arika, and Arik would take care of her while I did homework. Getting the job at MESA enabled me to not only finish school, but actually provide some sort of income for my family. We moved to Austin recently, and I'm working at a nonprofit, sort of like MESA, and getting ready to start graduate school in August to get a master's in health education at Texas State. Arika is 2 years old. She's a little dancer, and she loves to sing.
After my mom saw me take care of my child and finish school and work at the same time, she says she looks at other girls back in my hometown that are thinking about giving up and tells them, "Yoliyy did it. Why can't you?"
Rubina Madan Fillion, 31, digital engagement editor at The Intercept, New York
Shaun Fillion
I started my new job at about 25 weeks pregnant. I was working at The Wall Street Journal for almost seven years, and I wasn't actively looking to leave. But when this opportunity at The Intercept, an online news publication, came around, I was intrigued. It was a role with more responsibility at a company that's doing really interesting work.
When I started talking to the recruiter, I wasn't pregnant yet, and when I started interviewing, I was pregnant but didn't know it. I didn't get the job offer until my second trimester, around the time I started telling family and friends I was pregnant. I was really, really nervous about telling The Intercept because I wasn't sure how they'd respond. But when I did tell them, after I got the offer, they were just like, "Congratulations," and didn't see any obstacle at all, which made me really respect the company.
I still struggled with whether or not to take the job. I'd spent most of my 20s at the Journal. It was a very stable and good job, and I really liked my coworkers. And of course I was pregnant and worried about making another big change. But when I talked to my mentors, they all told me, "Don't be afraid to take risks. Don't be afraid in general." And when I found out I was having a daughter, I knew she would look to me to be a role model. That gave me some of the strength to go for it.
I was terrified of switching jobs because of issues like maternity leave, and it ended up being the best thing for me.
It wasn't until I started that I knew I'd made the right decision. Since it's a brand-new company, they didn't have a maternity leave policy yet. I was the first pregnant employee, so they wrote a policy for me, which will apply to all future employees. They assured me when I got the offer that they would give me some paid leave, and I formally accepted right after that. I was terrified of switching jobs because of issues like maternity leave, and it ended up being the best thing for me. Most companies, you have to be there for a year just to be eligible for unpaid maternity leave for 12 weeks under FMLA. But after three months here, they're giving me at least 12 weeks paid, possibly more. To say I'm lucky is a huge understatement. I can't even begin to compare my situation to most women's. I'm completely appalled that most women in this country get no paid maternity leave. I had two friends whose companies did not have a very good maternity leave policy, who just resigned when they went on maternity leave. It happens all the time.
I ended up at a place that is just really family-friendly. A lot of the people here have kids, so if somebody needs to work from home because daycare's closed or because their kid is sick, there's no underlying animosity. It's a startup filled with people who value work-life balance and working mothers.
My baby is due in May. I just started the third trimester. It will be hard, for all the reasons that working in your third trimester is hard at any job. But I read a few chapters of Lean In when I was trying to figure out what to do about the new job, and Sheryl Sandberg talked about women like Marissa Mayer and the YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki, that they both switched jobs while pregnant. I think having those kinds of women having done it before me made it seem like it was a possibility.
I hope that more women see their peers doing it and follow that same path. My sister, who works at Google, was really happy that I was doing it. She was like, "That's so great for women. That's so brave." I think it makes a lot of women really happy to know it's possible.
Cooper Collier, 30, freelance designer, Charleston, S.C.
Siobhan Hanna Photography
I was self-employed as a freelance designer in San Francisco, doing marketing designs like Web banners and print ads. It doesn't sound glamorous, but before that, I was in project management, which I hated. Hated! So I was finally feeling like, "This is job satisfaction." I'm not dealing with budgets and timelines and miserable people. I was super excited.
Around that time, my husband, Nate, and I decided we were ready to have a baby. No time is a good time. Let's just do it! My freelance stuff became contract work for the stationery division of one company, and they said, "We want to bring you on full-time eventually." When I got pregnant, I was like, "Anything can happen. I'm not gonna tell my bosses, or anyone outside my family, until I'm out of the first trimester, and I've had the big tests and know the baby is basically going to be OK."
I was really nauseous through my first trimester and I was going into the office, so that was a little uncomfortable because I was new and everything people were eating made me want to throw up. Just to add another layer of fun, Nate got a new job in Charleston, South Carolina. My boss said I could be equally effective working remotely, so we made the move across country. As we were settling in, I got my full-time job offer and came on full-time. I really wanted the job, and it was nice to have something consistent because freelancing design and contract work can be sort of feast or famine.
Once I was out of my first trimester, I told my boss and she was incredibly supportive and excited. She said, "We'll figure out your maternity leave. Don't let that stress you out." I was under the impression that I could get six weeks paid time off through short-term disability and the company would give me an additional six weeks leave for "emotional bonding," [which is part of California's maternity leave policy]. But literally the week before my daughter, Lily, arrived, my HR rep said, "Oh, no, you can only file for emotional bonding time if you're on full-time benefits." I didn't qualify yet because you have to be with the company for a year. My heart sank, because it's your first baby and you think you have all this time.
