The Fraud of the New “Family-Friendly” Work

robertreich:

Netflix just announced it’s offering
paid leave to new mothers and fathers for the first year after the birth or adoption of a child. Other high-tech firms are close behind.

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.

Even Wall Street is taking baby steps in the direction of
family-friendly work. Goldman Sachs
just doubled paid parental leave to four weeks. 

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.

But before we celebrate the dawn of
a new era, keep two basic truths in mind.

First, these new policies apply
only to a tiny group considered “talent” – highly educated and in high demand.

They’re getting whatever perks
firms can throw at them in order to recruit and keep them.

“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.

That
Neflix has a “chief talent officer” tells you a lot.

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.”

They’re like the vast majority of
American workers – considered easily replaceable.

Employers treat replaceable workers
as costs to be cut, not as assets to be developed.

Replaceable workers almost never get
paid family leave, they get a few paid sick days, and barely any vacation time.

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.

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.

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.  

The
second thing to know about the new family-friendly work policies is that relatively few talented millennials are taking advantage of
them.

They can’t take the time.

One of my
former Berkeley students who’s now at a tech firm across the Bay told me he’s
working fifteen-hour days.

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.

These young
men won’t take paternity leave and these young women won’t even get pregnant –
because it looks bad.

Forget
work-life balance. It’s work-as-life.

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.  

Why do
the talented millennials work so hard?

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.  

Also, you’re
either on the fast track or you’re on a dead-end road.

“I’ve got
to show total dedication,” one of my former students explained. “It’s all or
nothing.”

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.

It’s also
why women on such high-powered career tracks are delaying or ultimately giving up on being
mothers. 

Or they’re giving up on the fast track.

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.

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.

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.

I’m
delighted Netflix and other high-powered firms are offering family-friendly
work.

But I
take most of it with a grain of silicon. So should you.