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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

#181

Post by stanfordkid »

Our society is not organized collectively -- so you don't really give a shit about your co-workers kids. This is the origin of all the anxiety. You would not worry about sacrificing your time to help them, if you knew them.

It is a simple fix, if companies were formed more like actual communities. Unfortunately, with specialized labor, this is pretty much impossible.

There is a great book, called, "Capitalism and Schizophrenia", by a french psychoanalyst and philosopher duo, Deleuze and Guetarri. They get into why this organizational structure often lead to a profound disconnect by consolidating aspects of production into silos, as described above.

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

#183

Post by luckylion »

jacquesm wrote: post #164
luckylion wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They are working as much or more. Just not on the same things. The same can be said about anyone with a hobby though. They are working as much or more. Just not on the same things.

Kids are a hobby?

Your point -as I understood it- was that they do work the same amount, just not on work-stuff, ergo they should be treated as if they worked the same amount on work stuff. And you can absolutely work on hobbies just the same.

Kids are a choice, first and foremost. And we are, as societies, helping quite a bit with the consequences of those choices, and yes, that's mostly funded by the single people.

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

#184

Post by wffurr »

asciident wrote: post #175
wffurr wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Society doesn't exist without children. Child care is right up there with fire departments for things you, personally, as a childless person whose house has not burned down, need to exist in order to live in society, and not just a hermit in the woods.

It's not so clear to be honest. The global population is growing and leading to environmental disasters, and it's not clear why we need 10 billion people on this planet, rather than a more manageable 100 million.

Parents in tech firms in developed countries are reproducing below the replacement rate already.

Regardless, you need a next generation for society to continue to function.

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

#185

Post by nicbou »

jansan wrote: post #144
loosescrews wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At least in the US, the pandemic has changed everyone's life created stress for everyone. These policies seem to indicate that non-parents don't have an additional burden worth recognizing. It is easy to see it this way too as most of the managers and executives at big tech companies are parents. For young non-parent tech workers, this may be the first time that they have to figure out how to feed themselves during t…

Is this a joke? My 12 year old son would be able to cook for himself if it was required. Of course the kitchen would be a total mess. With instructions like the video below everybody can learn how to cook within a few days. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sw_Ze9zIafM

As someone who loves to cook, I don't fully agree.

60% of cooking is logistics: knowing what to eat, setting time aside for grocery shopping and meal preparation, and keeping food waste to a minimum. In my opinion, this is a lot harder than the actual cooking.

If you've never done it before, it's surprisingly hard. Cooking in a well-organised, well-stocked kitchen is very different from starting with an empty pantry, blunt knives and no idea of what to do.

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

#186

Post by ericmcer »

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…

with super low fertility rates (b) is especially important... and something a bit frightening for anyone who is looking at retirement in 20-30 years

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

#187

Post by pavlov »

fizixer wrote: post #115
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 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?

“My financial portfolio is as valuable and takes more time than your human babies” — You must have a Master’s degree in Empathy from Trump University.

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

#189

Post by gehsty »

codemac wrote: post #5

Personally, I struggle with these feelings as well. It seems nuts that someone working 50%+ less than someone else is going to keep all the same equity, vacation, and salary. Then again it seems nuts that they don't. All employees who had children or family members to care for before or after COVID get none of the same support. I don't think backpay is coming for those who were forced to take leave or even quit their…

Another way of thinking about it is that we are all likely to have children at some point, so is a phase that a lot of people go through in their careers, you may not feel like they are working as hard as you (and maybe they aren’t) but if you do end up having kids then they will likely be picking up your slack while you are raising your little ones.

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

#190

Post by hinkley »

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…

Lack of empathy has been a common trait among problem employees that were too good at their job to simply suggest removal.

My buttons are more around things like constantly making work harder for everybody else and then dismissing complaints or slowness because it works for them, but I have no illusions that this sort of selfishness comes in only one flavor.

My favorite games are teams. My favorite workplaces are teams. And while I've worked at lots of places, in big groups, I've only worked on a few Teams that weren't in name only.

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