Looking for a job as a mother in these days

I worked for a long time to make enough money online so I didn’t have to go to work in my real life. Unfortunately, I have to admit that it didn’t work out. I see that what I’ve dreamed of isn’t impossible, but I can’t achieve it yet.

I’m not the type of person who’s lazy to work. Before I became a mother, I worked in pubs, often having multiple jobs at once. In the pubs in my area, a shift lasts from morning to night, and often a shift from morning to morning the next day. When I had two jobs, I sometimes had only one day off in a month, working all the other days from morning to night. Did I earned a lot of money? No way! I earned the same amount of money as others, in different jobs, but I had to work a lot more. Actually, it wasn’t a problem for me because I loved my job. I also worked during my pregnancy, the day the birth started.

Then as a mother, everything changes. I know how long mothers stay home after giving birth varies from country to country. Here in Hungary, the state pays little money to mothers, until the child is two years old they receive money based on how much they earned  before giving birth. Then, from the age of 2 to the age of 3, moms receive a fixed amount, which is about 120 $ in total, and after the age of 3, mothers receive only about 40$.

I’ll write some examples of how much the products cost here so you can see what we can buy with that money. 1 pack of diapers: 7-15$, 1 kg of chicken breast fillet 5$, 1 liter of milk 0.7$, 1 kg of rice 1-2$, 1 kg of cheese 7-15$, etc.

So mothers should take a job after the child is 2 years old if they don’t want to be deprived. Of course, I don’t count here how much my dad’s salary is, but I’m going to say that an average family here can’t make a living if they only had to pay everything from an average salary.

Why is it hard to find a job as a mother?

Employers don’t like to hire women who have young children. In many workplaces, children are a reason for exclusion. Because employers know the mother will miss a lot of work because the toddler will get sick or have a kindergarten / school break.

Working hours are often incompatible with kindergarten / school opening hours.

The situation caused by COVID makes it even more difficult for mothers to find work due to kindergarten and school closures.

Here in Hungary, educational institutions have reopened this week, but only children whose parents are working can go to kindergarten under the age of 3. The employment relationship must be certified. On the other hand, having young children at home makes it difficult for a mom to go to a job interview or even attend an online interview.

My example:

I live in a small town, there are few job opportunities. If I were looking for a job in another city, I would have to travel a lot, so I wouldn’t be able to take my 2.5-year-old son to kindergarten in the morning and get him out of there in the afternoon.

I have a cultural event organizing profession. In a world where almost no event can be organized in the current situation.

But the biggest problem I’ve faced today is that employers try to save as much as possible and do tricks. I wanted to apply for a job today and asked if they offered a formal full-time job. The answer was yes, they offer a full-time job, but are contracted as a casual worker first. This means to me that my son can’t go to kindergarten because I can’t prove I have a permanent job. And I can’t go to the workplace because there is no one to be with my son while I work.

Rules of casual employment in Hungary:

- You can work as a casual worker for a maximum of 5 consecutive days

- You can work as a casual worker for a maximum of 15 days a month

- You can work as a casual employee for a maximum of 90 days a year.

Casual workers cost the employer much less money than full-time workers. Hiring them as a casual worker for half a year could save a lot of money.

Of course, I can’t say that every employer is the same, nor can I say that there are few job opportunities everywhere. But I can say that my current position in the job search is very worrying.