The burden of parenthood doesn't always fall solely on mom. I rushed home from work early Tuesday because my son had been crying non-stop for 3 hours (he had stomach issues, which caused him to enter a negative feedback loop).
My wife and I have a plan in place, she is 1st responder, solely because she commutes by car, and is 20 minutes away.
However, she is out of town at a conference, so I am the primary parent on call.
That is also to say nothing of what it's like to be a middle aged person and have to care for an elderly parent.
Basically, life happens, and work needs to account for that. If you as an employer are lucky, you can be in a field that can easily replace Humans with Robots/Computers.
As a boss myself, I let my team know, they can have as much time necessary to handle their personal lives, as long as they deliver.
(separate comment, because this is not related to genders)
> Basically, life happens, and work needs to account for that.
I'm not sure that it does need to do that. Let's say someone has three kids and is a single parent. This person cannot be the best at what they do. It's just not possible.
That guy or gal who has to leave at 4pm sharp every day to pick up from child care and then needs to care for the children can not compete with someone who does not and has the same passion for work, and abilities.
Who has read more books, who has gone to more conferences, networked, and actually coded, after 10 years of this. All else being equal?
I think it's up to the state to encourage raising children if it wants, but let's not pretend that someone who's been away for years is as good as the same person who has not.
Some countries legally mandate that parental leave MUST be counted as "work experience", with promotions and salary increases as if they were working. (e.g. Sweden, with its 400+ day parental leave)
(don't counter with "someone really good and a parent is better than a mediocre one without children", since you'll find that I said nothing implying otherwise, because of course that's true)
> Let's say someone has three kids and is a single parent. This person cannot be the best at what they do. It's just not possible.
I can only offer a counter from my own experience--the 4 people at my company I have worked with well enough to assess their skillsets, who have had kids recently, still perform as well as they did before having kids.
That's not what I'm saying though. Take these people in 10 years. 10 years of having to come late and leave early because child care. 10 years of sometimes having to stay home with a sick child, attenda PTA stuff, not sleeping because baby screaming or something.
10 years of being poorer because having a child is more expensive[1], and having MUCH less "free time". Though I still classify it as leisure time.
Depending on the country, this includes being COMPLETELY away from work for a year of parental leave.
Do you think these people will be as good as their parallel-universe counterparts that did not go through this?
My wife and I have a plan in place, she is 1st responder, solely because she commutes by car, and is 20 minutes away.
However, she is out of town at a conference, so I am the primary parent on call.
That is also to say nothing of what it's like to be a middle aged person and have to care for an elderly parent.
Basically, life happens, and work needs to account for that. If you as an employer are lucky, you can be in a field that can easily replace Humans with Robots/Computers.
As a boss myself, I let my team know, they can have as much time necessary to handle their personal lives, as long as they deliver.