The Fraud of the New “Family-Friendly” Work

From Robert Reich
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Netflix just announced it’s offering paid leave for new mothers and fathers for the first year after the birth of adoption of a child. Other high-tech firms are close behind.
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Some big law firms are also getting into the act. Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe is offering 22 paid weeks off for both male and female attorneys.
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Even Wall Street is taking baby steps in the direction of family-friendly work. Goldman Sachs just doubled paid parental leave to four weeks.
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All this should be welcome news. Millennials now constitute the largest segment of the American work force. Many are just forming families, so the new family-friendly policies seem ideally timed.
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But before we celebrate the dawn of a new era, keep two basic truths in mind.
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First, these new policies apply only to a tiny group considered “talent” – highly educated and in high demand.
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They’re getting whatever perks firms can throw at them in order to recruit and keep them.
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“Netflix’s continued success hinges on us competing for and keeping the most talented individuals in their field,” writes Tawni Cranz, Netflix’s chief talent officer.
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That Neflix has a “chief talent officer” tells you a lot.
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Netflix’s new policy doesn’t apply to all Netflix employees, by the way. Those in Netflix’s DVD division aren’t covered. They’re not “talent.”
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They’re like the vast majority of American workers – considered easily replaceable.
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Employers treat replaceable workers as costs to be cut, not as assets to be developed.
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Replaceable workers almost never get paid family leave, they get a few paid sick days, and barely any vacation time.
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If such replaceables are eligible for 12 weeks of family leave it’s only because the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (which I am proud to have implemented when labor secretary under Bill Clinton) requires it.
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But Family and Medical leave time doesn’t come with pay – which is why only 40 percent of eligible workers can afford to use it. And it doesn’t cover companies or franchisees with fewer than 50 employees.
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Almost all other advanced nations provide three or four months paid leave – to fathers as well as mothers. Plus paid sick leave, generous vacation time, and limits on how many work hours employers can demand.
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The second thing to know about the new family-friendly work policies is that relatively few talented millennials are taking advantage of them.
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They can’t take the time.
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One of my former Berkeley students who’s now at a tech firm across the Bay told me he’s working fifteen-hour days.
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Another, who’s at a Washington law firm, said she’s on call 24-7. Emails often arrive past midnight, followed by text messages asking why the emails haven’t been answered.
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These young men won’t take paternity leave and these young women won’t even get pregnant – because it looks bad.
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Forget work-life balance. It’s work-as-life.
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A recent New York Times story about Amazon reports that when young workers hit the wall from the unrelenting pace, they’re told to climb it.
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Why do the talented millennials work so hard?
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Partly because being promoted – getting more equity, running a division, making partner – promises such vast rewards. Vaster rewards than any generation before them has ever been offered.
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Also, you’re either on the fast track or you’re on a dead-end road.
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“I’ve got to show total dedication,” one of my former students explained. “It’s all or nothing.”
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Which is why millennial men – who research shows have more egalitarian attitudes about family and gender roles than their predecessors – are nonetheless failing to live up to their values once they hit the treadmills.
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It’s also why women on such high-powered career tracks are delaying or ultimately giving up on being mothers.
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Or they’re giving up on the fast track.
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After the collapse of 2000, the share of women working in high tech dropped sharply. And although tech recovered, female participation is still 6 percent lower than in 1998.
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If they’re lucky, women on the fast track can afford to buy their way to motherhood. Marissa Mayer, appointed Yahoo’s CEO while six months pregnant, was back at her desk two weeks later.
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It’s possible for such women to have it all – to “lean in” as Sheryl Sandberg puts it – only because they have enough resources for 24-hour childcare, car service for the kids and nannies, and all the extra help needed.
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I’m delighted Netflix and other high-powered firms are offering family-friendly work.
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But I take most of it with a grain of silicon. So should you.
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