A New York Times article reported that some non-parents who work for technology companies are loudly complaining that it's unfair that their coworkers who have children are getting extra time off to provide care, as it leaves them doing more work. In one example, parents at Facebook have been offered up to 10 weeks of paid leave to care for children whose schools or day care centers are shuttered. Over 2,000 staffers voted to ask Sheryl Sandberg during a company livestream about more support for non-parents, prompting digital spars between parents and non-parents over the issue. According to the New York Times, when pressed again later in the livestream, Sandberg added that Facebook has tried to be inclusive in designing its policies and a spokeswoman told the Times that the company has added more support for all employees during this challenging time.
This is outrageous. Non-parents complaining about such policies may not have considered that withholding such support for parents would be truly dangerous. If parents can't take time off while they are now largely responsible for childcare and education, they either need to leave their children unattended or hire in-home childcare. Of course, in-person childcare is prohibitively expensive for many families and is extremely difficult to find now amidst increased demand -- in part because Trump administration visa restrictions prevent new au pairs from entering the country.
Moreover, both options present safety concerns. In-person care by people other than parents will reduce social distancing, potentially contributing to the continued spread of the pandemic -- and prolonging the amount of time it takes for all of us to get fully back to work. On the other hand, not watching children carefully is extremely dangerous. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, most injuries to children occur when their parents are under stress.
So, let's be clear: There can be dangers for children when their parents don't have the flexibility from their employers to care for them. During this pandemic, most of us are doing unpleasant things every day, in large part to protect the people around us -- like socially distancing and wearing masks. Coping with parents working a little less is just another thing we all must do in order to collectively get through this pandemic.
Non-parents should also consider that using leave time to care for children is the exact opposite of taking a vacation. According to the New York Times, a Twitter staffer was criticized for taking leave, despite the fact that, as other employees who came to the parent's defense noted, providing childcare round-the-clock is certainly not something they would voluntarily choose to do.
For example, I earned three graduate degrees while working full-time in demanding positions, including as a Treasury spokesperson in the Obama administration. During one particularly stressful time in that job, in which I spent a lot of time on airplanes, I did not sleep in a bed for an entire week. But none of that was anywhere near as exhausting as solo parenting during this pandemic -- especially during the month that my husband, who's a doctor, quarantined apart from my young daughter and me while he treated coronavirus patients. The fact that parents have managed to simultaneously keep up with our jobs at all is nothing short of heroic.
Of course, people without children are facing heartbreaking circumstances, too. Many single people are experiencing extreme loneliness after spending six months isolated from others. They need support from their colleagues and employers as well. And it's critical for companies to ensure that non-parents aren't completely overwhelmed with extra work while other colleagues are on leave. But the solution isn't to make parents work more -- it's to realize that business simply can't continue as usual under pandemic conditions, so some projects may simply require more time, staffing or rethinking.
Six months into a pandemic that has left moms and dads in the impossible position of trying to provide childcare while simultaneously working from home, American parents are already overwhelmed by stress. As one sociologist who has been interviewing parents about their experiences told the Times, "There's been a lot of actual crying during interviews." The very last thing we deserve is the censure of other people for keeping our families alive.
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September 08, 2020 at 01:29AM
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Work colleagues should respect, not resent, flexible work rules for parents - CNN
"work" - Google News
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