Job application vs. ipcoming Shared Parental Leave

Rule #1.

How confident are you of your abilities. If you think you're good enough, be honest and open about it.

Are you sure that Shared Parental Leave isn't leave?

, I plan to have Shared Parental Leave from October ’22 – March ’23.

In that case you'll want to stay where you are.

Your only entitled to parental leave if you have worked there 12 months or more...

Outside of that. You can only ask but you have no right to it

Parental leave is not their business at interview stage!

Can you imagine if they asked a female candidate if she was planning any parental leave in the near future?

I wouldn't bring it up, and find a polite way to deflect it if they do.

@scotroutes
I think I'm a good candidate for the role.
SPL is protected, as maternity leave. It is the ability to split what would otherwise only be ML between the mother and a.n.other

@trail_rat
That isn't quite correct but the point still remains valid; I will be outside the pre-qualification period that protects my right to the leave.

What would be your start date if successful? Employers are entitled to 8 weeks notice I believe for maternity leave so that would need to be taken into consideration within the recruitment timeline.

What kind of probationary period does the new role have? Ay risk of pissing new employers off by dropping this on them weeks into a new role? (hopefully not - but with some employers you never know)...

I don't knows the ins and outs of what is or isn't to be legally offered, so take this view with a pinch of salt...
I would not mention it in your shoes. If a company is hiring today they're looking for someone who can start work late summer/early autumn and so will be up to speed early next year. Someone who will potentially come in for a month or 2 and then disappear for 6 months is less than ideal.
Irrelevant of the legalities, if you mentioned it you may find you're not offered the job. They won't tell you it's because of the SPL as they won't be that stupid, but that may well be the real reason.
As a hiring manager, I would not be happy to have hired someone who didn't mention it up front as that'll cause issues that I'd like to avoid. It's the exact reason that as a candidate I wouldn't mention it.
A horrible way to think, but as ever, bear in mind you can be fired with pretty much no reason in your first 2 years of employment.

Even if it's legal, it's hardly going to put you in a good light with your new bosses if you announce on day one you want six months leave with a couple of months of starting.

You need to discuss before taking the job IMO.

Why not look for a new job during your leave? You've only got to stick with your old one for a few more months.

I can't see how trail_rat is anything other than 100% correct. You don't meet the criteria for SPL with the new employer. You can ask for leave, and it may be granted, but it won't be SPL.

I'm confusing maternity with parental leave

Parental leave is 26 weeks by the end of the 15th week of the pregnancy term.

Either way he's outside of it.

I'd do as scotroutes says...and while hels is 100% correct it's not a criteria they can use or can ask you about. If you spring that on day 1 you'll find your self a bad fit at your first appraisal for other reasons (if their HR dept is any use)

it may (or may not!) be within your rights to do it, but I can't imagine it'll go down well with your new manager and/or colleagues (if they find themselves having to pick up the slack!), although I suppose the bigger the department, the less of an issue that might be.

Thanks all

I think I'm asking about this to see if there is a positive that I've not considered, as I'd like to leave my current job and this would be a compatible role, but really I can't see how entering this process would work out in retention and this is disappointing. I've have no idea why an employer looking for a new starter would have me in for a couple of months at most before letting my go until nearly the next tax year!

Revealing my intentions at interview, offer, or really any when before employment would no doubt stop the process, and revealing on day 1 may lead me to being cast aside immediately or shortly thereafter and with no onward security or, at best(?), being labelled a complete beller by anyone and everyone there.

Resigning myself to this just being interview practise is probably the thing to do.

*sigh*

It just sounds a little distasteful to me. Starting out on a new journey with a new employer knowing that you already have misgivings about how they will react. Do you really want to work for someone who MIGHT have feelings about your honesty?

I would either be up front or i would look elsewhere. As some have pointed out, if they have anything like a functioning HR dept, they could easily solve the problem from their side within a short period. Is that any better?

Or, be up-front about it. They might consider it better to get it out of the way now rather than you hit them with it in a year or two.

Reading you last post is more positive. Dont undersell yourself. A full honest and upfront employee who is more than capable of carrying out the work is worth their weight in gold at present. Getting the wrong employee can result in expensive costs and wasted months. I would seriously consider employing someone in this position as long as it suited my company in the long run. 6mths is nothing in reality

@TheLittlestHobo
Ah, yes, I wasn't asking for help with a plot to deceive the employer! I could have noted this in the OP.

Your only entitled to parental leave if you have worked there 12 months or more…

Going back just 19 years, my eldest was born on a Friday, my last day at one employer, and I started a new job on the Monday as I didn't meet the criteria for paternity leave, as it was then.

