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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

#991

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the solution? Allow non parents to take 10 weeks off for health issues? What if then a parent has a baby and then has some other health issues. Can they take 20 weeks off? Or would that be unfair because as parents they can take 20 weeks vs 10 for the single person?

Isn't that a bit like asking what if the parent is given 10 weeks off and then has another kid. Do they get another 10 weeks off or is it unfair that they get 20 while the person having a single kid gets 10? There is also not a need to immediately jump to 10 weeks over in comparison for mental issues. Improvements can be much more minor, such as not frowning on people using sick days. Not even granting any more time…

> Isn't that a bit like asking what if the parent is given 10 weeks off and then has another kid. Do they get another 10 weeks off or is it unfair that they get 20 while the person having a single kid gets 10?

Yes, that's exactly right. It's absurd to complain about parents getting 10 weeks off.

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

#992
post #527

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the solution? Allow non parents to take 10 weeks off for health issues? What if then a parent has a baby and then has some other health issues. Can they take 20 weeks off? Or would that be unfair because as parents they can take 20 weeks vs 10 for the single person?

Is it too much to ask that everyone be treated equally? Family status is a protected class, unless you are childfree. If we said everyone except Hispanics gets an extra 10 weeks paid time off, HN would be losing its collective minds.

How do you treat everyone equally then?

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

#993
post #539

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But everyone was a child at some point

My parents never got time off to just take care of me. I was on my own. Do I get a refund or a credit? Maybe a vacation voucher?

They should file for FMLA benefits retroactively. Ask them to look into it. Also, who fed you?

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

#994

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you missed the point of the article entirely. The complaints aren’t so much about what parents do get, but instead about what childless employees don’t get. When your parent coworkers are tossing extra work over the fence to you, ditching critical meetings at the last second without delegating, which in turn forces you to stay late and put the pedal to the metal for weeks on end to maintain their productivity…

That sounds like a really shitty co-worker, regardless of having children or not. If your co-worker can't prioritize with accommodations for childcare and the like, then s/he needs to be fired. I am now, after months of fighting with my administration, allowed partial remote work to cover for the days we do not have childcare after school for my kid. The expectation being that my job is done, regardless of where I am…

In my company the parents have a huge sense of entitlement, so this bad attitude and taking childless coworkers’ time for granted is pretty universal, not just a few bad apples.

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

#995

Parenting is a full time job. We have been brainwashed by feminists that all of us can do everything. Maybe reset assumptions. Covid brings home lessons.

We have been brainwashed by capitalists that all of us must do everything.

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

#996
post #598

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Freedom to go to bars (closed), clubs (closed), trips (not happening), concerts (canceled), conventions (postponed indefinitely), festivals (closed), etc... I also love all of these things. I'm sorry you're bored. > Most things childfree people get meaning out of are canceled until further notice. Not really. Consider the following: - Athletics: running, hiking, boating, bicycling - Social Activity: responsible, so…

I think "bored" is a really unfair trivialization when the parent comment's choice of words was closer to "devoid of meaning". The examples you gave are the day to day things that childfree (& single) people are doing. None of those things involve meeting new people, which is exactly what is causing that emptiness. Trips, concerts, bars, etc are the kinds of special occasion that motivate the single person to make it…

Any manager that’s laying out timelines assuming that everyone will work at 100% capacity permanently is being unbelievably naive. People will take vacations, get sick, or need mental breaks. We’re humans, not robots. https://bigasspics.me/ If a team can’t handle someone losing velocity due to the challenges of parenting during a once in a century pandemic, then it needs new leadership, period.

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

#997

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Long working hours and oncall requirements..." are not benefits and they are only increasing now for childless people, while the parents get multiple weeks of free vacation. You've engaged in a slight of hand here by describing the demands of a job that are somewhat easier for the childless to meet, and then turning around and treating these demands like they're "...policies that favor the childless...".

How is a demand that is easier for the childless to meet, even if only slightly, not a policy that favors the childless? That's not sleight of hand. It's just English.

A demand is not a favor, it's not a benefit, and it's not a policy.

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

#998

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Maybe I am making assumptions here on the general political leanings of those here, but if you are talking about supporting anything like Medicare for all, UBI, BLM, PPP or even just support the Democratic party in general, pulling a little extra weight for those in a time of need is IMHO a relatively small ask that you as an individual can implement compared to those agendas. I suspect a fair number of the complai…

> I suspect a fair number of the complainers are people with Democratic leanings, and I think I can describe their thought process to you. > I think their problem is that a private company is doing this, not the Government. Is that a Democratic take? I think it's a liberaltarian take on it. Here's the conservative libertarian response: raising children is one of the primary functions of society, and social norms that…

> Here's the conservative libertarian response

Seems to me more like plain conservative response. Libertarian position would be to protect individual liberty against both state and societal oppression. E.g. In 'On Liberty' J.S.Mill discussed mainly societal oppression (by social norms) as it is more prevasive and insidious than state oppression.

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

#999
post #886

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems silly to just ignore people who don't have kids because "most do". What do you say to the 50 year old with no children? Sucks to be them?

Clearly it doesn't suck to be them, if the only inconvenience they have had is to support their colleagues during times they have needed it then they are not doing too badly. Also (unfortunately) people who do not have kids, particularly women, are more likely to progress in their career as they have not taken any career breaks, so I guess that could be seen as an upside, though in my opinion is very unfair. Overall…

>Clearly it doesn't suck to be them, if the only inconvenience they have had is to support their colleagues during times they have needed it

How does it not suck that they are getting the short end of the stick? They are the ones covering and picking up slack for others in this situation so I don't even get your point. You have no idea what the rest of their life is like they may in fact work far harder than any parents do, it's just your assumption they dont?

Also if we're assuming peoples states of mind CONVERSELY clearly it doesn't suck to get bailed out for making a bad decision. For people to have children who lack the time and resources to do so, and in some situations put an unfair onus on people who chose not to or for whatever reason don't have kids.

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

#1000
post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That makes it sound like raising children isn't already an extremely strong biological urge and something that tends to provide immense satisfaction to parents. If parents didn't receive special benefits at work to help them raise children, or if all adults were given comparable benefits regardless of whether they have children, I don't think that would shatter the incentive structure and result in having too few hum…

> I don't think that would shatter the incentive structure The best available evidence is that fertility rates are highly sensitive to external incentives. For example Russia managed to raise its fertility rate from the lowest in Europe to one of the highest in just a decade. They did that through a combination of cash incentives, extended maternity leave, and various social status and privileges for mothers.

Yes, but it's it good that they did so? Don't they have enough problems with the populace at large of current size? Such as lack of jobs - having more children than replacement exacerbates it.

The only way it is beneficial is because some jokers decided that running country on ever increasing debt (esp. retirement) is acceptable, and another decided that growth rates have to be high.

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