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Parents Got More Time Off. Then the Backlash Started.
The New York Times ^ | 05 Sept 2020 | Daisuke Wakabayashi and Sheera Frenkel

Posted on 09/05/2020 12:07:57 PM PDT by Theoria

Pandemic policies at tech companies have created a rift between parents offered more benefits and resentful workers who don’t have children.

When the coronavirus closed schools and child care centers and turned American parenthood into a multitasking nightmare, many tech companies rushed to help their employees. They used their comfortable profit margins to extend workers new benefits, including extra time off for parents to help them care for their children.

It wasn’t long before employees without children started to ask: What about us?

At a recent companywide meeting, Facebook employees repeatedly argued that work policies created in response to Covid-19 “have primarily benefited parents.” At Twitter, a fight erupted on an internal message board after a worker who didn’t have children at home accused another employee, who was taking a leave to care for a child, of not pulling his weight.

When Salesforce announced that it was offering parents six weeks of paid time off, most employees applauded. But one Salesforce manager, who is not permitted to talk publicly about internal matters and therefore asked not to be identified, said two childless employees, reflecting a sentiment voiced at several companies, complained that the policy seemed to put parents’ needs ahead of theirs.

As companies wrestle with how best to support staff during the pandemic, some employees without children say that they feel underappreciated, and that they are being asked to shoulder a heavier workload.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: barren; childless; children; coronavirus; dontlikeitleave; economy; facebook; leave; parent; single; sterile; tech; twitter; work
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To: Trailerpark Badass
This is the NYT reporting this.

Don't look at this in the context of a "free market" vs. "government coercion" comparison.

There are many states that MANDATE "paid family leave" for all employers. And there's a growing political movement in Washington to make it a national entitlement.

I'm surprised the NYT reported this ... because the narrative they present here is what convinces me that this kind of nonsense never works.

41 posted on 09/05/2020 1:09:13 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("We're human beings ... we're not f#%&ing animals." -- Dennis Rodman, 6/1/2020)
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To: NobleFree

Yeah, the usual suspects, usually.


42 posted on 09/05/2020 1:09:21 PM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Of course, I didn’t read the article. Having principles makes that superfluous. Again, don’t like your employer’s rules, leave.


43 posted on 09/05/2020 1:11:19 PM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman.)
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To: NobleFree
In my experience, employees with young children -- especially women (for some obvious and some not-so-obvious reasons) -- were universally the least productive people in every work environment.

Interestingly, this pattern seemed limited almost entirely to American-born employees. For immigrants with young children, I have noticed that it's almost the exact opposite.

44 posted on 09/05/2020 1:13:01 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("We're human beings ... we're not f#%&ing animals." -- Dennis Rodman, 6/1/2020)
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To: Trailerpark Badass
Again, don’t like your employer’s rules, leave.

I did. Now I am the employer. LOL.

45 posted on 09/05/2020 1:15:46 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("We're human beings ... we're not f#%&ing animals." -- Dennis Rodman, 6/1/2020)
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To: Alberta's Child

Facebook and Salesforce seem to see it differently; it’s their right to act on their evaluation.


46 posted on 09/05/2020 1:16:35 PM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: Theoria
As companies wrestle with how best to support staff during the pandemic, some employees without children say that they feel underappreciated, and that they are being asked to shoulder a heavier workload.

That's because they are - every regular employee who takes time off means more work for the other regular employees. If parents are given additional time off, employees without kids should be given exactly the same amount of time off.
47 posted on 09/05/2020 1:18:43 PM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: Trailerpark Badass

If them’s the rules, them’s the rules.

But a) they ain’t the rules and b) they are obnoxious rules that per these examples backfire with righteous resentment from your other employees.


48 posted on 09/05/2020 1:19:05 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Theoria
“A question that we might ask the employees who are feeling some frustration about their co-workers being on leave is what do you think is going to happen if that person quits?” she said. “You’re going to actually be stretched further.”
49 posted on 09/05/2020 1:21:41 PM PDT by NobleFree ("law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the right of an individual")
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To: Alberta's Child

Right on. When I was an employer, my only concern was making sure they showed up for their shifts and not stealing my booze. I wouldn’t presume to tell other employers how to get what they want from their workers.


50 posted on 09/05/2020 1:21:44 PM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman.)
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Parents raise and pay for tomorrow’s tax payers — that simple fact is lost on too many


51 posted on 09/05/2020 1:22:07 PM PDT by Gene Eric (On Don't be a statist!)
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To: 9YearLurker

Then they have a breach of contract remedy. And (b), that problem is self-correcting.


52 posted on 09/05/2020 1:23:32 PM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman.)
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To: Theoria

Compensation, including wages and benefits (including paid leave) should be based on your accomplishments at work, not your spawning practices at home.


53 posted on 09/05/2020 1:23:54 PM PDT by meyer (WWG1WGA, MAGA! Derps vs. Patriots, choose your side.)
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To: Trailerpark Badass

Your argument is the kind of crap that had minorities and women paid less for equal work for decades.

Go crawl back under your rock.


54 posted on 09/05/2020 1:24:30 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: Gene Eric

We should be encouraging families, we declared War on the Family over 50 years ago, and the results have been disastrous.


55 posted on 09/05/2020 1:24:50 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: AnotherUnixGeek

Lol, “EXACTLY!!” sez who?


56 posted on 09/05/2020 1:25:32 PM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (“There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach,” said one woman.)
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To: Alberta's Child

IIRC there’s been research showing single manager and up women putting in the most hours and married with kids manager and up women the least.


57 posted on 09/05/2020 1:27:14 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: dfwgator

Agreed


58 posted on 09/05/2020 1:27:57 PM PDT by Gene Eric (On Don't be a statist!)
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To: NobleFree
We'll see how it works out.

One of the interesting things about the article is that these measures were adopted without a lot of preparation -- simply because there wasn't any time to prepare.

The whole point of the article is that these companies don't even know if the paid leave policies -- along with the other changes that are driving this resentment (like not measuring employee performance during the COVID-19 disruptions) are going to work in the long run.

59 posted on 09/05/2020 1:30:07 PM PDT by Alberta's Child ("We're human beings ... we're not f#%&ing animals." -- Dennis Rodman, 6/1/2020)
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To: Theoria

Basically the feminine workplace nowadays is divided between prostututes and mothers... prostitutes are terrified by mothers


60 posted on 09/05/2020 1:30:57 PM PDT by JudgemAll (Democrats Fed. job-security in hates:hypocrites must be gay like us or be tested/crucified)
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