The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation decides to review the system because the impact of a one-year childcare leave on the workplace was 'destructive'
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The United States is the only rare country in developed countries where paid parental leave is not permitted, but some companies and organizations have their own parental leave system. A typical example is the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation , which has allowed employees to spend 52 weeks of paid parental leave, equivalent to about a year. However, the head of the organization's Human Resources department said in a post to LinkedIn that the impact of this maternity leave on the workplace was 'too devastating.'
After offering 52-weeks of paid parental leave for three years, we're making a change. Here's why.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/after-offering-52-weeks-paid-parental-leave-three-years-steven-rice/
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation backtracks on one-year parental leaves — Quartz at Work
https://qz.com/work/1541822/the-bill-melinda-gates-foundation-is-backtracking-on-year-long-parental-leaves/
◆ Reasons why the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation abolished parental leave for one year
It was announced in October 2015 that the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will introduce a 52-week paid parental leave system. At that time, large companies in the United States were competing for the acquisition of human resources, and were promoting the introduction and expansion of childcare leave. While large companies such as Facebook and Google only allow childcare leave of around half a year, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's leave period of about one year is remarkably long, making it a topic as an advanced initiative became.
However, on January 25, 2019, about three years after the announcement, Stephen Rice, Chief Executive Officer of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's Human Resources department, posted an article to LinkedIn to review this parental leave. Rice explained that the reason for the review was 'because the impact of one-year childcare leave on the workplace was more disruptive than expected.' For example, some of the compensation for employees who took childcare leave will be hired from the outside, but most will be internally adjusted, so if the employee in charge of compensation takes a leave, it will 'make up for compensation'. A situation in which you had to search for something happened. In another case, 50% of the entire team took childcare leave, which made it impossible to continue work. In addition, the manager of the work place finds and trains the employees who will make up for it, and after one year it has to be trained to fill in the blanks of the employees who have returned again, so the burden is too large. Is also cited as a reason.
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In the same post, Mr. Rice said, “In the interview survey to determine the effects of parental leave, parental leave led to opportunities for conversation with family members and high-quality parenting, which had a great effect on employee careers. 'Don't the 52-week parental leave system interfere with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's mission to help people around the world lead a healthy and productive life,' he admitted. You Under the new parental leave program, which will be introduced instead of the 52-week parental leave program, the vacation period will be shortened from one year to half a year, and instead it will be given a benefit of $ 20,000 (about 2.2 million yen) upon reinstatement . Although the change is quite thorough, the writer of economic media Quartz , Lila McLellan, says that 'it was sad, but it was short-lived,' in response to the decision to halve the one-year vacation period.
◆ Necessity of culture to support child care
Mr. Rice's announcement also illustrates how difficult it is to secure business continuity while maximizing the work-life balance of employees, even for organizations of the same size as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. However, there are also countries that have achieved substantial childcare support through public systems. An example is Canada, which can be reached in 3 hours by car from Seattle, where the headquarters of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is located. In Canada, subsidized maternity leave from 2000 to 3 months and childcare leave for 12 months are regulated by law, and the government pays 55% of income during the leave. In 2017, 12 months of maternity leave were extended to 18 months.
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Of course, even if there are no financial problems, leaving an employee for a year can have a significant impact on the workplace. 'It's not unusual for people who want to take childcare leave to get backs from their co-workers,' said Nora Spinks, CEO of the non-profit Vanier Institute of the Family in Canada. You are However, it can be overcome by trained managers who communicate properly with their employees to gain an understanding. Samantha Legg, president and publisher of Canadian Wide Media publisher in Vancouver, Canada, is responding by receiving an application six months before parental leave. Mr. Legg told a Quartz interviewer 'I have enough time to find and train a temporary employee in six months. I have been working here for 25 years, but I have never been troubled by the employee's parental leave. There is no comment.
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◆ What is the period of ideal parental leave?
Mr. Rice of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, based on the 6 months maternity leave, says, “A 26-week period for paid parental leave that is optimal for maternal health and wellbeing” The research results of the research organization (New America) are quoted. The New York Times supports this notion and calls the impact of long-term parental leave on careers as a 'long-term job pitfall'. On the other hand, Spinks is skeptical that childcare leave is sufficient in six months, and it is risky to take long-term leave, such as IT companies and bank institutional investors, who are in a rapidly changing environment While admitting that there is a type of industry, it has been pointed out that six months is not sufficient in the case of a single parent or when a child has a disability. Asked about the decisions of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Spinks replied, 'If you try to measure what would benefit parents and children, or just one measure, you will miss a lot.' He also stated that it was necessary to consider how much parental leave should be in each case.
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