Well, there are two ways to look at it. People with kids will certainly work harder and smarter so that they can make enough money to secure a better future for their families—that’s a major commitment. Another way to view the situation could be, due to wanting to spend more time with family, parents might just be at work physically but not mentally and emotionally.
No kids
During a panel session at Echelon 2012, Brian Wong, co-founder of a US-based mobile ad company Kiip, shared his beliefs about what kind of people to hire when building a company in the early stages.
The 21-year-old said: “During your hypergrowth, hire young people with no kids.” Why? Simply because, employees with families are “less able” to deal with commitment and stresses that are a part of working at a startup company.
Pro-kids
Another panel member, John Fearon of Dropmyemail, disagreed with Brian as he has a family of his own, yet made it work. But he too agreed that when you’re involved in startup, there is hardly a work-life balance as employees regularly burn the midnight oil.
John had stressed that it’s crucial that the spouse understands and accepts this fact. He shared that he had a potential candidate in the past that walked away because the spouse disapproved of a start-up company’s work conditions.
At the end of the session Brian Wong softened his stance and offered that start-ups should recruit people, “who can work like they don’t have kids.” He also added: “I love people that have kids.”
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Some of our readers say this…
Petrina Tan: If a company chooses to “discriminate” by not hiring people with kids, I (having kids) will similarly shun them & broadcast to everyone that they do not wish to offer work-life balance. Each side will find exactly who they want…win-win match!
Dave L: That’s unequal employment. Would have been sued in a country that has decent unions.
Anabelle Ang: If im not wrong.. The person who said that is onli 21yo 🙂
Roshni Mahtani: 21 is still an adult!
Vanessa Ann: It is disappointing to know there are actually a lot of companies that would not hire people with children especially if their kids are still young. If they had a choice between a candidate with a family and a single person, they will opt to employ the single person. It is discrimination.
Andy Lim: I personally had a couple of pieces to share. The problem is tat the companies are not obligue to do/follow the regulations set by the ministries. And the ministries did not enforce what they set. Even so, the Employers can find a thousand reasons to kick your ass outa e company. It will never look like its because of kiddos even its the prime reason. It’s pretty much a sad case I’d been thru with my wife, I got my wife terminated when I tried to fight for her rights. I hated the fact that theres nothing we could do abt and the sheer disgusting fact that wat we Humans are capable of. Thats not just the end and I wont go into details how disgusting it became. But then! I’m thankful to god that this actually turned out to be a blessing for my wife, she’d got herself into a better company now which practices employee welfare so much better…. Moral of the story, a lousy company have a set of lousy rules, they hire lousy people to run the company lousily. And if they wont take you, I believe there are many out there who will…. To those victims of such cases, you r not alone…
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What do you think? Will you work for a startup company if you have kids due to the extra demands and stress? Do you think it is wrong for employers of start-ups to discriminate against people with children? Take our polls below…
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