Businesses are making room for families. This probably comes as a surprise, considering corporate America’s traditional position on family topics.
In 2014, the International Labour Organization revealed in a study that, of the 185 countries and territories for which it had the data, only three failed to provide paid maternity leave: Oman, Papua New Guinea and the United States. But even without federally mandated paid leave for new parents, recent announcements from West Coast companies indicate things may be changing for some families in America’s private sector.
Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, workers have the right to 12 weeks of leave — which is not necessarily paid leave. That depends on the size of the company and how long the employee has worked there.
Netflix recently declared changes to its parental leave policy — fathers and mothers who have a baby or adopt will be allowed to take off any amount of time for the full year following the event while receiving their same pay. Granted, the benefits don’t apply to all employees, and critics of the policy are already predicting that not many Netflix employees will be taking months off work after welcoming a baby home in fear of missing out on promotions or important work assignments.
But though the video streaming giant’s policy isn’t perfect, it’s a significant upgrade for employees looking to establish a family. Similar changes are coming for other future parents in Silicon Valley. Microsoft and IBM, for instance, have upped their paid maternity leave to 20 weeks and 14 weeks, respectively.
Tech companies are not the only ones showing flexibility for employee-parents. Washington state’s Department of Health and the Washington Traffic Safety Commission have also announced something akin to an extended “bring your child to work” day: New parents will be allowed to bring to work their babies who are at least 6 weeks old and not yet crawling. While this may seem like a loss of a workday waiting to happen, the trial period earlier this year with newborns in the office went remarkably well. Parents were comfortable and productive at work, knowing their infant was nearby and not in day care. Mothers were able to breastfeed, and workplace tension was even reduced while morale was boosted.
Developments like these obviously need much more attention and research before they become the norm. But the watch is on for a continuation of this trend toward developing better policies that benefit the entire family. Anything that bolsters the family deserves encouragement.