Being a mom has got to be one of the most difficult jobs in the world, it is a job wherein you can never get paid and you can never retire. However, it makes it even more difficult when you have to juggle both being a full-time mom as well as being at work. There are times that moms need to work because they need to provide for their families or that they just simply decide not to give up on their careers.
In the United States, it is in the Family and Medical LeaveAct of 1993 that mothers must be given the right to have a temporary leave of absence for a certain period of time when they are either expecting or has given birth. It is not exactly indicated in the law that it should be a paid leave, unlike in other countries who actually offer them. Then again, not if you are actually an employee of one of the biggest tech companies in the world, which is Facebook.
Not So Family-Friendly Facebook
It turns out that Facebook actually gives tons of benefits to their employees who are parents, they have specific parking spots for pregnant employees, even give out $4,000 worth of baby expenses, a low priced daycare. They also have the longest maternity leave in the country which is 4 months and it is even paid.
It may seem such a great deal for women especially when they are starting families or have families, then again according to some of their employees don’t find their jobs family-friendly at all despite of all the benefits the company are willing to give them. There are some professional mothers who work at the biggest social media platform that reveal their jobs don’t actually give them the chance to healthily balance the demands of their work as all well as raising their families.
To them Facebook has failed when it comes to extending more leave despite the initial offer not just to mothers but to all of their employees who are parents and that it has sadly become very common in the country, forcing some parents to just working part-time or work from home instead. These grievances were at first just a private matter within the company but have become very public recently because of the complaints.
Family always come first but career comes a close second most especially since it is a way for the families to survive. The company’s Chief Operation Officer Sheryl Sandburg, have encouraged their female employees to simply “lean in” to their jobs, but they just couldn’t be flexible enough to make a living and to make a home because of their workloads and not enough left.
Working Facebook Moms
Unfortunately, despite being one of the most powerful and advanced countries in the world, the United States is still one of those nations who does not guarantee a paid maternity leave for working moms.
According to Facebook’s former 38-year-old data scientists, Eliza Khuner, she had to leave her job a few m the about after jot being allowed to work from home or even do part-time. This is after being rejected for an additional unpaid leave to take care of her infant daughter at home. Khuner shared her regrets on leaving the company on Wired magazine, she stated how she knows exactly how Facebook actually gives it better in that department compared to other companies.
That is because more than 80 percent of workers in the United States don’t even get a single paid leave for new parents and that means there are millions of them suffering from it. And 94 percent of them are actually in the low-income range. This is why more and more pregnant women are actually working still despite being almost in their due date. Some even work just a week before they’re due since they won’t get paid when they leave.
This is why she actually regrets leaving since Facebook already offers a four-month pay leave, which is something you can’t get from other companies in the country. Then again, it still not enough that she had to resign. That is because her job requires full attention and can’t exactly slack off, but her baby needs her attention more than anything, so she had to make such a difficult choice.