https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Mon, 06 Apr 2026 13:54:03 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees/page/2#post-1909295 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 13:42:22 +0000 Raindrop 1909295@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@ElbieKay: Thanks for sharing that! </p> <p>The last part is pretty lame... the said "Apple offers expectant mothers four weeks of paid leave before the birth, and upward of fourteen weeks afterward—these are the exception rather than the standard." this is actually just California's maternity policy but most companies supplement the payments since it gives less than your full salary. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees/page/2#post-1908683 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 09:11:16 +0000 MrsSCB 1908683@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@ElbieKay: That is interesting, thanks for sharing! I understand what she's saying, and I totally agree our country needs an overhaul when it comes to maternity/parental leave (and SO many other things...) But I guess my only issue is, as she notes, Facebook and Apple already offer pretty generous parental benefits. This is just an added benefit. It's not as if the entire United States is saying, "OK, we'll give you the option of freezing your eggs in lieu of offering paid maternity leave." I don't really see why this has to be seen as an either/or thing -- like two companies offering egg freezing is somehow going to make it even harder for us to get paid maternity leave or equal pay or more affordable childcare for everyone. </p> <p>Overall, I do think it's good that it is sparking a discussion about motherhood in the United States and how it's treated by employers. But I don't think Facebook and Apple deserve some kind of condemnation for "secretly" trying to force women to have kids later. The reality is, plenty of women are having kids later for so many reasons -- and not all are job related. I really just can't understand why these companies offering the option to freeze your eggs -- on top of other parent-related benefits, not instead of -- is anything but a good thing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees/page/2#post-1908652 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 08:59:18 +0000 ElbieKay 1908652@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>This article offers an interesting perspective: <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/facebook-apple-egg-freezing-benefits" rel="nofollow">http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/facebook-apple-egg-freezing-benefits</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees/page/2#post-1908644 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 08:52:53 +0000 Adira 1908644@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mrsjyw: Totally agree with you about equal pay! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees/page/2#post-1908638 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 08:46:11 +0000 mrsjyw 1908638@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think the focus needs to be on equal pay first.</p> <p>This is a half-assed attempt at "fixing" a gender imbalance in the work force.</p> <p>I don't agree with it at all. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees/page/2#post-1908630 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 08:39:40 +0000 looch 1908630@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I just read an article in Time magazine this morning, basically, the very last paragraph is the money paragraph (which let's face it, drives business).</p> <p>"From a business standpoint, covering employee egg freezing makes sense....And it's increasingly clear that it's a financial issue for companies, a way to avoid costly and often less effective in vitro fertilization procedures late on that more than a dozen states already require businesses to cover." </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees/page/2#post-1908523 Tue, 21 Oct 2014 07:02:40 +0000 Adira 1908523@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Raindrop: Yes!! I think I read that article a while ago, which is where the idea came from! Totally agree that making school schedules and work schedules match, it would be so much easier!</p> <p>I don't know about the lunch hour - I tend to work through my lunch anyway, haha. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees/page/2#post-1908079 Mon, 20 Oct 2014 15:33:17 +0000 Raindrop 1908079@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Adira: Found it. <a href="http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/can-women-have-it-all" rel="nofollow">http://boards.hellobee.com/topic/can-women-have-it-all</a> </p> <p><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/?single_page=true" rel="nofollow">http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/why-women-still-cant-have-it-all/309020/?single_page=true</a></p> <p>"My longtime and invaluable assistant, who has a doctorate and juggles many balls as the mother of teenage twins, e-mailed me while I was working on this article: “You know what would help the vast majority of women with work/family balance? MAKE SCHOOL SCHEDULES MATCH WORK SCHEDULES.” The present system, she noted, is based on a society that no longer exists—one in which farming was a major occupation and stay-at-home moms were the norm. Yet the system hasn’t changed." </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees/page/2#post-1908074 Mon, 20 Oct 2014 15:28:30 +0000 Raindrop 1908074@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Adira: Your plan doesn't have a lunch hour! :) I guess if you eat at your desk that's fine. </p> <p>I love your plan otherwise. That would be nice. I think I read something that stated your idea. I think it was called something like "women can't have it all" which sound discouraging but I think someone on HB posted it. It talked about if the work place really valued working moms and dads they would have working hours evolve around school hours so parents didn't have to figure out what to do for after school care. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees/page/2#post-1908054 Mon, 20 Oct 2014 15:14:39 +0000 Adira 1908054@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Raindrop: HB sometimes gets the thread count wrong, so it won't show that there's a page 2, which is where your reply was because it thinks there are only 39 comments instead of 40, or whatever. It happens all the time. Whenever I notice something like that, I see if there's really another page that's not showing up and then post a message to Mr. Bee in the Help section.</p> <p>It'd be cool if instead of us all working 40 hours, the standard was to work 8:00 - 3:00 or something - whatever normal school hours are. And that would go for EVERYONE, not just parents.</p> <p>And then pay us more for working less so we'd still make the same, haha. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees/page/2#post-1908048 Mon, 20 Oct 2014 15:10:13 +0000 Raindrop 1908048@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Adira: I think hellobee ate my response to you... edit: oh it didn't... it just showed up before this comment. haha. :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1908046 Mon, 20 Oct 2014 15:09:20 +0000 Raindrop 1908046@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Adira: Thanks for the interesting read. I actually love this topic. It's quite a challenge to balance these things that work for everyone. There is probably no one right answer and whatever you come up with will probably not work for everyone.</p> <p>It definitely makes you stop and think what will make you happy and what can you do to get to what makes you happy? </p> <p>I have definitely thought a lot about this since my work drama not that long ago. