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.
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.