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I’m not a woman but my wife has gone through this.
This is tricky. I probably wouldn’t care as much if it were a role in management consulting, but definitely would be difficult to navigate if you were hired into a role to fill a specific need (like in some industry jobs). Legally you are protected against discrimination but that doesn’t make it an easy convo.
Given how late you are in your pregnancy, I would consider disclosing this right after you sign the contract and before you actually start. If this is for non-consulting, it would impact your manager’s approach to onboarding as well as figuring a backfill.
Don’t forget to check the maternity benefits at the new company. Some don’t allow benefits to kick in until 1 year on the job. And I believe you need to give at least 30 days before birth in order to qualify for FMLA. And don’t wait until exactly 30 days because you never know if you’re going to deliver early.
Are you saying you’d like to start at the new company whilst taking parental leave on the other?
If you’re interviewing with another consulting company that works in a bench model I’d be less concerned about it (I would be forthcoming about it now, though), but if in the industry you should definitely discuss.
Chances are you’re being hired as A person to do A job, so going on leave for weeks after a month or two in would be strange, specially if you didn’t bring it up during the interview process - not the best way to start a long term relationship well IMO.
Thanks both for the thoughtful responses! Want to clarify that I’m the father-to-be, but I think your responses still apply and give me a lot to think about.
The role isn’t explicitly consulting, but still follows a similar project / client based model. Although, the recruiting process has me feeling like I should be more transparent with them as they’re hiring a very limited number of people.
@SM1 telling them now seems risky though and I worry it could mess things up. Is your point that being transparent and potentially losing the opportunity is better than telling them after I receive an offer and screwing them over?
Another option is that for some states and programs, you’re allowed to split up your pat leave into two parts as long as it’s within a year from birthing event. So if you have 2 months pat leave, you can do one month after birth and defer the other month later on.
Definitely check the benefits, a significant number of companies don’t have parental leave kick in until 1 year with the company
MC - most consulting firms do have minimum 1 year requirements so they did provide a 30 day extra PTO for me to use as paternity/maternity but I decided to go to Tech since using PTO for paternity isnt great since paternity does protect me
Going through same situation. Told them about paternity leave which will be in end of August/September and was transparent before I signed offer and had a chat with Hiring Manager. I’m a little earlier in the fatherhood process than you since I will have 4-5 months before my wife is due but transparency is the best way forward.
Thanks all, this is super helpful. Sounds like transparency is best and SM1’s framing of it is great, so I’ll approach it similarly.
Though I’m still trying to wrap my head around at one point I should bring it up (during the first round with the hiring manager, during final rounds, after receiving an offer). Want to balance transparency & communication with tactfulness.