Slate: Netflix Unlimited Parental Leave

[Deleted]

Do you think this person makes a valid point or it's much ado about nothing? Would you feel weird/guilty about taking the whole time off? Do you think your colleagues would feel resentful if you left for a year with pay?

*****

Is Unlimited Parental Leave a Recipe for Guilt and Resentment?

By L.V. Anderson

On Tuesday, Netflix announced in a blog post that it now offers “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.” As Business Insider notes, this isn’t so much a new policy as it is an expansion and clarification of an existing policy—Netflix prides itself on its workplace culture of “freedom and responsibility,” and it has allowed employees to take unlimited vacation days and sick days since it went public in 2002.

Unfortunately, like unlimited paid vacation, unlimited paid parental leave looks like a recipe for confused, resentful, and stressed-out employees.



An unlimited parental-leave policy looks would seem like a positive development. America is the only developed country in the world without mandatory paid maternity leave. (Women who’ve worked at the same company for more than a year, and whose company comprises more than 50 employees, are entitled to 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993; only four states have publicly funded paid maternity leave.) Plus, as Slate contributor Jessica Grose noted in 2013, when it comes to pregnancy and newborns, “everyone’s experience is wildly different and impossible to predict.” So a little flexibility, like the kind Netflix is offering, is most welcome—in theory, at least.



In practice, though, companies that have instituted unlimited vacation often find that employees end up taking less time off than they did when they had well-defined vacation allowances. What's more, employees feel guilty for the time they do take off. When you add in the resentment that parents often face—or fear facing—when they take time off or embrace a flexible schedule to tend to their families, unlimited parental leave could make life more stressful for new parents. If that new mom down the hall came back full-time after only six weeks of leave, will you look like a slacker if you take four months and ramp back up with a three-day-a-week schedule?

Netflix has been doing this “freedom and responsibility” thing for a long time, so it may be capable of making unlimited parental leave a blessing rather than a curse. And a one-size-fits-all policy of giving parents paid leave immediately after birth isn't necessarily the way to go: Some parents would rather take more time off when their kids are a little older. But a straightforward and humane directive—e.g., “You are required to take five months of paid leave at any point in the first two years of your child's life; go forth and prosper”—would give parents clear boundaries and put them all on equal footing.



I don’t have kids, but if I ever do, I don’t want to be vulnerable to judgment and resentment because of my choices about maternity leave—I’d much rather know exactly how much paid time off I (and all my colleagues) are entitled to.



To be sure, Netflix should be celebrated for being firmly on the right side of this issue. Too few working parents in America get any paid leave at all, which is a problem that only lawmakers can fix. In the meantime, though, well-meaning companies should be figuring out how much time new moms and dads should take off, rather than burdening parents with yet another tough decision.

[Deleted]

S/he says this down here:

Netflix has been doing this “freedom and responsibility” thing for a long time, so it may be capable of making unlimited parental leave a blessing rather than a curse. And a one-size-fits-all policy of giving parents paid leave immediately after birth isn't necessarily the way to go: Some parents would rather take more time off when their kids are a little older. But a straightforward and humane directive—e.g., “You are required to take five months of paid leave at any point in the first two years of your child's life; go forth and prosper”—would give parents clear boundaries and put them all on equal footing.


I don't think it's a good idea to *require* people to take a certain amount of time off. Many people enjoy their jobs and don't want to be out for months. We see it all the time on MMM. "I'm thinking about going back early, is that bad/weird?" No of course not, as long as that's your choice.

[just]

While I know the culture needs to change in the US ... the rest of the world manages just fine - I think the netflix employees will get there too.

[pescalita]

Well yes, that will happen and that's the way the vacation policy works too. But I can tell you from it's far easier to take a day off and be stressed about the perception than not be able to take the day at all.

However, I wouldn't be so quick to assume that Netflix knows how to avoid this - they're a fairly notorious burnout factory.

As I said below, the real problem with the back patting is these are not the people who need ML resources.

[arch01]

Netflix has been doing this “freedom and responsibility” thing for a long time, so it may be capable of making unlimited parental leave a blessing rather than a curse. And a one-size-fits-all policy of giving parents paid leave immediately after birth isn't necessarily the way to go: Some parents would rather take more time off when their kids are a little older. But a straightforward and humane directive—e.g., “You are required to take five months of paid leave at any point in the first two years of your child's life; go forth and prosper”—would give parents clear boundaries and put them all on equal footing.

I counted down the minutes til I could go back to work-I was more than ready at 8w. It wasn't til DS hit a year old that I really actually enjoyed being with him and it didn't feel like such a chore. He was a difficult newborn. I loved him, but I didn't enjoy being a mom for a long time.

That being said, if the leave was open to any point in 2 years? Love it. Spending time with him at 18+m got to be so much fun. 

Yeah, the logistics would have to be worked out, but it's not something that can't be done. I'm not sure you can ever get past certain people's resentment of others.

[terpsfan]

A "no rules" environment has it's own issues with employee satisfaction. There's got to be some happy middle between nothing and indefinite. Standard for all to take as they wish. -- I work in professional services in HR/operations

[josieposy]

You are not going to escape co-worker resentment no matter what you do.

[jenny1223]

My company has an "unlimited" vacation policy. For the most part it works. I much prefer it to what we had before (3 weeks PTO - for sick & vacation time). It's nice not to worry that I'm using up all my vacation in case DS is sick and I need to stay home.

We do not have a very generous maternity leave policy though (6-8 weeks paid at 80% through STD). I'd love to see us move in the direction of Netlix!

[Deleted]

I took a year off with full pay. No one resented me, as that's what people do when they have babies and work for the Feds. If the company culture backs it up, it can be an amazing thing.

[meltoine]

No matter what amount of time a company decides on for leave, it's always going to be too much for some (unless it's like two weeks) and not enough for others. There's always going to be some blowhard who thinks that people who take the leave are slackers who should come back right away no matter that leave is an option.

You can't make everyone happy, and I'm not going to go around criticizing a company that's offering a really decent option when so many companies offer nothing.

[LoveTrains]

Aug 5, 2015 11:55:15 GMT -5 terpsfan said:

A "no rules" environment has it's own issues with employee satisfaction. There's got to be some happy middle between nothing and indefinite. Standard for all to take as they wish. -- I work in professional services in HR/operations

I agree with this.

I once worked at a job where employees got 12 weeks 100% paid maternity leave. There wasn't really any resentment unless the person going out just dumped projects without good backstory/prep on coworkers. What would have helped would have been if we could have hired a temp.

In my last company we hired temps when people were out on leave and it made such a difference so that there wasn't resentment on behalf of the coworkers picking up the extra work.

[LoveTrains]

Oh also: I think Gavin a standard helps give people context. If you have unlimited time but everyone only takes two weeks off - that isn't very encouraging.

[terpsfan]

The ops person in me struggles with the no rules.. It makes for horrendous planning. How do you plan workloads with "unknown"? Unlimited vacation is great for those of us with kids that need onsies twosies type days. Makes for severe headaches to projects and complicated backfill plans when someone takes a month.