Alternatively, non parent employees at facebook can take 3 days off to cope with stress or else need to take sick days. Otherwise they can take sick days, which probably would be frowned upon if overused.
Yes, parents have to deal with a lot more added stress during this pandemic. But, the difference between 10 weeks off (with no questions asked) and 3 days off (to "cope with mental health issues") is pretty stark. It seems like the tech companies could at least give those who do not take family leave an extra week of vacation or something.
It's not like facebook employees typically have 10 kids. The benefits you mention happen once, twice and rarely three or more times in a lifetime.
This policy also means that younger employees will be able to enjoy the same policy if they become parents in the next 20 years.
The point is that the response to the pandemic was to give stressed parents up to 10 weeks of additional leave and to tell stressed non-parents to use their 3 mental health days (which parents also get). I don't think it's crazy for a stressed non-parent to look at that and feel like the company doesn't think (or doesn't care) that the pandemic affects them at all.
What if then a parent has a baby and then has some other health issues. Can they take 20 weeks off? Or would that be unfair because as parents they can take 20 weeks vs 10 for the single person?
There is also not a need to immediately jump to 10 weeks over in comparison for mental issues. Improvements can be much more minor, such as not frowning on people using sick days. Not even granting any more time off, just less judgment for using what is already granted.
Yes, that's exactly right. It's absurd to complain about parents getting 10 weeks off.
Family status is a protected class, unless you are childfree. If we said everyone except Hispanics gets an extra 10 weeks paid time off, HN would be losing its collective minds.
If a parent has a baby and then has health issues, yes they should take 20 weeks off. People should be treated as human adults and be trusted with the time they need to take off.
Yes, There will be those who abuse the system. These would be the outliers; even if they get “away”, we should still be generous with these benefits.
This is such bullshit, akin to the "Christians" who feel like they are being persecuted, even though the majority of people in the US are christian.
MOST PEOPLE HAVE CHILDREN. Only 30% of women at age 30 are childless currently, and that number drops to 20% by 40. By what measure are people who have children a persecuted minority? [1]
I would ABSOLUTELY agree that society is not currently supportive of people in general, however this persecution complex about having kids is unfounded. The vast majority of people are on your side, and in fact the majority of people have kids.
1: https://www.statista.com/statistics/241535/percentage-of-chi...
First, as someone with kids, I appreciate everything my company is doing to help me manage workload and parenting. I've been impressed with my company. Not all are the same though. A friend, who is a child-less female who works with two other moms and a mom-to-be is constantly getting saddled with the work that her team members are dumping on her because of difficulties. She gets more work along the implication that because she doesn't have kids, she has plenty of free time. Is that equating to compensation? No. Does it make her feel like a second-class work citizen? How could it not.
Second, especially in the Bay Area, there's a growing divide of who can afford to have kids and those who cannot. We can all espouse the importance of children to maintain the human race and build a better world blah blah blah. But that's all going to shit both literally and figuratively. Nationwide, costs of child care are impossibly high. Cost of housing is impossibly high. Healthcare costs to have a child are impossibly high. Parental leave is near non-existent. Tech firms can solve for parental leave and healthcare, but they can't and don't solve for day care and housing. The people having kids where tech firms are located are, indeed, privileged--because they're making enough money to counter the other two needs.
Finally, I've had my own challenges over the past few months trying to gaze into the future as climate change and fires make the air outside today look like a scene from the Fallout franchise. The government is inept. Science is disregarded unless it makes someones internet load faster. A bunch of dumb shits decide they want to ride their motorcycles and infect 250,000 and cause $12b in damages, while at the same time huge portions of students who don't get food at home can't even get the school meals they deserve? Did I make a mistake having children? What is this shitshow of a world I've brought them into? I'll be honest, we're already a world fraught for resources and maybe we all need to think about the duty to the next generation is to not have kids.
I've also had the same thoughts. I was content not having kids for these reasons, but the spouse wanted to experience being a parent.
I think the Pet Parent thing is part of that, albeit w/ a positive vibe.
I just found it odd that people suddenly started giving birth to animals and that no one found that noteworthy.
Unfamiliarity breeds contempt, as the saying goes.
The US is at 1.77, Canada at 1.5, UK 1.79