Who You Are and How You Are
Who You Are and How You Are
I heard a story about a candidate for a position who, after several encouraging interviews, encountered the final interview with the hiring…
I heard a story about a candidate for a position who, after several encouraging interviews, encountered the final interview with the hiring manager in an obvious state of distress.
After some squirming and sweating, the candidate made a revelation to the hiring manager: She’s pregnant and expecting to deliver in a couple of months.
The hiring manager was delighted and congratulated the candidate. She got the job, and was in it for about two months before taking her full maternity leave. Years later, she’s still in the role.
It’s a story with a happy ending. Achievement unlocked, people!
I’ve fielded questions from a number of clients about what information they ought to disclose to potential employers.
I understand why people would feel that they should disclose a pregnancy or a health condition that might impact their work. You want to feel like you’ve been honest and you don’t want to start out a new relationship with a big surprise.
Speaking personally, when I’m hiring I don’t need or want to know anything that’s not relevant to your skills and experience.
If you disclose any of these issues, I’m going to thank you for sharing. I’m also going to tell you that I’m not going to consider that information as part of the hiring process and that it’s not necessary to make such disclosures.
All any employer ought to want is to hire qualified, interested human people. We can reasonably expect those people to sometimes be sick, pregnant, parenting, caregiving, or recovering in between streaks of high-performing, bar-raising, goal-exceeding performances at work.
Normal, healthy, happy, stable, productive, interesting people sometimes get pregnant. These same people sometimes get sick. Sometimes they get chronic illnesses that require ongoing treatment. Sometimes they have family issues that will take them away from work for an extended period of time.
Pregnancy is a normal, natural, healthy part of being a human being. It also happens to be essential to the survival of our species.
Being sick is also part of being normal. The healthiest people in the world sometimes get sick and they very often have family members who fall ill.
Employers want to hire healthy people, but they have no expectations that those people will never be sick or take leave or that they’ll never need to provide care for their families.
Does your offer letter say that you’re not going to take any leave during the first six months? Of course not. So it’s not necessary for you to say in advance that you will or that you might.
If you want to disclose these issues to an employer, I understand.
I also think you shouldn’t ever feel that it’s necessary. Your employer can learn all of the amazing unique things about you once you start on the job.
Who you are and how you are is all you need to be.