Microsoft to increase parental leave beginning November. 1 | Announcement comes day

There are so many more ways Nashville could improve (my idea for air-conditioned indoor dog parks was vetoed – UGH, WHATEVER), and one thing that didn’t make the list, but definitely should be addressed, is Tennessee’s maternity leave.

Netflix’s new policy is in effect an extension of a time-off policy that dates to when the company went public in 2002. However, this type of open philosophy on leave comes with potential downsides.

Unless you’re in hypercompetitive Silicon Valley, don’t hold your breath for your boss to match the one-year paid leave offer for new parents.

Google has said that when it increased its paid maternity leave from 12 to 18 weeks, the rate of new mothers leaving halved.

“This is what we’ve been pounding on for the past 25-plus years”, he says. Not everyone thinks so.

Flush with cash and hoping to lure the best and brightest employees, the streaming movie service will allow unlimited maternity or paternity leave during the first year of a child’s birth or adoption.

The Netflix policy far exceeds typical leave at large U.S. corporations. A gracious parental leave can allow Netflix to stand out in a highly competitive field for tech talent, retain valuable employees, and maintain productivity by preventing burnout. The company already has an unlimited vacation time policy. So if you’re measuring and tracking great work, why would you track vacation? What do you think is a good amount of leave time for a parent?

When crafting their policy, employers need to consider what limitations they want to set regarding leave.

Even though I worked for a small business (only nine employees) when I had my two children, I was fortunate to be able to take 12 weeks of maternity leave after each birth. “Each employee gets to figure out what’s best for them and their family, and then works with their managers for coverage during their absences”. But not all companies will necessarily want to do that.

We will also offer flexibility for when eligible parents can take leave.

Another tricky situation McDermott noted is when an employee is away on parental leave or another form of leave and the company experiences a reduction in force. Facebook, for example, provides $4,000 in “baby cash” to new parents. Some tech companies offering awesome perks to a select few might help draw attention to the issue, but it won’t move the needle for most working families. “It costs so much to replace a senior engineer or another senior employee that a year’s worth of salary is worth it”, she explained. Although on the federal level laws have still not been put in place, state governments in California, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Oregon, and some cities have passed regulations for paid family and medical leave or earned sick days.