In Our Attempt To Make Workplaces Friendly to Moms, Don’t Forget Dads

Family friendly workplaces are a relatively new thing, but are we using the “family friendly” designation when we really mean “mom friendly”? Some dads think so and they are fighting back. They aren’t just complaining to the HR department, they are going to court.

When CNN employee Josh Levs’ wife gave birth to their third child, 5 weeks prematurely, Levs wanted to take some time to spend helping out. But, while CNN had a generous policy of 10 weeks paid leave for women who had given birth, and for men and women who had adopted or used a surrogate, they only allowed 2 weeks paid leave for biological fathers. They settled last week outside of court and CNN has changed their policy to allow 6 weeks paid leave for all new parents, with an additional 6 weeks for moms who had given birth.

To keep reading, click here: In Our Attempt To Make Workplaces Friendly to Moms, Don’t Forget Dads

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5 thoughts on “In Our Attempt To Make Workplaces Friendly to Moms, Don’t Forget Dads

  1. Thank you for mentioning the fact that people without children (who may have elders or spouses to take care of or not, lack of children does not mean lack of obligations to family or to elsewhere) are also part of the workforce and shouldn’t constantly be put upon because so and so has kids.

    1. I loved that too! I’m constantly having to cover for coworkers with children, which is fine. What isn’t fine was the time my boss allowed me to leave early to attend a huge, important hockey game that my nephew was playing in and one of the people who’s work is often dumped in my lap had the audacity to act annoyed by this. Some people honestly believe that everything in their lives is more important because they have children. *sigh*

      1. Happens all the time. How am I supposed to ever meet someone and have my own kids, if I have to spend my whole life working overtime because of YOUR kids?

        Believe me, single people’s time is just as important to them as that of those with children’s time is to them.

  2. I have children now and I always make an effort to make sure that people who do not have children aren’t shafted.

    Lucky for them, I had the horrible experience of working in retail in my 20s with a bunch of single moms. You guessed it. I got stuck with all the holiday shifts and the excuse was that they needed the time with their kids. They did not care that I had plans of my own. My ex and I had an anniversary on Halloween and they still scheduled me because their kids trumped my celebration. Every year.

    So, remember folks….it’s a two way street. If you want people to work with you and help you with your time off request you need to do the same for others!

  3. “Having human (not just family) friendly policies can be a great way to attract great people. If you’re going to implement them, do so fairly.”

    I practically weep to hear this. Parents are of course on the sharp end but there are times when everyone will need flexibility: aging parents, spouse has health emergency, nephew’s important hockey game as mentioned by MelGirl81 etc.

    Businesses still act as if there’s a stay at home spouse keeping the home fires burning. That hasn’t been the case in ages. We ALL need more a more flexible workplace.

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