Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

cnet.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

731–740 of 1001 posts

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

#731

Post by jupp0r »

rhizome wrote: post #459
rootusrootus wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ignoring the obvious downsides for a moment, I'd happily trade places with one of my childless coworkers right about now. This morning I went up and down the stairs at least ten times while trying to get my 7- and 9-year old kids successfully established in their first remote learning session, simultaneously participating in two consecutive Zoom meetings with coworkers, and figuring out how to solve a nagging issue i…

A BIG chunk of all that drama is due to the US social safety net not including childcare. That's the thing disturbing thing about these stories: employees are turned against each other when it's a) the company; and b) your tax dollars, not providing any kind of built-in childcare for society. In France, kids can go to preschool and have pre- and post- school childcare, which has to be paid, but it's only like $500/mo…

1. the $500 of child care in France is more expensive than $1500 child care in California if you factor in lower salaries.

2. with the attitude of reopening schools in France and elsewhere in Europe in spite of the pandemic I’m actually happy that schools and day care are closed (at least on the west coast). I don’t want the government to mandate school attendance right now (not sure about France, but in Germany attendance is required by law), thank you.

That being said, I completely agree with you that tax dollars are well spent on early education and it’s grossly neglected in the US.

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

#732

Post by jelliclesfarm »

mc32 wrote: post #45
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…

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…

What about parents of children who are a burden to society? Should they pay back the subsides recd for their bad seed?

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

#733

Post by spaceisballer »

I think the actual absurdity going on is that we are keeping pre-COVID expectations during a pandemic(crisis). I’ve used this time to really reevaluate the things my area is responsible for and trim the fat. We all know people have things that will come up, so we all need to be more Agile. Been pushing Kanban hard in my area now because we offer so much work flexibility. So I’ve been prioritizing work and making sure it’s there for the team to take on. If only one person usually does certain tasks, make sure they train others. And I’m there to protect them if upper management takes issue with their output. I feel like I’ve been cold hearted or just methodical but it’s only in regards to the work not the people. Work is just that, work. It isn’t life, come to work get your work done and if life gets in the way, fine let me know. I mean what the hell is the point of a team if one person (or many) have less availability and it all falls apart? Get the highest priority work done first and maybe that lower stuff isn’t actually that important.

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

#734

Post by quadrifoliate »

Waterluvian wrote: post #291

One thing I wish I could make my childless peers grok is that THERE IS NO VACATION when you have young kids. I’m taking this week off and people speak as if I’m on vacation. Please please hear my words literally: my job is my break. Weekends are more physically and intellectually exhausting than weekdays when I get to $&@# off to work for eight hours. My paid time off is a way to give us a fighting chance at laundry…

> One thing I wish I could make my childless peers grok is that THERE IS NO VACATION when you have young kids.

As a childless person who has nevertheless helped a lot with childcare while growing up in a different country, here is a simple family-based solution – ask your family's older members to move in and help with childcare if possible, or move close by. Or ask a cousin or an aunt or a sister to move in with you or close to you, because you need help because you are overwhelmed with your kids.

I bet you won't, because "it's weird" or "it wouldn't work out" or something like that. Yet this is traditionally exactly how parents have distributed the pain of child rearing.

Now think about it – if you can't expect family to help you, why do you expect help from your coworkers in this situation?

The nuclear family in the US is an experiment that has been generally quite stressful, and COVID has thrown it totally out of gear. This doesn't mean it was working too well in the first place.

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

#735

Post by chii »

tptacek wrote: post #530
nicbou wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't fully agree with you. Back when I worked in retail or fast food, smokers could step out for a 5 minute smoke break every once in a while. As a non-smoker, I wasn't allowed to just sit there for 5 minutes. At the end of the day, we got paid the same, but smokers got 30 minutes off, courtesy of the non-smokers who picked up the slack. Likewise, parents are excused from work because they have children. I fully a…

It is not reasonable to compare smokers to parents. Your irritation at smokers is reasonable, but it doesn't translate automatically to other categories of employee.

But the irritation is at the outcome, not at the action. the OP has no irritation regarding the smoker, or the parent. It's at the irritation that certain actions are treated differently to others by the employer and is indirectly costing OP.

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

#736

Post by irrational »

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…

After my wife and I were done having kids my work rolled out 90 of paternity and/or maternity leave for each child. That’s a lot of “vacation” time I missed out on (seriously, we had 5 kids - so 450 days of vacation). But, I’m not bitter. I’m happy for others who can take advantage of this.

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

#737

Post by nsxwolf »

solidsnack9000 wrote: post #679
nsxwolf wrote: post #98

The anti-natalism in tech is just totally unsustainable. What will it become, a race to hire the last remaining infertile young people? Who will provide new humans to replace them - other families that aren't in tech? Parents have a strong influence on the careers of their children - we expect to completely remove that influence, since we will have no parents in tech - and expect their children to discover tech caree…

It's really of no consequence...there are just not that many people who work in tech. If none of them had children, it wouldn't matter.

That makes me feel better if true.

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

#738

Post by jelliclesfarm »

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 think you misunderstood the meaning of the word ‘mandatory’

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

#739

Post by dragonwriter »

Waterluvian wrote: post #291

One thing I wish I could make my childless peers grok is that THERE IS NO VACATION when you have young kids. I’m taking this week off and people speak as if I’m on vacation. Please please hear my words literally: my job is my break. Weekends are more physically and intellectually exhausting than weekdays when I get to $&@# off to work for eight hours. My paid time off is a way to give us a fighting chance at laundry…

> One thing I wish I could make my childless peers grok is that THERE IS NO VACATION when you have young kids.

This was often overstated prior to the pandemic, but much more true during the pandemic.

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

#740

Post by dtx1 »

daenz wrote: post #439
ethanwillis wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Should we be forced to pay taxes?

Exactly, I'm asking if they believe their personal choice to work additional overtime for a specific demographic of people should be compelled by the state via an additional tax. Do you?

Somehow you all think everyone is american because here in germany there are many taxes levied on me or rather not levied on families with children.
Post reply on HN