Why Netflix’s And Microsoft’s New Parental Leave Policies Fall Short Of What

Netflix is offering its employees unlimited paid time off in the first year of the birth or adoption of a child.

“Netflix’s continued success hinges on us competing for and keeping the most talented individuals in their field”, Tawni Cranz, Netflix’s chief talent officer, said in the post. “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”.

Having said that, we’ve got to remember that Netflix is introducing this policy in a country where there is no legal requirement whatsoever for companies to offer paid maternity or paternity leave, of any kind.

Netflix – a preferred site of America’s couch potatoes – announced a new paid parental leave policy Tuesday that ranks as the most generous in the nation. New moms can take a total of 20 weeks of fully paid leave and fathers can take 12 weeks of paid leave. Netflix’s policy addresses this head on.

On the other hand, Susan Wojcicki, YouTube CEO, have long ago stated that expanded parental leave could have a positive impact on employees.

The country’s lack of guaranteed paid paternity leave has attracted criticism in recent years. But not all companies will necessarily want to do that.

The new and likely unprecedented policy presents real advantages for moms and dads, who won’t have to worry about getting paid while they attend to the important task of caring for a child.

Microsoft now provides eight weeks of fully paid maternity disability leave for new mothers, plus 12 weeks of parental leave for all parents, of which four are paid and eight are unpaid. The benefit is offered to mothers and fathers, who are given the freedom to choose whether to go back to work anytime they want, work part-time, or alternate between periods of work and leave while still receiving their normal payments as though they were working full-time.

Benefits experts say a combination of factors often prompt companies to offer a benefit that generous. Netflix’s policy looks to allow employees to take leave intermittently. Some have argued that a policy allowing employees as much time off as they want actually reduces the amount of time they wind up taking, because it makes workers feel guilty about staying away from the office. These programs aren’t particularly generous. Moreover, that can only be a good thing.