Saw this article this morning and though I'd share. 6 months off for birth mothers and 16 weeks for primary caregivers. They also increased medical leave and paid family medical leave. I hope that more companies follow in their footsteps.
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I think 6 months off is a great/perfect amount of time off! Even more awesome that it's a PAID leave! Wow!!!! So much happens in the first 4-5 months!! Like setting a sleep schedule and certain habits. Sucks when you have one thing going on at home but then start daycare and it's something different.
Sometimes I blame starting daycare so soon (for us, it was 3 months), that really doomed us on DS's sleep. He's been a terrible sleeper from the get go. But he got sick alot like getting RSV and the flu at 4 months and 5 months so he stayed home with me for a week. I was able to put him down to sleep easily and pick up on his clues. But when he went back to daycare, all that learning and training went to down the drain. Boo!
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That plan sounds amazing! I wish more companies would start offering plans like that. I've often said I would have been a much better employee if I had been able to take six months off instead of three, strictly because of the level of sleep deprivation. I could barely function most days because I was so tired.
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Man id take any amount of paid leave. As a teacher, I get nada. I can take my 12 weeks but no pay.
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Pregnancy hormones were at definitely at play, but yesterday I SOBBED over the fact that the United States fails to guarantee women paid maternity leave (and so many women aren't even guaranteed *unpaid* leave!). It's so anti-woman and anti-child; it's just reprehensible. I'm always happy to hear when companies enact better family leave policies, but most people working at places like Adobe and Netflix and Google are already in a position to take FMLA and have short term disability coverage. I'm ready to see federal legislation that benefits ALL working mothers!
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@Ms.Line ditto. It's great more large companies are offering better parental leave. But to me, it's meaningless until we have comprehensive federal legislation mandating paid leave. IMO it's criminal that many women/families are entitled to ZERO leave (you only get 12 wks unpaid under FMLA if your workplace qualifies and you've worked enough hours... assuming you can afford to take time off unpaid). It is shameful. I also think that proper paid parental leave would greatly improve mother/child health in this country (which is laughably bad compared to other developed countries) - there would be more breastfeeding, less illness, more mothers able to stay in the workplace, etc.
I hope all women remember this when it comes election time.
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@travellingbee: The only way I got paid at all was to save ALL my vacation, remaining sick, and remaining comp time and stretch it out over the 12 weeks. I had two months at half pay and one month of nothing. We don't get STD or anything.
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@travellingbee: Same here! I work for a small company, I did get like, $100 from the state or something, but that vanished real quick, lol! I really wish benefits are better no matter where one works!
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@ms.line: @MrsADS: Ditto. I work for a non-profit that has less than 30 employees and I was LUCKY that they had a maternity leave policy in place and allowed me to take 12 weeks (policy is you get eight with an additional four weeks at the discretion of the executive director).
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@ms.line: @MrsADS: I agree we need paid leave for every family, but this is a start. We can't get politicians to mandate it until there is enough public support and enough examples of companies doing it without a major hit to their bottom line. And yes, I hope people remember this come election time.
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@avivoca: I used to work at a small non-profit of 8 people (all women, notably), and when I was planning to TTC I had to formally request a maternity leave policy from my executive director. All she offered me was a maximum of 12 weeks unpaid, during which time they would *try* to hold my position for me. What! I decided to look for a new job at an employer with over 50 employees and prioritized employer-covered STD as a must-have. When I finally got a new job, I then had to wait another 3 months to start trying, because I feared not having enough hours in to qualify for FMLA before my due date. Now I'm one of the "lucky" women in this country that will get a twelve week leave with 6 paid. The whole situation is laughably pathetic, especially when you compare it to the experience of bees living outside the US.
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@mrs.shinerbock: Oh absolutely, I think it's great for bringing this issue into the public discourse, as well as being great for those employees who directly benefit!
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I think this is great. As I posted in the Netflix thread, I'd rather see 6 months of leave stated than some "unlimited over a year" language. It's awesome to see this and great to see it was at least partially credited to Netflix's policy. Looks like the tide is turning for well paid tech employees. I hope it keeps going!
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@ms.line: I would love to see Federal mandates as well. I work at a tech company; a smaller one now but in the past a giant well-known one. And it still wasn't easy taking maternity. I've been worried about how we'll handle it when I get pregnant again. 6 weeks paid leave with STD is better than all unpaid, but it's still pathetic. And even with a c-section, the STD company wouldn't allow me to take more leave without reviewing my medical files for the need. They told me as long as I had a desk job then I was fine to return :-/.
Even though we make a good amount of money, we also need that money to pay our mortgage and daycare for DS. I pushed myself to go back to work sooner than I was ready last time and it impacted my work performance and I'm still dealing with some of the negative perception of that time.
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So great to see tech companies leading the charge.
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Yay! I hope this catches on. DH's company (Discover Financial Services) offers 60% pay for FMLA and he gets to stay home for a whole month after baby is born and I am so happy he will be home with us! But full pay for 16 weeks would be even better!
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Adobe is a great company! I have actually heard nothing but good things from people.
I heard they even have a policy that every 5 years you get a one month paid sabbatical.
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If I wasn't done having babies, I'd be totally tempted to switch to one of these awesome companies offering better benefits for families! And actually, I still AM tempted just to show my support!
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@Raindrop: My manager and I were just talking about paid sabbatical programs this morning – apparently Fidelity does that too, as do a couple local law firms in our area. I *love* the idea, needless to say!
This is great news; let’s hope its part of a shifting tide towards offering true paid parental leave! Even with more companies announcing paid leave, I still think it’s necessary to leave some federal legislation in place. A lot of these companies are hiring mostly more tenured, college-educated or professionally-trained employees, but everyone has kids, regardless of college education or years in the workforce. Everyone should be entitled to paid family leave, not just workers who meet a certain criteria.
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@Yoursilverlining yep. What about women who work in blue-collar jobs or the service industry? Nothing for them. And even if those women are entitled to FMLA, many cannot afford to take unpaid leave.
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As someone who works for another large tech company I'm hoping to see some of this spill over ASAP!
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Every time I see a thread like this it makes me appreciate Canada even more. I work for a small not for profit so my mat leave is not topped up but I do receive 55% of my regular salary from employment insurance benefits.
At first I felt hard done by since a lot of other people receive 80-100% pay. But seeing how it is in the states I've become much more grateful for what we have here!!
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