Nurturing your firm through a baby boom - maternity leaves

Nation's Business, Sept, 1988 by Pam Carroll

Nurturing Your Firm Through A Baby Boom

At Herrmann Advertising Design, 1986 is remembered as the Year of the Stork.

That year, four of the firm's nine employees would become mothers. And though the tidings stirred excitement for 33-year-old entrepreneur Judi Herrmann, they also caused her some worry.

How would her agency meet clients' deadlines with a staff reduced by maternity leaves?

Herrmann and her employees found ways to cope with the absences, and their efforts succeeded. During the baby-booming year, her 7-year-old agency in Annapolis, Md., designed $1.5 million worth of award-winning advertising for banking and commercial realestate companies.

Herrmann's staff prepared initially to lose--temporarily--a production artist in February and the office manager in June.

To compensate for the upcoming absences, Herrmann hired another permanent production artist. Then, within weeks, the art director announced that she was expecting a baby in August. And not long afterward, the newly hired production artist announced that she too was pregnant, due in December.

"It was a stressful year. The office was extremely busy; days were long," says Herrmann.

"Maternity leave hurts a small company. In addition to being shorthanded, you can end up with a morale problem among the staff who are taking up the slack."

Herrmann couldn't offer maternity benefits.

"Most small businesses simply can't," she says. "I would have ended up paying for 40 weeks of maternity leave at the same time that I was hiring free-lancers in order to hold those jobs open. I just had to hope my people would be coming back to work."

The four women--Sharon, Valerie, Phoebe and Andre--worked until their respective labor days. At first, all except Andre came back after the babies arrived. Phoebe returned to a flexible schedule of four days a week. Sharon now does free-lance production work and illustrations for Herrmann, working almost full-time. But Valerie left after four months to open a day-care center.

Nevertheless, the advertising and design agency is healthier than ever, says Herrmann, and the experience has not dissuaded her from hiring other young women.