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Starting Now At Netflix: Unlimited Maternity and Paternity Leave
vivaoporto writes: Netflix announced Tuesday that, during the first year after their child's birth or adoption, employees will be able to take off however long they feel they need to. They can return on a full- or part-time basis, and even take subsequent time off later in the year if needed. Netflix will "keep paying them normally." Time comments that Netflix's policy "deserves high marks for extending leave to fathers, as well as understanding that the entire first year after childbirth can be challenging for new parents".
If it's so hard to do, why are we the only western country that doesn't provide any guaranteed paid maternity/paternity leave AT ALL? There are small companies in Europe, and if it's available for both men AND women then that mitigates the hiring bias you are concerned about. There is already some hiring bias against women based on the possibility that they may become pregnant; I don't think this would make that any worse. Pregnant women are also a protected class for the purposes of hiring/firing decisions.
Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
One thing about Netflix though, is that they readily fire low performers.
Something that used to be common place a few years ago, is now the exception more than the norm. Once someone is passed their 3 months, no one fires anybody in engineering anymore, instead attempting to coach people into place, even if they're making absurd salaries. (Giving the 10 bucks an hour clerk a chance, sure. Giving the underperforming 160k/year dude a chance after failing to meet expectations for 6 months...thats silly).
Anyway, since Netflix has a culture if firing those people, anyone who is left is probably worth trying to keep.
The reason many think generous (or even just minimal) maternity/paternity leave is a bad thing is that some folks are solely focused on businesses. The employees working for the businesses are viewed as cogs in the machine whose only purpose is to churn out more profits. Any time off means that the cogs aren't functioning during that time which could mean the overall machine might not churn out quite as much profits. This is, in their view, a bad thing so any time off for the cogs is viewed negatively.
This doesn't just extend to maternity/paternity leave, you see this attitude in companies where taking ANY time off is viewed as bad or where you can take time off but you'd better bring your laptop and phone with you so you can answer e-mails while on vacation. This also gets perverted into the "death march" at some software companies where the cogs... I mean employees are worked 80 hour days to get a product out. The management figures that if the cogs get burnt out from overuse, they can just ditch them and replace them with new ones. They might even be able to replace them for ones that will work for less money and complain less about being overworked.
Keep spinning, cogs. You've got a profit to generate!
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
This is exactly the point of doing the "unlimited" time off policies.
Sort of the same as "pay what you want" services or products.
Guilt is a powerful emotion.
The company can say they have "unlimited" x and employees feel proud to have "unlimited" x and people who abuse the system will be dealt with... all around win by simple exploitation of guilt...
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.