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Tuesday, October 3, 2017

Women, Advertising And Maternity Leave



A few weeks ago Adweek ran an important article about the abuses that women endure when they are pregnant or on maternity leave I was appalled the findings as reported by Adweek and I thought the issue deserves commentary.  

Apparently there are very few enlightened ad agencies which offer progressive policies and practices to women who go out on maternity leave.  Unfortunately, they appear to be few and far between.  Any employee who goes on maternity (or paternity) leave should be guaranteed job security, their seniority and an easy return to the same or similar job.  However, this is apparently a practice followed by very few ad agencies.  As a recruiter, my experience with most of the major ad agencies is that they mostly assign or hire people to cover jobs temporarily while a person is out.  However, apparently, I am wrong.  It is shocking.

The idea that companies force women to work right up to their due date,  forcing women to work from home, take away their seniority and fail to keep promises is insane.  

The fear of clients and the need to service them, even if irrational, drives all too many companies and ad agencies, even if those clients themselves have enlightened policies. But there is no excuse for a company to break promises or treat women poorly when they have babies.
We all realize that a leave of absence can cause problems and disruption, but an employer has a six or seven month minimum notice to prepare.  There is no reason for lack of planning which leads to broken promises.

During the past several decades, women have begun to dominate the business.  And while there my have been a glass ceiling, it is beginning to crumble.  Consequently, t is essential that ad agencies address this problem.

Frankly, despite the hundreds of women I have spoken to, I had no idea that these things happened.  Women actually don’t seem talk much about it.  .

I would love to hear your comments and experiences.  This is an important subject and deserves discussion.

11 comments:

  1. Hi Paul - this is one of my favorite topics as I'm extremely passionate about respecting family life (and treating women fairly) while having a career. When I went out on maternity leave last year, I was very pleased my company allowed me to take 4 months off after a newly-implemented policy (some of that leave was unpaid of course). Unfortunately, I never got to come back. I was laid off during maternity leave.

    The first question people typically ask is, "Is that even legal?" The law states that it is legal to lay someone off WHILE on maternity leave, but not BECAUSE they are on maternity leave. Although there was no legal ground to fight, it felt very disrespectful to leave me without insurance while I had newborn who required very frequent doctor trips and at a time when I wasn't ready to start interviewing and get back to work. It was a rough few months. Luckily, I eventually found a position recruiting for a top company and I get to work from home allowing me to be the best employee I can be while being around for my kids too.

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    1. Thanks for sharing this awful story. I wish it were the exception, but unfortunately it is not. Your company knew that you would not or could not sue them.

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    2. Hi Paul,

      This happened to me. I was an SVP in acct mgmt at one of the big agencies and they gave my job away while I was out on maternity leave. When I came in to see my boss during my 12 week leave, he threw the global agency directory at me and told me to start looking at other agencies - he had given my job away. The head of HR (a woman) said she was surprised I was back (I found that offensive!) and our President refused to meet with me. I learned from a lawyer they owed me same title, same salary and let a judge decide if it was the same level of responsibility. Not the stress I needed on top of giving birth to twins two months early! I ultimately found myself a job at another agency but it truly taught me women don't have the rights in the US that we deserve.

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  4. Women have blamed men for all the inequities in their career paths for at least the last 20 years. More like 30-40. But now they’re in charge! So why the continued discussion about maternity leave rights? Well, I’ll tell you why. It was never about men vs. women. It was about companies and agencies vs. women. No organization, whatever their policy, likes a 2-3 month disruption in their business – especially in their senior management ranks. So they make other arrangements in the interim, realizing that that person of importance may choose not to return or, at a minimum, come back with a different set of priorities. And to a company - which is a “thing”, not a person - that’s not good. Which is to say … It’s not personal; just business.

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    1. Paul … Maybe you misunderstood the main point of my post, which I thought was akin to yours. It was with Rachel’s and Donna’s commentaries in mind that I made my comment. Their stories weren’t about the historic stereotype of men simply being insensitive to women’s work/life balance needs but, rather, about whole companies or agencies being insensitive and dishonest about the realities of maternity leave. Indeed, Donna said even her HR Director (a woman) was “surprised” that she returned to work, although Donna gave HR no reason to think that she wouldn’t, and her employer simply gave her job away while she was out on leave. Same thing for Rachel, who was permanently replaced while out on leave. That is, it was gender bias at a corporate or company level … not interpersonal. Hope this clarifies my intentions a bit more for you. Nobody is a bigger and more proven champion of women in business than I. Just ask around.

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    2. Pretty amazing that it's illegal to ask women when interviewing if they're pregnant or planning to have children. And yet they can be fired later for either of these things. I've worked in 2 countries where it would be illegal for an employer to fire a woman for these reasons. As usual, US behind the developed world in basic worker's rights.

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  5. Unfortunately, this happens in all industries. But one would think that ad agencies should be more enlightened than other industries, since they are a "creative" business and rely solely on their people.

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    1. Steven, i fully agree. The issue is two-fold: first women dominate the business and while they may be underrepresented in management, that will likely change. Second, advertising management must be more enlightened if it wants to attract great talent.

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I would welcome your comments, suggestions or anything you would like to share with me or my readers.

 
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