In a non-pregnant world, six weeks seems like a long time. But I remember two days after the baby came, emailing my boss and being like, "I'll come back at six weeks, but you are not gonna want the work that I am gonna put out." Your brain's just not functioning properly. You're breastfeeding, so you're the baby's full food source. Your hormones are just rushing out, and you're sleeping two hours a night. Like clockwork, at 7 p.m, I would walk into our living room and just burst into tears, because I was so exhausted. I kept thinking, "I've gotta get into a routine, because I have to go back to work next month." I called my doctor and said, "I'm having such anxiety. I can't focus, I can't concentrate." I guess fortunately for my absurd hormones my doctor wrote a note to my insurance company recommending that I take the full 12 weeks.
The six-week extension still had to go through a review process with my insurance company. I was supposed to go back to work on a Monday and the Thursday before, there was still no update. I was like, "I'm not prepared. I don't have child care. She can't even hold her head up. I'm not gonna put her in daycare." It was such a daunting thought. When I got approved for the additional six weeks, I felt like I could finally enjoy this wonderful baby. I got two-thirds of my salary. I know a lot of women got a lot less. If I were still a freelance employee when I had the baby, I could have taken six months off, but I wouldn't have gotten paid at all.
When I came back from maternity leave in April, I survived a round of layoffs. This past January, I was laid off in the second round. So now I've got child care to think of and I've got to search for another job. Finding a job is already a full-time job. And being a mom is a full-time job. There aren't enough hours in a day to do both. Looking back, accepting a job while I was pregnant — what I wouldn't give to go back there. I'd still say, go for it.
Christine*, 33, attorney, Richmond, Virginia
I started interviewing in my second trimester, maybe four months along. Life was a little crazy at that point. My husband, 1-year-old son, and I had moved from Washington, D.C., to Richmond, Virginia. We're both lawyers with intense schedules, and living in a smaller city was going to be better for our family. Literally the day that I sent my farewell email to the old firm, I found out that I was pregnant with baby number two.
I was really worried that if I didn't get a job before I had the new baby, it would really be difficult for me to get a job in Richmond ever. There's a lot fewer working moms here than there were in D.C., so I was really worried that people wouldn't take me seriously if I took time off and didn't make a direct switch from one job to another. Staying home wasn't an option for me. I loved bonding with my son for maternity leave — the nice thing about law firms is they give long leaves; I had 18 weeks with my son — but I've realized it's better for everybody in the house if I'm working. I like having the professional interaction during the day and the challenge of the legal work. I worked so hard to be here that I want to succeed, and I still owe money in law school loans. I know that our kids will only be young for so long, and I don't want to miss anything, but I also think it's going to be really important that I still have a career left when I want it.
Because I was concerned about the pregnancy overriding my merit, I was really hoping that I could get at least my first interview in before I was noticeably pregnant. There are not as many women at law firms in Richmond as there are in D.C. and I didn't want to be the token pregnant woman that they hired just because. I was also really aware, as a lawyer, about the legal ramifications of telling someone you're pregnant when you're interviewing. I was really worried that if I said too early, "You should know I'm pregnant," that they would think, "Well, if we don't hire her, she could sue us for discrimination," which obviously I wasn't gonna do, but they don't know that. So I wanted to be upfront with future employers about the pregnancy, but I didn't want to tell them too early that it would put them in a difficult position. And even though there are those anti-discrimination laws that should protect women who are pregnant, you're rarely ever going to be able to know whether you didn't get the job because you were pregnant or for some other reason.
I was visibly pregnant when I started interviewing, but you might have just thought I was fat. I had to buy a new suit that was a size bigger, but I got through the interview without anyone mentioning it. When I sensed that they were giving me the offer, I told them I was pregnant, and they reacted very well. In a lot of law firms, they tend to look at hires long-term, hoping that this person might be a partner candidate and stay for a long time. In that context, going on maternity leave in the first half of my first year is just a blip. Yes, I've been pregnant for most of the last two years, between my son and daughter. But hopefully I'm going to be a working attorney for decades. This is just a small portion of my overall career.
I think that the fact that the firm hired me while I was pregnant was a really good starting place for my relationship with my employer.
I started the job last March, at about 5.5 months along, and was only able to work for about four months before our daughter was born in June. It was difficult to get assigned to active cases during that short time, because everyone knew I was going to be gone for a while. And I felt self-conscious about meeting new people while I was pregnant, because it sort of defines you among new coworkers. You end up just talking about your pregnancy a lot. But the work days and long hours during my pregnancy weren't so bad. There was so much going on with our son, who was about 15 months old, and working, that I didn't really think about the pregnancy that much.
I was not entitled to any leave, not even FMLA leave, because I hadn't been employed for more than a year. But my firm honored the maternity leave policy as if I had been an employee for a year. I didn't have to fight for it; they offered it up front. I'm happy with the way the firm treated me, but if I had been a legal secretary or a staff member who is not a lawyer, I'm not sure they would have extended it to me. I think that the fact that the firm hired me while I was pregnant was a really good starting place for my relationship with my employer because I felt like they treated me well and they really valued me. Now that I've been back at work for almost five months, I've been really busy and taken seriously.
My mom was a teacher who had summers off and was home with us a lot when we were little. I didn't know until I had my first child whether I would want that too. But I'm a different person. I went to law school for a reason. I like being a professional and having kids didn't change that.
*Name has been changed.
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Can I Start a New Job While Pregnant
Source: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/career/a37970/getting-a-new-job-while-pregnant/