THE SMALL BUSINESS BLOG

…. at least that is what an article in my week-end paper said. Are you appalled by this headline, good so you should be! The Times Online has this article which highlights some idiotic policies we have in the UK and the effect on women and small business alike.

Sylvia Tidy-Harris, 46, is the founder of speaking agency Womenspeakers.co.uk, based in Leicestershire, UK. She argues that it is not fair on small business to have to employ woman of childbearing age:

“Small businesses should be exempt from employing women of childbearing age because the cost of dealing with maternity leave could cripple them. If one of the six staff in my public-speaking agency found she was pregnant and needed to have a year off, I would have to keep her job open – and to cover the job while she was on maternity leave, it would be very hard to find somebody else as committed, as that person would know that at the end of the maternity-leave period they were going to be booted out. It would be incredibly debilitating for my business – and any small enterprise hoping to grow. …..”

There is more to be read in the article and examples are given, when woman exploited the situation and caused big damage to small business. But is this the rule, I believe not.

If a small business was to be exempt from employing woman of childbearing age – and I do not agree that they should be exempt – then what about big business? Now I’m not usually taking sides for big business, but that would be unfair. Not even to speak of all the woman who return to work and do need the work.

If you want a baby you need to make room for the newborn in your life, and our society needs to acknowledge the need for new born babies. Here the state should provide a reasonable solution for the mother to be, it is unreasonable for any business – small or big – to be penalized for employing woman of childbearing age and it is unreasonable to turn on woman for wanting to plan a family.

Reading these articles just reminds me always how stupid and wrong some of our policies are, and that our political correctness often achieves the opposite of what it aims to protect, our humanity.

We should not seek to create new victims (woman), just to get away from being a victim ourself (small business) – we should seek to change the system to protect our human needs.

Like it or not, running a small business means to be socially and politically aware. ST.

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