parents vs childfree turmoil at tech companies after 10 weeks leave announced for parents

[Demovictory9]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/05/technology/parents-time-off-backlash.html

Parents Got More Time Off. Then the Backlash Started.
Pandemic policies at tech companies have created a rift between parents offered more benefits and resentful workers who don’t have children.

OAKLAND, Calif. — 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. And parents are frustrated that their childless co-workers don’t understand how hard it is to balance work and child care, especially when day care centers are closed and they are trying to help their children learn at home.



https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8701761/Childless-tech-employees-arent-offered-special-treatment-staff-families.html

Child free tech employees complain they aren’t being given the same 'special treatment' as staff with families who have been offered up to 10 weeks off during pandemic
Facebook, Twitter and Salesforce are among companies to unveil new policies
The policies are designed to help parents who are working from home
Facebook parents can take an additional 10 weeks to care for families
Twitter employees have complained their colleagues with kids aren't working
Salesforce staff with children are given six weeks of paid time off to care
Childless employees are asking in internal forums why they don't get the same
Childless employees of tech companies have been demanding that they be given the same benefits extended to parents during the pandemic.

Workers at Facebook, Twitter and Salesforce have all complained about discrimination, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

In March, Facebook offered up to 10 weeks of paid time off for employees if they had to care for a child whose school or day care facility had closed, or for an older relative whose nursing home was not open.

Google, Twiiter, Microsoft and many of tech firms extended similar paid leave to employees dealing with children at home or a sick relative.

But many employees complained that they were not receiving the same treatment simply because they had chosen not to have children. One Facebook staff member called the policies 'unfair', while at Twitter an employee accused a coworker and parent of not pulling their weight on an internal forum.

Parents have hit back, however.

'The time off that parents are getting isn't a vacation,' one pointed out.

==========

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's chief executive and a father of two, announced that the company would not be conducting its usual employee assessments for the first half of 2020 because there was 'so much change in our lives and our work.'

Every Facebook employee would receive bonus amounts usually reserved for very good performance scores.

That angered some employees without children, who felt that if they worked more they should be paid more.

On August 20 Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, hosted a videoconference for the entire staff, and more than 2,000 employees voted to ask her what more Facebook could do to support those without children, since its other policies had benefited parents.

[meadowlander]

1. Just pay the childless employees more to reflect that they are taking on a greater % of the workload

[Demovictory9]

2. comments following the NYT article are interesting... some suggest that

I don't think it will fly

[mercuryblues]

3. IKR

Give them bonuses every week.

[Squinch]

4. This is no different from the old days where companies justified paying men more than

women for the same job by saying that "men have to support their families."

It's bullshit. Give the slighted employees the same benefit. SAME. Not more money. Offer them the SAME benefit.

[chowder66]

5. They should offer more personal/vacation time off at a later date when things are more normal.

[Demovictory9]

7. two points of view from comments following article

Christine
Wisconsin
5h ago
I work for a major national non-profit, and have not once heard the kind of immature, petty resentment and envy that the people at these tech companies express toward their colleagues. But, we seem to be better managed. Everyone equally was given extra flexibility and extra days off to use as needed, and there is genuine esprit de corps. We’re rooting for each other during this stressful time, and there is an emphasis on extending grace to one another. It’s true we aren’t making tech company salaries, and we aren’t getting our raises this year, but I wouldn’t trade my workplace for anything right now.


Frances Grimble
San Francisco
5h ago
The issue is: Facebook is offering parents benefits at the direct expense of non-parents. And the parents are all hammering on purely emotional arguments about empathy and the world's need for their kids to get non-parents to accept this deal. This is purely business, money, and unpaid time we are talking about. You can bet Facebook sees the issue that way. Non-parents can have all the empathy they want. They should not mean they should work longer hours for no more pay, while parents work fewer hours without a pay cut. Facebook can hire more employees and/or offer parents a part-time option at lower pay. Empathy, and other purely emotional arguments, are irrelevant.

Reply30 RecommendShareFla

[smirkymonkey]

10. I'm going with poster #2.

Too tired right now to list my own rationale.

[honest.abe]

11. So giving the parent's a pay cut solves the problem??

[Mariana]

19. People who work fewer hours should be paid less

than people who work more hours, at the same job. Don't you agree with that?

[honest.abe]

22. So no special benefits for parents??

Get rid of maternity leave, baby bonus, free day care centers because that is unfair to those without kids.

How does that benefit employees?

[Tink41]

24. Maybe they should receive hourly pay

Paid by the hour would clear some of this up. Although then you still have bitching that someone didn't work OT. That always boggles the mind. You worked the extra hours and got paid extra, I didn't want the money so I went home. And YOU'RE mad about it!

[mdelaguna]

12. Like parenting - is not the same as time off or a vacay!

It’s thankless WORK and selfless effort to fulfill social (family) obligations! I admire professionals who choose not to have children, for their own reasons, but the “load” on parents is heavy. Parents shouldn’t be punished for it. I could see company compensation for the childless, given they cost less in terms of benefits, and childcare leave. But when the childless find themselves in a position where they need to help an elderly parent or some other family member they might think differently.

