HOW WOMEN WON BETTER FAMILY LEAVE AT THE NEW YORK TIMES
We know the current state of family leave varies wildly and largely stinks. So it was promising to hear how a few determined women at the New York Times fought and transformed the paid leave policies at the storied institution, setting a real life example of being the change they wanted to see and getting s*** done.
In this season finale of The Double Shift a “what if” question became a “how to” dialogue which became an entirely new paid leave policy that wasn’t just good enough but that was actually good -- both for families and for business. Armed with research more than anecdotes, the ladies at the NYT presented management with study after study demonstrating that improving family leave wasn’t just good ethics practice but was fundamentally a good business practice too.
One would think more companies would follow suit given more than 50% of the workforce are women and many of those women will try to and or actually become mothers. Paid family leave isn’t a frivolous perk like “pizza Fridays” and companies that treat it as such do a disservice to their culture, employees and bottom lines. It’s hard to say if this kind of fight can be won at companies that don’t have such morally ambitious mission statements to uphold or are smaller, predominantly male, and with a majority of less privileged employees. It is, however, a successful step in the right direction toward normalizing a healthier work culture for working families today.