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On Tuesday, August 4th, Neflix announced on their blog that they would begin offering new parents a progressive parental leave policy:
...Today we're introducing an unlimited leave policy for new moms and dads that allows them to take off as much time as they want during the first year after a child's birth or adoption.
The Boston Globe picked up the story earlier today and compared Netflix's new policy to Google's, which offers 18 weeks of paid maternity leave and 12 weeks of "baby bonding" time. The Boston Globe also notes:
The US and Papua New Guinea are the only countries among 185 nations and territories that hadn't imposed government-mandated laws requiring employers to pay mothers while on leave with their babies, according to a study released last year by the United Nations' International Labor Organization.
This new policy "covers all of the roughly 2,000 people working at [Netflix's] Internet video and DVD-by-mail services, according to the Los Gatos, California, company."
However, not all media voices are pleased with this change. Suzanne Venker, author of the recent book The Two-Income Trap: Why Parents Are Choosing To Stay Home, writes for Time :
Offering new parents full pay for up to one year is akin to putting a band-aid on a gaping wound. The needs of children are huge, and they do not end at one year. On the contrary, they just begin. Taking a year off of work to meet those needs merely scratches the surface.
What does Soylent think? Should companies offer new parents lengthy paid leave after they bring a new bundle of joy into the world, or do generous policies do more harm than good?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2015, @07:45PM
I don't think it's fair that my childless colleagues have so much more free time and disposable income than I do.
Where's my benefit??
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2015, @08:00PM
Indeed, please mod parent up. Your benefit is that you don't spend $500K raising a child for 25 years (probably a conservative estimate in the Northeast).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2015, @08:39PM
I also hate how employers give additional paid time off to childless employees based on their life decisions.
Wait, what were we talking about?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2015, @03:24AM
How did this garbage get modded up? More time off is needed for everyone because people are worked to the bone. It's not merely an issue for parents.
Free time and disposable income are personal matters, not employer policies. Irrelevant.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Friday August 07 2015, @01:13PM
You're right. The solution for society to make more money is to stop having any children.
That is not the long-term solution you think it is.
Washington DC delenda est.