Open, worrying about affecting the probation period, promotion and salary increase; not open, under the pressure of honesty
"Concealed pregnancy" has become a helpless choice for some women in the workplace
Our reporter Tao Wen
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At present, "hidden pregnancy" has become a last resort strategy for women to survive in the workplace.
Worried about being cut salary, dismissed, affecting the probationary period, promotion and salary increase, etc., are important reasons why many women in the workplace choose "hidden pregnancy".
At the other end of "hidden pregnancy", some companies are worried about the additional labor costs that may be brought about by female workers during pregnancy and childbirth.
Experts suggest that in the context of three children, a reasonable childbearing cost sharing mechanism should be established to create a childbearing-friendly workplace environment and increase the willingness of female workers to have children.
"Try to wear looser clothes." After Wang Feifei, an employee of an enterprise in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, was pregnant, she did not share the happy news with her colleagues at the first time, but chose to hide it.
"There was a colleague whose performance was all deducted because of pregnancy, so I can hide it as much as possible, and wait until the performance is evaluated at the end of the year."
In this way, it was not until the 22nd week of pregnancy, "I really couldn't hide it", that Wang Feifei told the company that she was pregnant.
Not long ago, the topic of "hidden pregnancy" rushed into the hot search. Some people accused workers of dishonesty and increased the management burden of enterprises; some people believed that workers were in a weak position and had "difficulties".
In recent years, the state and localities have continuously introduced policies to encourage childbearing and eliminate discrimination in the workplace. Against this background, why is pregnancy, which is supposed to be a happy event, a secret that some working women do not want to disclose?
What is the reason that makes them "dare not speak" or "reluctant to speak"?
Unavoidable "hidden pregnancy" in the workplace
Wang Feifei said that from the experience of previous colleagues, the company's performance appraisal at the end of the year is very unfriendly to pregnant female employees, and they basically cannot get performance appraisal awards.
In recent years, more and more women in the workplace, like Feifei Wang, choose to conceal their pregnancy in the first few months after pregnancy. "Concealed pregnancy" has become a last resort strategy for women to survive in the workplace.
Yao Yuxi, who is about to give birth, did not inform the company until she was nearly 5 months pregnant.
"I got pregnant by accident not long after I joined the company. I just changed jobs and was still in the probationary period. I was afraid that I would lose my job because of the pregnancy, so I had to hide it from the company."
In the next few months, Yao Yuxi tried her best to behave as usual in order not to let her leaders and colleagues find out that she was pregnant.
"Just do what you want to do at work, go on business trips, run business, and everything is business as usual." Fortunately, when she first joined the job, her colleagues were not familiar with her, so she passed the probationary period "cautiously".
Yao Yuxi told reporters that the company she used to work for had transferred a pregnant female employee from her job under the pretext of "forcing" her to resign voluntarily.
During the interview, the reporter learned that worrying about being cut salary, dismissed, affecting the probationary period, promotion and salary increase are the main concerns of many pregnant women in the workplace, and it is also an important reason for them to choose "hidden pregnancy".
Many workers also said that "hidden pregnancy" put them under moral pressure and worried about causing trouble to the company.
Do workers have to inform their employers of their pregnancy status?
In this regard, Xue Lu, a lawyer from Beijing Anbo (Zhengzhou) Law Firm, explained: "Workers whose pregnancy status does not fall within the provisions of labor laws and regulations should truthfully inform their employers." She reminded workers that birth information belongs to personal privacy. Informing the unit of pregnancy, the worker has the right to autonomy.
However, what many female employees do not understand is that "hidden pregnancy" also has certain labor risks.
"If the unit is not informed, the unit will not be able to take special protection measures prescribed by the law for pregnant female employees." Shen Jianfeng, dean of the Law School of the China Institute of Labor Relations, reminded that if the unit does not know, if a female employee is arranged to work at heights , Low temperature work, cold water work and other taboo labor during pregnancy may endanger the safety of pregnant women and fetuses.
Some companies worry about increasing labor costs
In response to the fact that gender discrimination in the workplace impairs women's equal employment rights, the newly revised Law on the Protection of Women's Rights and Interests, which came into effect on January 1 this year, clearly stipulates that employers are not allowed to ask or investigate the marriage and childbearing status of female job applicants.
