4 ms·

> "well phpisthebest does not have kids so they can be on call or work holidays" I’ve worked in the industry for over 10 years, on teams with several parents a

by pm90 4y ago

> "well phpisthebest does not have kids so they can be on call or work holidays" I’ve worked in the industry for over 10 years, on teams with several parents and have never heard this sort of sentiment. Just throwing my anecdata out there. The most I’ve seen it brought up is for maternity/paternity leave and for someone adjusting their commute schedule to take care of picking up kids/avoiding bad traffic.

shagie 4y ago
It depends on the company and the organization. I have seen it personally (all the parents have a soccer game to go to, the non-parents pick up on call). We need to talk about the bias against child-free employees - https://www.fastcompany.com/90564837/we-need-to-talk-about-the-bias-against-childfree-employees https://www.fastcompany.com/90564837/we-need-to-talk-about-t... > A senior lawyer working in the Bay Area told me how, prior to the pandemic, the parents of small children would file out at between 5 and 5:15 p.m. each day to collect their children from childcare and head home, while child-free colleagues stayed at their desks until the work was, well, done. “I know many parents also log on later in the evening, but if they’ve missed an important call or haven’t had time to read the latest documents we’ve received, it falls to me and my child-free colleagues to pick up the slack,” they told me. “There’s a disparity in expectation as to when the working day ends and what gets done during it. I’m given the message that my nonwork life is less important—sometimes explicitly.” > A friend in Salt Lake City is a former competitive skier, and the topic of being child-free came up during a recent conversation. “Honestly, I’m starting to resent the fact that my colleagues who are parents are free to take slabs of time off to look after sick kids or log off early to attend recitals. The thing is, I fully support the fact that they can—being a present parent is so important. But sometimes I wonder why I’m not allowed to take a couple of extra days each year to ski, or spend time with my 97-year-old grandfather? Whenever I suggest this to HR they literally laugh.” There was also a reference to a NYT article in the fast company article - Parents Got More Time Off. Then the Backlash Started. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/05/technology/parents-time-off-backlash.html?unlocked_article_code=vR4VJqpYvSGtxzzXfLsflnA8gH-WuGOHFy0yp8tBSTX1m_JVZ-lr-FSNN5rZs0IyZhIvvdjOMyH7HG0o3jaTSFxWAi1WW3Dzvz7c_UKPcZpXde2Ff4AhZ4ShpvirqvjwJRX4ZlAp55VzDvbSz23Ez8D8sDZmxU6w5QLyRQCJ5Lwml0Wd_8gckleZzxEHzUBbXAXg6SfRa8Ml2WOqlQFrHygnyceIvp7UzKFbsTCPZ37SIBwC45BLQZ35CX9st42nL3bDS94sCb_UpRg3cEhwlJgFUzgco_FckdyyZlX0asycRVjtptD_C-dZp9be9499RIqoO4j-xscFxxa1CzCwzBPDvJ4Zvg&smid=share-url https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/05/technology/parents-time-o... (HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24383264 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24383264 - 76 points; 160 comments)
- Quarrelsome 4y ago
  That just sounds like unrealistic work expectations from the org being redirected into anger at parent employees. The issue is surely with the org as opposed to the employees that happen to be repopulating the earth. i.e. the non parent-employees should have access to the same level of freedom and if the org doesn't permit that or punishes the remainder somehow then that's the issue at play here.

by pm90 4y ago

shagie 4y ago

It depends on the company and the organization. I have seen it personally (all the parents have a soccer game to go to, the non-parents pick up on call). We need to talk about the bias against child-free employees - https://www.fastcompany.com/90564837/we-need-to-talk-about-the-bias-against-childfree-employees https://www.fastcompany.com/90564837/we-need-to-talk-about-t... > A senior lawyer working in the Bay Area told me how, prior to the pandemic, the parents of small children would file out at between 5 and 5:15 p.m. each day to collect their children from childcare and head home, while child-free colleagues stayed at their desks until the work was, well, done. “I know many parents also log on later in the evening, but if they’ve missed an important call or haven’t had time to read the latest documents we’ve received, it falls to me and my child-free colleagues to pick up the slack,” they told me. “There’s a disparity in expectation as to when the working day ends and what gets done during it. I’m given the message that my nonwork life is less important—sometimes explicitly.” > A friend in Salt Lake City is a former competitive skier, and the topic of being child-free came up during a recent conversation. “Honestly, I’m starting to resent the fact that my colleagues who are parents are free to take slabs of time off to look after sick kids or log off early to attend recitals. The thing is, I fully support the fact that they can—being a present parent is so important. But sometimes I wonder why I’m not allowed to take a couple of extra days each year to ski, or spend time with my 97-year-old grandfather? Whenever I suggest this to HR they literally laugh.” There was also a reference to a NYT article in the fast company article - Parents Got More Time Off. Then the Backlash Started. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/05/technology/parents-time-off-backlash.html?unlocked_article_code=vR4VJqpYvSGtxzzXfLsflnA8gH-WuGOHFy0yp8tBSTX1m_JVZ-lr-FSNN5rZs0IyZhIvvdjOMyH7HG0o3jaTSFxWAi1WW3Dzvz7c_UKPcZpXde2Ff4AhZ4ShpvirqvjwJRX4ZlAp55VzDvbSz23Ez8D8sDZmxU6w5QLyRQCJ5Lwml0Wd_8gckleZzxEHzUBbXAXg6SfRa8Ml2WOqlQFrHygnyceIvp7UzKFbsTCPZ37SIBwC45BLQZ35CX9st42nL3bDS94sCb_UpRg3cEhwlJgFUzgco_FckdyyZlX0asycRVjtptD_C-dZp9be9499RIqoO4j-xscFxxa1CzCwzBPDvJ4Zvg&smid=share-url https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/05/technology/parents-time-o... (HN https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24383264 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24383264 - 76 points; 160 comments)

Quarrelsome 4y ago
That just sounds like unrealistic work expectations from the org being redirected into anger at parent employees. The issue is surely with the org as opposed to the employees that happen to be repopulating the earth. i.e. the non parent-employees should have access to the same level of freedom and if the org doesn't permit that or punishes the remainder somehow then that's the issue at play here.