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Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during Covid-19

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Re: Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during Covid-19

#301

Post by MakeUsersWant »

kevstev wrote: post #140
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #4

I am a middle-aged adult with no children who's worked at tech firms for the past couple decades. To be honest, the "resentment" of those without children have for "benefits" those with children get strikes me as extremely selfish, immature and displaying a total lack of empathy. This is time off specifically to take care of children, something now that has become exceedingly more difficult in Covid times. What's nex…

As a mid 30s childless man I completely agree. We essentially sent people home on a Friday, told them to figure out a work from home situation, and then they were told welp your kids aren't going to school either, and whatever childcare you had lined up has now vanished too- and this is all happening in the course of a few days at most. So now you have kids to worry about all day, home schooling to oversee, focusing…

Mix in special-needs children who need constant one-on-one support, young siblings, and dual career parents.

Covid stress falls completely off the radar.

Re: Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during Covid-19

#302

Post by TheCoelacanth »

falcolas wrote: post #171
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #4

I am a middle-aged adult with no children who's worked at tech firms for the past couple decades. To be honest, the "resentment" of those without children have for "benefits" those with children get strikes me as extremely selfish, immature and displaying a total lack of empathy. This is time off specifically to take care of children, something now that has become exceedingly more difficult in Covid times. What's nex…

> the "resentment" of those without children have for "benefits" those with children get strikes me as extremely selfish, immature and displaying a total lack of empathy. Unpopular opinion: We should not be rewarding or elevating people for having unprotected sex without the support network to take care of their children in the event they are unable to attend school. There's a thousand reasons a child might not be ab…

You are basically asking for human civilization to end within 50 years, so yes, that is going to be an unpopular opinion.

Re: Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during Covid-19

#303

Post by rdtwo »

ll931110 wrote: post #12
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #4

I am a middle-aged adult with no children who's worked at tech firms for the past couple decades. To be honest, the "resentment" of those without children have for "benefits" those with children get strikes me as extremely selfish, immature and displaying a total lack of empathy. This is time off specifically to take care of children, something now that has become exceedingly more difficult in Covid times. What's nex…

The problem is, people without children are told (or required) to pick up the workload left behind when the coworkers having children taking (multiple) weeks off. For once or twice that might be okay, but if became a chronic problem, no wonder they are not happy.

They aren’t happy but they have to deal. People with kids got fucked so hard by government mishandling of pandemic that a little bit of extra work for those without kids is minor in comparison. If we had to increase taxes to provide the additional support to even things out then I guarantee you it would be much worse.

Re: Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during Covid-19

#304

Post by tus88 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #4

I am a middle-aged adult with no children who's worked at tech firms for the past couple decades. To be honest, the "resentment" of those without children have for "benefits" those with children get strikes me as extremely selfish, immature and displaying a total lack of empathy. This is time off specifically to take care of children, something now that has become exceedingly more difficult in Covid times. What's nex…

> What's next, complaining that the cancer patient gets extra time off so why don't I?

Do they? Isn't that just called sick leave or time off without pay?

> If anything, I'm thankful for all those people with kids who will (a) take care of the continuation of the human race

I thought people have kids because they want kids and enjoy family life?

Re: Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during Covid-19

#305

Post by RHSeeger »

MacsHeadroom wrote: post #286
Reedx wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only after having a kid did I fully realize just how much time and freedom I had.

Freedom to go to bars (closed), clubs (closed), trips (not happening), concerts (canceled), conventions (postponed indefinitely), festivals (closed), etc... Most things childfree people get meaning out of are canceled until further notice. You still have your parenthood. What do we get? Extra work for equal pay? Great, that'll make the pandemic suck less.

The freedom to just sit down and breath. I don't think you really grasp just how much having children robs you of your "self" and your down time. Heck, even the ability to go to the store to shop for food can be seriously impacted by having a child. Having a child doesn't just take away your ability to go out for a drink; it takes away EVERYTHING and replaces it with different things.

Re: Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during Covid-19

#306

Post by seattletech »

jknz wrote: post #266

Managing remote school sessions plus my work was a mess. I made my 10 and 12yo kids drop their remote school stuff and work with me instead. The young one is responsible for slack, keeping everyone in the living room updated and replying with text and the occasional gif, he also summarizes with voice important incoming emails. Older one writes python code alongside me and I now mostly check her syntax. She learned gi…

Couldn't you get kids in Vietnam who are cheaper? Are you also stack racking them?

Re: Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during Covid-19

#307

Post by MacsHeadroom »

Swenrekcah wrote: post #224
fizixer wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have two babies: - My pure math research (nothing to do with my day job). Possibly resulting in a part-time PhD program. - My financial portfolio (again not related to my day job). These two babies of mine are as precious and valuable to me (maybe more) than your human babies are to you. Oh, and they take way more time. Do I get extra benefits as a parent of two babies?

Analytical as you surely are, you might notice that your babies are, in fact, not babies in the sense of the word under discussion. Therefore you do not get PTO for growing them.

Unequal PTO is a subsidy from your coworkers. If active workers don't pick up the slack, their stocks loose value.

You want more PTO? Trade me your stock options.

Re: Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during Covid-19

#308

Post by icebraining »

CydeWeys wrote: post #236
mc32 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. Parents are making sacrifices which benefit society as a whole. Those children the parents are taking care of now will be the ones who will provide for the one complaining now via taxes as well as services rendered to them. If anything, companies should be providing more childcare so that more women (as well as some men) will have less of a burden balancing career and caregiving. I see these people as being…

> Parents are making sacrifices which benefit society as a whole. 100%. We need people to have kids (and for it to be financially possible to do so) because kids are literally the future generations of human society, and if no one is having kids then we'll see a very rapid collapse. This is, incidentally, why it pisses me off when people complain that their pets don't get the same kind of accommodations that children…

I also think it's stupid to resent parents; they need the time for the kids, who aren't at fault in any of this.

That said, why do you assume we all care about having a future society? Frankly I only care about existing humans. The species is irrelevant to me.

Re: Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during Covid-19

#309

Post by projectileboy »

This all strikes me as the 10,000th variation of the old joke: the billionaire takes 11 donuts, leaves one in the middle, and tells the childless guy “hey, that guy with a kid is trying to take your donut.” If in the US we lived in a culture that actually treated people as humans and not as either expendable producers or expendable consumers, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation.

Re: Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during Covid-19

#310

Post by steve_adams_86 »

YarickR2 wrote: post #259
CydeWeys wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The benefit to society as a whole is that human society literally continues to exist. If no one has children then society ceases to exist because there isn't a next generation. It's hard to think of anything that benefits society more than having children to comprise the next generation of society. And you know what's really bad for corporate profitability? Not having any workers in a few decades because conditions w…

What do you think of LGBTQ, then ? Fertility rates among them are near zero.

I’m not the person you asked, but: It takes a village to raise a child. The older I get, the more I believe that. My children have always benefitted from more external input, I’ve helped many around me by taking care of their children, and people who are LGBTQ have helped me in caring for me children. I didn’t think of it that way at the time, but in the context of your question I would point that out simply to say that children thrive with a community including individuals without their own children.

We don’t all need to have children to be relevant. But that doesn’t mean that the people primarily responsible for raising a new generation aren’t doing a difficult job deserving of support, either.

I hope as I age and my children become independent, I can help people with their own children even more. It makes a tremendous difference.

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