Jobs earmarked before interview?

monthebiffy: What percentage of new jobs, albeit temporary posts, are already sewn up? I’m guessing about 75 per cent. And these are all maternity covers. Some of us don’t want kids. But it just seems that we are treated dreadfully by this maternity law stuff.

Effinbankers: Hard-fought terms and conditions for those who want families. Do you want to give them up? Maybe your vitriol towards those whose vacancies you are applying for is a reason why you haven’t been successful in securing full-time work. You need to have a perspective of the bigger picture.

monthebiffy: I would love to know the percentage of females who take the maternity leave, come back after summer, and then leave a couple of months later.

mossop: So menwomen who won’t have children should be given priority over menwomen who will choose to have them? Will we put a tick-box question on the application form? “Do you plan to have children at some point in the future?” Or how about we just don’t employ any women under the age of, say, 45?

CanuckGrrl: I have mixed thoughts on this one. On the one hand, women should be able to combine a career and motherhood, and employment laws should help them do this. On the other hand, I’m not sure that permanent teaching jobs should be preserved for an indeterminate length of time as pregnancy follows pregnancy. Perhaps there should be a limit to the number of maternity leaves you can take and still expect to come back to “your” job?

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