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.”
[stextbox id="grey"]
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...
[/stextbox]
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…
[polldaddy poll=6309569]