However, according to the "2022 Chinese Women's Workplace Status Survey Report" released by Zhaopin.com, 61.2% of women were asked about their marriage and childbearing status during job hunting.
In addition, 38.3% of women said that marriage and childbearing affect their career prospects, and 62.3% of women believed that "childbirth is a burden that women cannot get rid of".
At the other end of "hidden pregnancy", some companies are worried about the additional labor costs that may be brought about by female workers during pregnancy and childbirth.
"For the company, the cost of female employees' maternity period is mainly the cost of vacation and the cost of wages and benefits paid by the company when they are not working." Li Ying, who has worked in human resources in the software industry for more than ten years, made a calculation to the reporter. Account, judging from the situation in Beijing, maternity leave mainly includes 8-day maternity check-up leave, 98-day maternity leave, 60-day extended maternity leave, cesarean section, multiple births and additional maternity leave. 1 hour breastfeeding break etc.
"Wages for maternity leave are paid by the maternity allowance, but the wages during the extended maternity leave need to be borne by the company." Li Ying said that the company also pays the five social insurances and one housing fund normally during the leave for female employees, which is also a considerable expense.
In addition to paying certain visible labor costs, some enterprises worry about increasing the management burden.
Xu Jiantao works as a video editor at a media outlet in Beijing.
Among the four partners in his team, three of them have been pregnant and on maternity leave recently, and the other colleague who is on the job has just joined the job for less than a year, and the work he can share is also very limited.
"During the vacation of colleagues, the company will not arrange for newcomers to come in, and they can only share the burden within the team. Recently, they have been busy almost every day until midnight, and the work of 5 people is done by one person." Xu Jiantao said with a wry smile.
"We have encountered situations where employees in the team left because they shared too much work." Li Ying said that there are also some female employees whose physical discomfort during pregnancy affects their working status, and the relationship between work and parenting is not well balanced.
In addition, if female employees do not inform the enterprise of their pregnancy in a timely manner, it will cause inconvenience to the enterprise's work arrangements, and it will not be conducive to the enterprise's labor protection for female employees, resulting in labor employment risks.
Create a maternity-friendly workplace environment
"Employers should do a good job in the company's internal work arrangements and system design to balance the management costs brought by female employees during pregnancy." Xue Lu suggested that at the same time, employers should pay social security for female employees in accordance with regulations, and wages during maternity leave can be paid by maternity expenses. Subsidies are assumed to reduce labor costs.
"In addition, enterprises should also give more humanistic care to female employees during pregnancy." Xue Lu believes that creating a maternity-friendly workplace environment can improve the work enthusiasm of female employees and their sense of belonging to the enterprise, which is beneficial to both parties.
At the same time, workers should also be honest and avoid adding management burdens to enterprises.
Shen Jianfeng believes that the cost of female workers' pregnancy and childbirth should be reasonably allocated among laborers, employers and the state.
For example, at present, in order to encourage childbearing, maternity leave is set up in addition to normal maternity leave in many places, but wages during maternity leave are paid by employers, which in turn aggravates employers' rejection of female employees.
It is suggested that the maternity insurance fund bear the wages of workers during maternity leave to reduce the burden on enterprises.
Xue Lu suggested that under the background of three children, the government can provide some preferential policy support in taxation, childcare subsidies, etc., and social organizations can regularly carry out psychological counseling activities for female employees in the workplace, so as to heal the psychological problems of female employees in the process of changing their roles in the workplace. A sense of gap.
"Father's responsibilities should be increased during the childbearing process." Shen Jianfeng said that it is necessary to moderately balance the different costs incurred by male and female employees in childbearing issues, such as setting up mandatory paternity leave for men.
In addition, Shen Jianfeng also suggested to speed up the establishment of a socialized family burden sharing mechanism, vigorously develop socialized service agencies that provide childcare services and family care services, share the burden of raising women, help women better coordinate the relationship between workplace and family, and improve women's health. Employees' willingness to have children.
(Part of the interviewees in the Workers’ Daily article are pseudonyms)