Alpha Mummy - Times Online - WBLG

Why the glass ceiling is bad for everyone

Fewer women are reaching the boardroom these days, and that's really bad for business. It's time to quit asking women to act like men, says the author of a new book that addresses the problem. "Instead of trying to “fix” women, it’s time to fix the system. Otherwise, an army of female middle managers are going to network and take assertive-ness courses, and end up talking to themselves while nothing changes. It’s time to reframe the debate,” she says.

Check it out.

News that helps you go back to the office

After almost two weeks of eating too much on the sofa, surfing the Internet and chatting about nothing in particular, I'm back at the office, energised for the new year. I'm celebrating my incredible energy and motivation by eating too much at my desk, surfing the Internet and chatting about nothing in particular with my colleagues.

To save everyone from another story about my sister's talking birds ("then Crackers said this hysterical thing... you had to be there"), I've perused the whimsical new-year news stories that surface around this time. Here, a few of the best so far this week:

* The show My Fake Baby, about women who buy a realistic newborn to fill a baby-shaped hole in their lives, aired this week. Read Tim Teeman's witty review then go to Channel 4 where you can download the whole program.

A website that has jobs for mums

I just heard the best endorsement you can get for the site www.jobs4mothers.com. My friend K decided to go back to work in human resources consulting, but only wanted something part-time since her kids are still quite young. She posted her CV on the site, heard from a company looking for a part-timer, interviewed and got the job - all in three weeks.

Has anybody else out there had a good experience with a site that helped them go back to work after spending time at home with the kids?

Legal advice for working mums: 6 things you should know

"The law is equal before all of us; but we are not all equal before the law" said George Bernard Shaw. To make things a bit more equal for Alpha Mummies, we asked Russell Jones & Walker, a leading employment law firm, some of the questions we hear most often here at AM - about pregnancy and maternity leave, flexible working and employing childcare.  They also answered, gratis, some specific questions by AM readers, although the mums in question have asked us to keep those private. We hope to be doing more of these kind of things in the future, so let us know about the kind of expert advice we could help broker. 

(PS - one mum wrote in but her email has been lost in the deluge of the AM mail box. Contact us if you wrote in a letter that started "I decided to take 6 months maternity leave - OML, partially because I felt it gave me better protection on returning to the same job than AML, but primarily for financial reasons. I calculated my date of return to be exactly 6 months..." - and we'll send your legal advice.)


Q. Do you have to notify an employer when interviewing for a job that you are pregnant?
A. There is no specific legal requirement to inform a prospective employer that you are pregnant at the interview stage. If a decision is taken not to recruit you because you are pregnant, that would amount to unlawful sex discrimination.

Q. Is an employer legally obligated to give employees "reasonable" time off for family emergencies?
A. Employees are entitled to unpaid time off work for dealing with emergencies involving a dependant i.e. a husband, wife, partner, child or parent or someone living with the employee as part of their family. The DTI have published a guidance leaflet called "Time off for Dependants - a guide for employers and employees" which sets out the provisions.

Free legal advice for alpha mums

Do you have questions about employment law, especially as it relates to maternity leave, time off, or your job? Alpha Mummy has teamed up with the Legal section of Times Online and we have a employment lawyer who will answer your questions at the best possible rate: free. So post your questions here or send them to the Alpha Mummy email if you'd rather. We'll collect them and post the answers in a week or two.

Chauffers: Tax deductible. Childcare: Not tax deductible. Why?

Anna, a mother from Poland writes...

"I am originally from Poland, but have lived in the UK for 3 years. My husband is English and we live in Hampshire.We have a son, who is nearly two.

I am trapped at home and I can't work, despite having 2 degrees. UK has the most expensive childcare in Europe, and possibly in the world. Last year's inflation was 4%, but the cost of childcare rose by 7%. Most countries on the Continent heavily subsidize nurseries, so that women don't have to hand over their entire salaries to nannies or nurseries. My Danish friends pay the equivalent of 90 pounds for full-time nursery per month. My friend here pays approx. 900 pounds - ten times as much, though average earnings here are by no means ten times the average Danish salary. Nurseries are either for the rich or those on low income or single parents - once again, middle class is the one bearing the brunt of such extortionate costs of childcare.

