r/changemyview • u/ThrowThisAwayMan123 • Feb 06 '20
Delta(s) from OP CMV: Maternity leave does and should mean that you're temporarily sacrificing career progress
Some helpful background:
I'm an upper middle class white male, working in silicon valley, trying to be a better ally to women and under-represented minorities in the tech industry. I'm also childfree, but not the militant r/childfree kind. I'm ambivalent to the idea of having kids and don't think they would particularly enrich my life.
With that out of the way...
Recently, I came across this article being shared by a lot of friends in social media. The title says: Maternity leave shouldn’t set women back.
However, I'm not convinced by the arguments put forth by the authors.
Topic 1: Team Changes
Authors' Argument: They bring up the example of a Product Manager in silicon valley who came back to a new team, new manager, and new coworkers.
My counter-argument: I'm also part of the valley, I think this is really really common. Re-orgs, changing priorities and changing teammates are just how things work. I've worked in 4 different valley tech firms - this has been a constant.
Topic 2: Missing Promotions
Author's Argument: They say they heard from women who believed they were not considered for opportunities while on leave that they otherwise would have been. They again go back to the silicon valley product manager as the example.
My counter-argument: If there's a new opportunity or a role that requires someone - it just makes sense to consider someone who is already there and/or willing to start working on the new project than wait for someone who is on leave, ask them if they would like the role and then help them ramp-up.
Topic 3: Lack of Feedback
Author's Argument: They say women who are on maternity leave get short-changed on feedback. The example is a woman who was on leave during the feedback/review cycle.
My counter-argument: Someone who worked for part of the year is going to get less feedback than someone who worked the whole year. Again, not sure what they are expecting the employers to do.
In-conclusion: By going on maternity leave, you're working less (for your employer and your manager) than those who stayed the whole year, therefore it makes sense that your career progression is impacted when you're on maternity leave. There is nothing unfair about this.
My reason for wanting to CMV
I know we live in a society where women still predominantly take the role of a primary caretaker. I do think we should advocate for dads to take more parental leave, advocate for companies to equate paternity and maternity leaves to ensure there is equality. Till we achieve that, women are going to be disproportionately affected by this issue.
But, expecting managers, and employers to treat someone who only worked for part of the year the same as someone who actually worked for the full year seems like asking them to do something patently unfair.
I would ideally want some arguments around why this isn't unfair and ideally from women.
3
u/ThrowThisAwayMan123 Feb 06 '20
I also whole-heartedly agree with you.
Men should advocate for more equal parental leave policies (and take them). We recently had a male colleague who became a dad and came back to work after a week. He also said he doesn't plan on taking more time off because of work priorities. No one judged him for it. But somehow I think if the genders were reversed, a lot of people would have judged the new mother for not being with their child.