Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves • Hacker News Board

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves

#21

Post by hesdeadjim » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:49 PM UTC

erentz wrote: post #8

To be somewhat fair this is still an amazing benefit: “It’s now capping parental leaves at six months and giving parents a taxable $20,000 stipend to defray the costs of childcare.” In the context that they are doing this while few other American organizations do it, and not that many other countries do something this generous.

Yea, the article title can practically considered clickbait when this is the resultant change in benefits. Neither my wife or I had a need to be home for an entire year with our child. Three months for me would've been perfect, six would've been a vacation, and six months plus $20k to cover my daycare expenses for the year would've been... well, words fail me.

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves

#22

Post by simonsarris » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:50 PM UTC

xutopia wrote: post #14

simonsarris wrote: post #11

> [heading] How do they manage in Canada? > In Canada, companies have had no option but to make 52-week parental leaves work, when requested, since 2000. The question Canadian companies ask isn’t “Can we do it?” but “How do we do it?” Okay, so... how do they do it? They never answer the question. If you have say, a CFO or a specialist mechanic (that you only need 1 of, but definitely need) and they take a year off, w…

We hire interims or share responsibilities between other members of the team. It happens all the time and we rarely find an issue with this. If any company is run in such a way that bus-factor means the company can't thrive with one person gone you're simply doing it wrong.

This seems like the most obvious dodge. I know plenty of companies, especially small ones, where any person in the company is pretty much the bus factor. When they take vacation the company shuts its doors for a few weeks.

This is obviously true for startups and small restaurants, especially ones without gobs of VC funding.

Is the solution just to exclude companies that cannot get by without doing this? In other words, make sure certain kinds of startups and small businesses are not possible?

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves

#23

Post by DavidHm » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:50 PM UTC

simonsarris wrote: post #11

> [heading] How do they manage in Canada? > In Canada, companies have had no option but to make 52-week parental leaves work, when requested, since 2000. The question Canadian companies ask isn’t “Can we do it?” but “How do we do it?” Okay, so... how do they do it? They never answer the question. If you have say, a CFO or a specialist mechanic (that you only need 1 of, but definitely need) and they take a year off, w…

Surprisingly not that much research on this topic on the American side, but here's one. [0]

Conclusion: there's a small negative impact on the hiring of women, but it's more than compensated by women being less likely to leave companies that provide them a longer maternity leave.

0: https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/nsarin/files/20170821_jobp...

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves

#24

Post by rb808 » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:50 PM UTC

I once worked with a guy who had 4 children in 5 years. He took a lot of parental leave, sick days and often slacked off early. As soon as the last baby was stable he quit for a new job. Companies and teams that are too generous get shafted.

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves

#25

Post by prostoalex » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:50 PM UTC

tomp wrote: post #20

chrisco255 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except on a global scale.

That's why I'm opposed to free trade and want fair trade instead. Like, it's not wrong for e.g. EU to impose a tax on products/services produced by companies abroad that have much less strict environmental/employment laws.

Get two men in the room and they will come up with three different ideas of what fair is.

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves

#26

Post by chefkoch » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:51 PM UTC

simonsarris wrote: post #11

> [heading] How do they manage in Canada? > In Canada, companies have had no option but to make 52-week parental leaves work, when requested, since 2000. The question Canadian companies ask isn’t “Can we do it?” but “How do we do it?” Okay, so... how do they do it? They never answer the question. If you have say, a CFO or a specialist mechanic (that you only need 1 of, but definitely need) and they take a year off, w…

>If you have say, a CFO or a specialist mechanic (that you only need 1 of, but definitely need) and they take a year off, what do you do? Just go without a CFO/mechanic for the year? Or do you start the hiring search, bring in another person as a temp CFO for a year?

What do you do if your single point gets sick or quits?

As a business you need a backup (plan).

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves

#27

Post by tathougies » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:51 PM UTC

I am against one-year parental leaves. My wife and I want ten children. That means ten years off work? How can a company manage? What if I were a less moral man and got two women pregnant a year? I mean, it's not that difficult. Even for faithful men, we plan on trying again (last baby born in December) in a few months. Is it really fair to ask my company to pay for my sex life?

More worryingly, what kind of incentive does this set up? Obviously, it would force companies to adopt policies that overall reduce the reproduction rate of society. This can hardly be said to be a good thing. The number of children my wife and I have should be determined by our ability to support them and our willingness to have them. I am perfectly able to support children with my salary, and I'd prefer to spend my time making that salary, rather than having it handed to us.

Nevertheless, the main reason I am against them is that it removes all incentives from employers (and government, by extension) to make things better for parents that are actually working. I'd rather have a more flexible schedule and more vacation than one year of parental leave. Or to live in a society where only one parent has to work.

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves

#28

Post by ams6110 » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:52 PM UTC

beart wrote: post #9

As a parent, I would much rather take that year and use it to shorten my normal working week for as long as possible. With 260 working days a year, you could work 4 days a week for the first five years of your child's life.

Why not just not work for five years, and have the other parent work?

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves

#29

Post by natalyarostova » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:52 PM UTC

xutopia wrote: post #14

simonsarris wrote: post #11

> [heading] How do they manage in Canada? > In Canada, companies have had no option but to make 52-week parental leaves work, when requested, since 2000. The question Canadian companies ask isn’t “Can we do it?” but “How do we do it?” Okay, so... how do they do it? They never answer the question. If you have say, a CFO or a specialist mechanic (that you only need 1 of, but definitely need) and they take a year off, w…

We hire interims or share responsibilities between other members of the team. It happens all the time and we rarely find an issue with this. If any company is run in such a way that bus-factor means the company can't thrive with one person gone you're simply doing it wrong.

Recent research suggests otherwise, at least on average:

https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2019/01/pr...

>We find that the average premature death of a million-dollar-earning owner causes an 82% decline in firm profits.

Granted, this is a slightly different question regarding owner/managers.

Re: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves

#30

Post by simonsarris » Tue, Feb 05, 2019, 9:53 PM UTC

chefkoch wrote: post #26

simonsarris wrote: post #11

> [heading] How do they manage in Canada? > In Canada, companies have had no option but to make 52-week parental leaves work, when requested, since 2000. The question Canadian companies ask isn’t “Can we do it?” but “How do we do it?” Okay, so... how do they do it? They never answer the question. If you have say, a CFO or a specialist mechanic (that you only need 1 of, but definitely need) and they take a year off, w…

>If you have say, a CFO or a specialist mechanic (that you only need 1 of, but definitely need) and they take a year off, what do you do? Just go without a CFO/mechanic for the year? Or do you start the hiring search, bring in another person as a temp CFO for a year? What do you do if your single point gets sick or quits? As a business you need a backup (plan).

Absolutely. If they quit, of course you go through the long candidate search process and hire a replacement.

If they get sick, many companies are on a timer. Specialist work backs up, projects get delayed, extensions are filed, and so on. If a sickness was expected to last a month or a year, I would expect non-trivial problems to arise.