The government's record on this issue is a disgrace - and as long as nothing is done about making childcare more widely available and, above all, affordable, things will only get worse ad the birthrate will continue to fall. My English friends' attitude is that they can't change the system, so they make do as best they can - but I believe we need to speak up about it, as putting up with the bad situation is not the answer."

Thank you, Anna. Never a truer word spoken. In Britain, working women are effectively taxed TWICE. First, the Excequer taxes them. Then, they have to pay their childcarer's wages, including that person's TAX, NATIONAL INSURANCE and, if they employ childcare in the home  EMPLOYER'S TAX (please excuse the capital letters, but this issue makes me VERY ANNOYED) - all, I repeat, out of their own net wages.

Let me give you an example. Say you paid your childminder/nanny an average salary of £300 a week. You would then receive a bill from the Inland Revenue of approximately £560 a month for his or her tax and national insurance. That means childcare costs of approximately £450 a week, which is the equivalent of roughly £24,000 a year. But remember, you have to find that money out of your own NET income because childcare in Britain is not tax deductible (interestingly, chauffeurs are. What does that tell you about this Government's priorities?). Add roughly one third... and you need to earn another £8000 a year - JUST TO COVER YOUR CHILDCARE COSTS.

That's 30 grand before you've even bought so much as a coffee and a croissant on your morning commute. But it's okay because CHAUFFEURS are tax deductible. Hurrah.

I'm going to lie down in a darkened room for a bit now and calm down.

 

Leslie Bennetts says: "Don't give up the day job"

Predictably, we've already had a huge reponse to Leslie Bennett's lead story in today's T2: "Don't give up the day job": Frances writes: "Was giving up your job to look after your family a mistake? Er... no. I was with my children from their birth to when the youngest was seven. Then I returned to part-time work, and I now earn less than I did in my first job in 1985. Of course I look at the Two Big Salary families and experience a pang of envy as they set off for Barbados and we pack the top box for the schlepp up to Scotland, but it's a pang which is easily suppressed. I'm happy."

Mary writes:  "The scholar who said 'Motherhood is a temp job' is putting his/her head in the sand. Once a mother, always a mother, even if you return to work. Leslie talks about the steep financial price they will pay if they take time out from work. What about the steep emotional price their children may pay - at least my child never said to me 'I wanted to talk to you about it, but you weren't there'."

What do you think?

Can mums become high-fliers?

High-flying City career women have a tough time returning to work after they start a family, the macho culture and long hours means precious little time to spend with little precious ones. Then there are the alpha daddies who spend so long at the office that they end up seeing their wives and children only at weekends. Is the lifestyle that the high salary and bonuses brings worth the sacrifices?

The Career section of The Times is running a series of articles on working in the City culminating this week in a panel discussion on life in the square mile. On the panel are City high-flyer turned novelist, Polly Courtney, head of graduate recruitment for law firm Lovells, Clare Harris, Working in the City author and visiting fellow at the Cass Business School, Debbie Harrison, and investment banker, Hugh Karseras. Read the articles, add your comments and send in your questions at: timesonline.co.uk/career  We'd like to hear whether family life and City careers can mix, and if you or anyone you know has been able to do it.

'Classy' part-time job opportunities - where are they?

Sally McIlroy writes in to ask where are the good part-time jobs for mums:

I, like many other alpha mummies, went to the One Life exhibition at Olympia to have a non-specific look at what is out there. I was struck by one noticeable factor: how few ‘classy’ part-time business opportunities there are. Weekenders were there, Avon and Pampered Chef and the Direct Sellers Association with a host of others including Hillarys Blinds and Kleeneze

I can honestly say I’m not a snob, but if you’ve had a university education and have made a choice to ‘give up the day job’ to bring up your children (but want a bit of stimulation outside the home to fit around nursery school hours), what is there?!

Sally is right. A lot of the part-time jobs out there are the same ones that were around 10 years ago or on a similar theme: direct selling to your friends. We have learned of a few of sites aimed at helping women get back in to the workplace: