About maternity and paternity leave
So I would like to start off by asking if giving a super loaded paternity and maternity leave fair to the social system. Please don’t misunderstand my question. I’m trying to understand the rationale behind companies giving such huge time off while the employees maintain almost all benefits. I know some people (who don’t work in tech companies or are not in cushy jobs as us) who have got laid before or after their pregnancy. The pressures of pregnancy not withstanding, they are forced to re-evaluate their finances as well. Isn’t it wrong that some people get a HUGE head start in form of such long leaves while others have to deal with the anxiety of returning to their job as soon as possible or find a new one. Please convince me otherwise but I feel that the head start that people in tech companies get is imho a little too much. These people are already in the upper strata of society and by doling out benefits like these, we are widening the the inequality gap in the next generation. I don’t mean to belittle the significance and troubles of going through a pregnancy but everybody should get a fair deal. No?
Compared to Europe our parental leaves are still pretty short.
It’s sad that most company’s in the us do not give family leave. That being said, not all companies can afford to do so. I feel bad for those people however I will never feel guilty for having paternity leave given to me at my tech job. Not all jobs are created equal, not all people are educated, there will always be inequality.
Everyone should get good parental leave. 100% agree. But it doesn’t materially help those with awful parental leave to make it also-awful for those with something better
Rolls my eyes. It's to attract better talent. I primarily focused on high tech companies because i want to start a family soon. Its a financial perk and will be considered part of my TC. I also worked my ass off to get a job that would allow me not to rush back to work. Who says those using the benefit don't deserve it?
Oh no, I’m absolutely not saying it is undeserved. That’s the last thing I want to say. I just feel it’s a tad bit unfair. Maybe the government should make it mandatory for all employers...
Life is unfair.
So to get rid of the unfairness you want to make it worse for people that have it?
Also the social system should worry that people are not having enough kids. Soon enough the population will start declining unless either you let more immigrants in or people start having more babies.
You make a good argument for universal parental leave, like every other developed country has, and like Newsome has proposed for California. Caring for a newborn should indeed be a right for everyone.
This line of reasoning makes no sense to me. It sounds like you see the injustice in the system and to make it fair, you want to level the field by making it bad for everyone. Let everyone be blessed with job-anxiety as you put it, is the solution here? And yet you also say that the government should step in and make it mandatory for all employers, in one of your comments. Damn right, they should! Without government protection, most companies won’t even have paid sick days. So, to me, it feels like the emphasis should have been on “let’s make it fair for everyone by protecting everybody’s rights” instead of “why should these companies even doll out such progressive benefits to their employees?” I’m not sure if you’re confused about how you feel about this injustice — angry enough to take it away from the very few who are actually lucky enough to work for companies that support such systems or kind enough to wish that everyone should get to enjoy the same benefits! It sounds like you want to be kind but it’s somehow showing in an oddly twisted way?
Govt gives all provison for parental leave in canada and europe. They mostly have an year off, no matter what job they are in.
No