Pregnant and unexpectedly unemployed - interested in the experiences of others

[AnnaLCox]

After working solidly in corporates for two decades, I have rather unexpectedly found myself in a situation where I am in my second trimester of pregnancy and am unemployed. I consider it highly unlikely / impossible that I will be able to find another permanent job at this juncture, so I figured that I would look for temp office work for a few months. However, as far as I can tell, the market for temps doesn't seem to be what it was say 10 - 20 years ago. Has anyone else found themselves in this position and were you able to find work? I'd be really interested to find out what people ended up doing.

The onboarding process becoming so arduous means temps for a few months is just too much work. It takes months to get people through employment checks. We recruit temps as those roles are easier to get internal sign off for, compared to permanent headcount, but the role requirements are the same and we are just as choosy. It also means we can only make someone permanent after 12-18 months if they are the right fit. Some have been on temp contracts for 5 years and are happy with this, as the permanent salary conversion rate looks like less if you’re not worried about pension and holidays. Benefits have been the same in both roles for years now.

Basically, the corporate temp recruitment process is as long as for a permanent role, and we are looking for people who can offer the same.

If I wanted to pick up work on an immediate basis, I’d look at things like Amazon delivery, although this may be difficult in pregnancy.

Good luck

@OnlyMabelInTheBuilding I'm not sure why the onboarding process for temps should be any slower than in the past but this is not my area of expertise. Unless you are factoring in DBS checks (which you are not for corporate office jobs) then employment checks surely only include references? 10 or 20 years ago you could walk straight into a temp job. I can now see why there are so many young people who are unemployed - temp work used to be the way into getting the valuable work experience necessary to secure a permanent job and those opportunities don't seem to exist now. I definitely don't think being an Amazon driver is a suitable role for a pregnant women - carrying heavy packages etc.