Netflix To give New Parents One Year of Paid Leave

[brooklynite]

Source: KGO-TV

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Netflix is giving new parents on its payroll up to a year of paid leave in a move that could pressure other technology employers to improve their baby benefits as they vie for talent.

The employee benefit announced Tuesday on Netflix's blog is generous even by the high standards of Silicon Valley, where free meals and other perquisites supplement lavish salaries in the fiercely competitive battle for computer programmers and other technology workers. "Netflix's continued success hinges on us competing for and keeping the most talented individuals in their field," Tawni Cranz, the company's chief talent officer, wrote in the blog post. "Experience shows people perform better at work when they're not worrying about home."

The Los Gatos-based company announced to its 2,000 employees they can take as much time off as they want during the first year after a child's birth or adoption with pay. "The first year of a baby's life is critical for bonding and brain development. We know that babies who have strong attachments to their parents are healthier and have higher IQ's, so having as much time as you need to bond with your baby is really important," Yahoo parenting writer Elise Sole said.

Read more: http://abc7news.com/business/netflix-to-give-new-parents-one-year-of-paid-leave-/904051/

[brooklynite]

1. Microsoft updates parental leave policy

USA Today:

One day after Netflix announced significant changes to its parental leave policy, tech giant Microsoft has revealed its own upgrades for employees who plan to be mothers or fathers.

In a statement released Wednesday, Microsoft says it is extending leave for moms and dads to 12 weeks at full pay. Birth mothers can also earn an additional eight weeks of "maternity disability leave" with full pay.

The company says it will also allow birth mothers to use short-term disability leave during the two weeks before their scheduled due date. The changes take effect on November 1.

[msongs]

2. so if one has 3 kids in a row one can get paid for 3 years of not working. lovely :-)

[Politicalboi]

3. That's not fair

To childless people who DON'T want kids. Having children is NOT a necessity. I can see time off for having the child, but for the mother ONLY. Then after 3 months of minimal pay, it's back to work. I'm for everyone getting raises like that CEO did the other day, but to have an advantage over everyone just to have a kid is not fair.

[mcar]

4. Are we, as liberals, actually complaining about this good, progressive policy?

Liberals always end up eating their own. I will never understand this.

[hughee99]

7. Think of it this way...

Years from now, when you grow old, you'll need doctors to take care of you, farmers to grow your food, Plumbers to fix your plumbing, and workers in general to pay into a system and prevent its collapse. Yes, in some ways, every contributes something to the development of the next generation, but parents contribute far, far more than non-parents in both time and money.

Or think of it this way...
Anyone who wants to have children would have this option. You have the same option to use this program as anyone else. Some made the decision to have children and may use this program. You have made the decision not to. If you can come up with a compelling reason why people without children should receive the same benefit, perhaps they'd listen to you.

Or think of it this way...
If you don't like the policy, you are free to tell the bosses at netflix to go fuck themselves and storm out of the offices. You can then go to work for literally ANY other company and be sure that while you're not treated any better (and probably worse) the breeders won't be treated better either.

[valerief]

5. Meanwhile, Walmart boasts of continuing their employee program called something like

Bring in Your Canned Food for Others Employees, so They Won't Go Hungry Over the Holidays, Since We Refuse to Pay a Living Wage.

[frazzled]

6. Not so fast

My daughter has worked in the tech world for some years, and posted an opinion on this today, essentially saying: "While this is a nice idea in theory, I feel like anyone who actually takes it at face value has never worked at a tech company, so I feel the need to say something. This is going to be just like what happens at places with "unlimited vacation": since there's not actually a set, discrete amount of time that you're allocated, you just get severely pressured into taking no time off at all. ... The main/only thing these policies are good for is the company's publicity, whether they're trying to show off to their user base (as seems to be the case here) or to gullible prospective employees."

And then, later, Vox published a piece saying essentially the same thing:

But Netflix is also engaging in a trend that's at best silly and at worst actively harmful to workers: the idea of "unlimited" leave or vacation.

...

This is the basic problem with "unlimited" leave: It replaces clear, predictable limits with limits imposed by vague and arbitrary social pressure to work more. That's what the German tech company Travis CI found upon adopting an unlimited policy (via Melissa Dahl):

When people are uncertain about how many days it's okay to take off, you'll see curious things happen. People will hesitate to take a vacation as they don't want to seem like that person who's taking the most vacation days. It's a race to the bottom instead of a race towards a well rested and happy team…

Uncertainty about how many days are okay to take time off can also stir inequality. It can turn into a privilege for some people who may be more aggressive in taking vacations compared to people who feel like their work and their appreciation at work would suffer from being away for too long.

http://www.vox.com/2015/8/5/9097967/netflix-unlimited-parental-leave

In other words, an explicit policy of leave for a prescribed time is a much better bet.

[hughee99]

8. I work at a tech company (not with this policy) and this seems completely in line with what I've

seen. The policy sounds great, but anyone that tries to use it will quickly find themselves lacking at the next round of evaluations. No one at Netflix will ever be able to use this except TOP executives that are secure in their position, and even then, only so long as the company performs well.