[Sherman A1]

6. Fair is fair

And childless employees should receive similar benefits. I applaud the companies for making efforts to support their staff who are parents, but those who are not should be compensated in some form as well.

[honest.abe]

8. I dont see a problem with companies making special concessions for workers with kids.

Many already were doing that even before COVID... like "baby bonus", free onsite daycare, time off for maternity/paternity leave, etc.

Its just part of the incentive program to attract and retain good employees.

[Buckeyeblue]

9. Reminds me of a manager I had years ago

She had children when she was older. As a younger manager she was not very empathetic towards her direct reports with children, as far as flexibility with sick kids, needing to get out of the office at a certain time to pick up from day care, etc. After she had kids, she was a completely different manager. Much more flexibility, etc. Because she understood the challenges associated with parenting and working.

I would say this: life and work aren't fair. Some workers need to take medical leave where others don't. Some workers get their college paid for where others don't because they already have their degree. I can give multiple examples.

I would say those complaining about parents getting flexibility don't see the big picture. And I would question how good of teammates and employees they really are. Their complaints tell a lot about their themselves. And not good things.

[Blue_true]

16. Excellent point about life not being fair.

I started my career as a degreed Engineer. There were other employees that took advantage of company benefits to get advanced schooling, I never did that.

I don’t have any issue with some accommodations being made for parents, that is just how life works. I would have a problem if discrimination crept into those benefits, like managers getting better ones than line workers or Whites better ones than People of Color.

[nsd]

18. The complaints are not that parents are getting flexibility or accommodations.

The complaints are that the company is doing this at the expense of the non-parent employees. The company isn't sacrificing anything; it's making some employees sacrifice for other employees.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. If the employees without kids are working longer hours,

aren't they getting paid more? Or is everyone salaried there?

[marlakay]

14. Sounds like the non kid ones are picking up

The extra work load because parents have been given tons of paid vacation time they aren't getting.

My daughter is dealing with this right now, she let a pregnant worker leave early for pregnancy leave last March and she still hasn't come back, baby is 3 months now. She can't replace her unless they find out she isn't coming back permanently and others are doing her work. No one at job has had any bad feelings but my daughter feels like she is ready to ask if she is coming back so she can hire someone else.

[Blue_true]

17. Your daughter has the right to ask whether the woman is coming back.

She should study federal and state parental leave laws first.

I believe in liberal benefits for employees, unfortunately some people will take unwarranted advantage of them if not checked.

[marlakay]

20. It gets extra dicey because she hired a friend

I begged her not to because this particular friend who is actually close friend of her little sister is very high maintenance. But my daughter who tends to be too nice sometimes hired her when begged by friend. She is a good worker when she works just very whiney and mouthy (Trump supporter) at times and was raised spoiled and still is by her mom.

I am very good friends with her mother for 20 yrs but have learned to keep my mouth shut on all she over does for her. Very helicopter mom.

She plans to ask her soon but wanted to ask her in person, so far she has been avoiding Julie's calls.

[avebury]

15. If employees would be allowed to telework then they could

adjust their days to deal with their kids. As long as they put in a full days work over the course of a day, who cares what hours they work. I know one couple with children that telework. The husband wrangles the kids during the day while the wife works. At 4 pm they change places and she deals with the kids and he works. The idea is that, given these times, you need to get out of the idea that a work day is 9 to 5.

I am childless by choice and I start my workday by no later than 6 am. If I need to run an errand during the day I do. As long as I get my work done that is all that counts. I sometimes may work until 7 pm.

Workers with kids need to learn how to balance their days better by how they balance handling their children with their work. I don’t blame the child free workers for being irritated. They can work an hour or so before the kids get up, they can work a few hours after the kids go to bed. You work what you can during the day and you just may have to put a few hours in on the weekend.

Housework can be done while you are wrangling kids. If the kids are doing on line learning, set them up where you can keep an eye on them while you work. Extra time off is not the only solution.

[Luciferous]

23. The people that are there working extra hours and picking up the slack should get

an equal benefit, either extra pay or extra time off.

[dsc]

25. I get that it is hard for parents

but honestly, it is kind of unfair for Facebook to give 10 weeks of leave both this year and next to parents and apparently none to non parents. That is a fifth of the year. They were simply asking to be rewarded for their extra effort, which Facebook apparently had been doing in previous years.

[Hekate]

26. When everything in society is a Zero Sum Game, it's every man (sic) for himself...

...and no quarter given. It’s why Affirmative Action provokes such anger and resentment: someone is getting something I am not getting and therefore I am being wrongfully robbed because there is not enough to go around and never will be.

Sharing and re-apportioning therefore becomes a sucker’s game, a loser’s game.

When it comes to women in the workplace, these attitudes will always work to hold women down— because any accommodation at all for women with children is ipso facto gratingly unfair for every one else.

PS: I am a Boomer, and am among those who worked for years to create a more just and equitable society. That we are still having these fights just sucks.