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1908039 Mon, 20 Oct 2014 14:59:21 +0000 Adira 1908039@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Raindrop: Yeah, it seems like there needs to be some sort of balance for working parents and working non-parents. I don't know what that balance is though. :( </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1908035 Mon, 20 Oct 2014 14:54:09 +0000 Raindrop 1908035@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Adira: Very interesting. Just read it. :)</p> <p>"the introduction of household technologies like the vacuum cleaner added to women's workload by raising standards of cleanliness to new heights" - I thought this was interesting. I never thought about this... products actually add to women's work load by adding new standards of cleaniness. So weird to think about. </p> <p>Well we have established that apple's and facebook's policies aren't just for freezing eggs. But overall this article made a good point about delaying parenthood and how harmful it could be and how risky it is also. </p> <p>It's argument about - Society as a whole should accommodate the most fertile years of a person's life instead of helping delay them is interesting... but I'm not sure if it's reasonable because society shouldn't just cater to people who want kids right? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1908011 Mon, 20 Oct 2014 14:39:32 +0000 Adira 1908011@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Anyone read this article about it?</p> <p><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/20/opinion/almeling-radin-richardson-egg-freezing/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7" rel="nofollow">http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/20/opinion/almeling-radin-richardson-egg-freezing/index.html?hpt=hp_bn7</a> </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902486 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 18:18:47 +0000 Mrs. Lemon-Lime 1902486@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I only read MrsCB's article. While this is an awesome perk, I disagree with one of the quotes in the article stating "it's the right thing to do." </p> <p>Companies can choose to retain employees and attract potential employees however they see fit, legally, but to say a company should insure their workforce has children is a bit much. I'm all for work-life balance, but this feels like the two goals are crashing into each other- good or bad. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902281 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 15:03:54 +0000 alohaorchid 1902281@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think it's great that they are offering it. I don't necessarily think it's to tell women to work now and have kids later, especially given their already generous coverage for IF/maternity. I think it's more to do with freedom.</p> <p>ETA: My company has a spending account, it's not a health spending account so it's taxable, but it can be used for IF treatments or egg freezing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902259 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:49:17 +0000 xmaskidjr 1902259@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My company offers IF benefits up to $10k which can't be used for egg freezing since there is no IF diagnosis and no immediate pregnancy and child. I think it's great to extend those benefits to egg freezing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902254 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:44:25 +0000 sunny 1902254@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think it's great to have the coverage to use as you see fit. There has to be a culture change in regards to working women in tech though. So much is stacked against women in these companies. I heard that Apple was improving maternity coverage in addition to this so I hope that this is a culture change to try to retain and attract women. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902244 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:31:30 +0000 dolphin 1902244@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think it's great that they're offering this! It's always nice to have options. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902234 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:23:03 +0000 yoursilverlining 1902234@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I think it’s an awesome perk to offer. Let’s be honest; if you want to move up at many companies and in many industries, you have to put in hours in the beginning of your career that just are not conducive to having children at the same time. That’s a tradeoff like everything else in life; I don't think it's shocking. Once you have some tenure under your belt, that’s when you get a better work-life balance. These companies (and many others) offer some amazing benefits and I would guess that they expect 110% from their employees in exchange. I don’t know, I guess I think any company offering above-standard benefits (whether it’s this, or something else) expects above-standard productivity and hours from its employees. I don't really see this as being that different; and it's certainly a nice perk considering how many companies don't cover any IF treatments at all. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902228 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:16:18 +0000 Shutterbug 1902228@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsSCB: yeah, and it totally changes the perception of their intention, too (as evidenced by a lot of the comments on this thread :) ). Offering $20,000 to use as you see fit (within reason) in regards to your fertility/family planning is way different than offering $20,000 to freeze your eggs. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902222 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:13:02 +0000 MrsSCB 1902222@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Foodnerd81: @Raindrop: @bluestriped bee: You're welcome! It seems like the media is latching onto the egg freezing thing because it's more of a new offering (vs. general IF treatment) but that's really just making some of the articles confusing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902216 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:10:17 +0000 looch 1902216@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@lawbee11: Yes, I think so as well, which is why it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.</p> <p>I am trying to think of how I would have viewed this as a 22 year old college grad. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902201 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:05:22 +0000 BSB 1902201@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsSCB: Cool! Thanks for sharing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902195 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:02:49 +0000 Raindrop 1902195@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsSCB: Ah thanks for sharing that article. :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902192 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:01:41 +0000 Foodnerd81 1902192@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsSCB: I agree with everything you said- thanks for clarifying some points. So now yeah, I think it's a good thing. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902190 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:00:58 +0000 lawbee11 1902190@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@looch: Yes. They are not targeting those who are suffering from IF, they are targeting women in their early 20s who are willing to put off having children for 10+ years. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902186 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 14:00:04 +0000 Adira 1902186@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MrsSCB: That article is definitely making it sound like you can use the $20K for infertility treatments and not JUST for freezing eggs, like the other article made it sound. Which is AWESOME!!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/apple-and-facebook-offer-to-freeze-eggs-for-female-employees#post-1902182 Wed, 15 Oct 2014 13:57:01 +0000 MrsSCB 1902182@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Raindrop: Exactly. I also just read that they're giving $20,000 for a bunch of different services related to fertility, including egg freezing. So you could use that $20K for the freezing, or for IVF, or for surrogacy, etc. "Facebook and Apple will now give up to $20,000 in benefits to help employees pay for infertility treatments or sperm donors and even to freeze their eggs." <a href="http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2024779481_perksreproductivexml.html" rel="nofollow">http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2024779481_perksreproductivexml.html</a> </p>