I applied for a new (internal) role and made it clear during the process that I was going to take SPL (for a shorter time : 3 months). they were fine with it, and happy to have me on board. Probably gave me less leverage for salary negociations, but thats ok

Don't think there's any perfect answer. Personally I think I'd reveal it in the back and forth post any offer. If they've offered it to you, it would at least be uncomfortable for them to change their mind. Seems the best compromise between potentially putting yourself out of the running by mentioning early, and mentioning it on day 1.

Going back just 19 years, my eldest was born on a Friday, my last day at one employer, and I started a new job on the Monday as I didn’t meet the criteria for paternity leave, as it was then.

In my head I thought 'Well that's so long ago, it's like the Stone Age or something' and then realised that it's the same age as my eldest! I don't think there was much statutory paternity leave back then? I can't remember. I had a few weeks off for my youngest, 11 years ago.

SPL is only a 2014 thing. Approx 2% of fathers take SPL currently, I believe.

In my head I thought ‘Well that’s so long ago, it’s like the Stone Age or something’ and then realised that it’s the same age as my eldest! I don’t think there was much statutory paternity leave back then?

Was two weeks at £80 a week I think, but would have saved MrsMC from 2 weeks with her mother.

I had two weeks when the second one came along. Was lovely.

You have a choice to make I think, I believe young people call that "adulting". You can either stay where you are and have the split of parental leave you want (assuming you have already worked it out and agreed), or take the new job and take your chances about what they will allow the split to be. They may have a published policy on their website or you could ask somebody who already works there.

How flexible is your wife's employer, and what does she think about this? Is the extra money worth having to change your arrangements?

You dont have to tell them, but you wont be elegible to claim it for a period defined in your contract. Probably a year.

If you want to negotiate that you CAN take it, then you need to talk to them about it.

Youll still get the 2 weeks statuatory i think?

What parental leave policies does the employer have, outside of the statutory schemes?

As an example, my employer offers a 14-week full salary leave for mums and dads. Which can be spread over a longer period. One of the key reasons my employer offers this is as a recruitment incentive.

Find out what they’d give you? You don’t necessarily need to mention the imminence of this leave to find out.

As someone that does a lot of hiring, if someone mentioned that after I’d made the job offer (but before they accepted) I’d be fine with it, and happy they hadn’t waited till they’d started (which would annoy me).

Thanks @thebunk, I am thankful for that shot of positivity after work today

I've just been through this. I applied for a job before Christmas despite knowing I was going on shared parental leave from March for 3 months.

I was up front about it, asking early in the interview if it they could wait.

They waited, and we kept in touch throughout the wait.

In my sector there are background checks that mean onboarding takes longer than usual, which helped me out.

The only other thing in the mix was that my employer top up shared parental pay to make full pay, and I had to go back for a month to avoid that being clawed back.

To a point it sounds like it depends on your job/role/skills - if they are niche and jobs come up infrequently, then in this position I'd be on the phone to the employer / hiring manager this morning, before interview. Point out you would be a stellar fit for the role for all your wonderful reasons, but timings a bit off. Then ask what they think, what their plans for the team were and if a compromise could be had. It could be they have burning issue so need a person to fight fire NOW so will need to go with another candidate or it could be there could be some flexibility if you skills mean you'll be up to speed faster than the next best candidate.

If on the other hand it was a job with a wide candidate market and correspondingly frequent job postings, I'd stay put and look for a new job during your long holiday. 😉

I'd discuss it when they offer you the job. Doing it upfront will only lead the decision.

Hopefully they are planning to have you as an employee for decade+ and in that context a few weeks off is neither here nor there.

Just don't expect them to pay you during spl.

As above, I would mention it post-offer.

If they agree, all good
If they make an issue of it and you end up declining the offer (or they withdraw it), they you know that you've dodged two bullets: that they would've denied your request if you'd only mentioned it after you started, and that you don't working for a company who think like that.

Either way, there is no bad outcome if you adopt that approach.

If I'd just hired somebody who hadn't told me on their first day that they be wanting 6 months off, after being in role less than 3 months - I'd be pretty annoyed. Plenty of people stay in sub-optimal roles in order to realize better maternity benefits - it's just a choice that you have to make. Don't know how rare these jobs are, but it seems like delaying for 3 months isn't too much of a compromise on your part.

As a hiring manager, I would not be happy to have hired someone who didn’t mention it up front as that’ll cause issues that I’d like to avoid.

But if they mentioned upfront you wouldn’t hire them. Priceless.