Political Memes

Four day weekends for everyone, and three months of vacation time too.

Yes. Flexibility for everyone. Unironically, this is not a bad idea.

As a parent, I am given the same exact treatment as I was at the same company before. I already was a flex worker in the sense of WFH or office is entirely up to me (except when I need to be somewhere, but the need is the key), if I take my child to a doctors appointment, I am using my sick time which is allocated to all employees equally. My insurance is arguably a "better deal" since the "family plan" cost doesn't change when you add another dependent vs if it's just you and your spouse.

I would ask what these people think when they get "extra flexibility" when they have an aging parent or sick spouse they are responsible or assisting the care of? Is that flexibility okay, simply because having a child is a choice, and having a parent is not? Then what about your spouse?

I agree with others in this thread that are suggesting these people don't really care about flexibility, they just want to take it away from the parents that use it or need it.

Agreed, all workers should have maximum flexibility to balance their lives. Why hurt productivity for the sake of a rigid schedule?

Its my contention that happy workers are more productive. Let every worker take the time they need to maintain their work/life balance, so long as the quality of their work is unaffected.

Same treatment - yes. Same flexibility? No. Children do tend to provide legitimate emergencies from time to time.

I'm not saying a non-parent should have their months-ahead approved PTO cancelled because a parent suddenly decides they want to take their kid to some event on that same day. But if a parent needs to leave early because they got a phone call that their kid got wounded at school - that should be arranged even when non-parents are not offered flexibility of the same level.

Simple solution: lie and say you have kids

Once you make the workplace adjustments and accommodations for parents, there's no good reason not to do the same for everyone. It's like cutting curbs or making wide doors for wheelchair access. Once you've convinced the company to do it for new premeses, why would they ever decide to make some without that access? Shits and giggles?

If you're talking about mat/pat leave then that's a separate thing (which everyone should definitely get)

Extra time off isn't some kind of reward for having kids, it's to make having kids possible. We'll be old someday and we'll need those kids to support us. Give parents all the time off they want. Imagine the kind of guy who sees a new mom get time off work to take care of a literal shit machine and thinks "She's the one who decided to excrete a crotch goblin. I should get the same amount of time off work as she does so I can play more Elden Ring." Then imagine how that guy smells.

I am one of 2 people in my department and we service the entire continent. He has been on paternity leave THREE TIMES in the years i've been here and each time he gets 5 weeks off.

I swear every time he takes off, it's a busy part of the year and i'm absolutely slammed doing everything by myself and customers don't understand.

Then he also gets like 4 weeks of vacation, so it feels really unfair for me with my dog and no kids. But then again, i hate kids and want nothing to do with them, so i guess he needs those 5 weeks.

I don't think this is controversial. It's all about the ratios. And this says a lot about your work condition. I got 27 days off annually. Before my child was born I had 26. It's not a game changer... If all my childless coworkers got an extra day off I probably wouldn't even notice. So sure thay should have it, whatever. You Americans can argue about the weirdest things sometimes.

Highly controversial take: people without handicaps should get all the same treatment as people with handicaps.

Thoughts?