Twitter To Give All New Parents 20 Weeks of Paid Leave (fortune.com)

Posted by msmash on Wednesday April 6, 2016 @06:09AM from the work-and-family-balance dept.

Michal Lev-Ram, reporting for Fortune: May 1 will be a happy day for Twitter employees -- at least those expecting a baby. The social media site is the latest tech player to offer so-called "gender-neutral" parental leave, guaranteeing any parent up to 20 weeks of fully paid time off. Other companies that have embraced such policies include Etsy, Facebook, and Change.org. The rationale? Family structures have changed, and allowing for more evenly distributed parenting equals happier employees, both male and female (within, of course, both heterosexual and same-sex couples).

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Re:Business Model? by Anonymous Coward · 2016-04-06 06:54 · Score: 1, Interesting

Difficulty is, especially with parents, there is a degree of animosity from other childless employees.
As it is, parenting tends to be an all-inclusive excuse to place further burdens on other employees, whether it be from constant tardiness, special schedules, or infighting over taking summer vacation.
It would be fairer to offer all employees sufficient time off to either care for a sick relative, etc. to use as they see fit (including having a new child).
But that doesn't pander to the right groups, so essentially all the other employees get to subsidize this, and Twitter gets good PR for preferential treatment.