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Netflix has reportedly been scaling again its progressive parental depart coverage.
Once touted as some of the beneficiant household insurance policies in company America, Netflix started providing limitless parental depart to workers throughout the first yr of their youngster’s start in 2015.
However, a brand new report within the Wall Street Journal suggests the streaming large has been “strolling again” its coverage over the previous few years.
Netflix has expanded quickly, now boasting roughly 14,000 workers — a more-than-60 % leap from earlier than the Covid-19 pandemic. The firm has since eliminated the “freedom and duty” part of its founding tradition memo, in response to the WSJ. As a consequence, present and former workers say the limitless parental depart coverage is now not a precedence for the corporate.
“Netflix at all times had a distinct method than different corporations in that they mentioned it’s necessary for workers to be with their infants,” Clara Guimarães, a former Brazil-based manufacturing worker for Netflix, instructed the WSJ. “Now it feels prefer it’s extra concerning the enterprise wants.”
In October, Netflix eliminated info from the office tradition part on its web site that beforehand acknowledged “new dad and mom typically take 4-8 months” off for parental depart. In its place, the corporate didn’t particularly notice a company-wide variety of months for parental depart. Instead, it inspired workers to discuss with their managers earlier than taking day without work.
While Netflix’s inner advantages web page maintained that salaried workers can take parental depart throughout the first yr of their youngster’s life or adoption, in response to the WSJ, it didn’t specify a size of time.
The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), which applies to corporations with a minimum of 50 workers, requires employers to supply as much as 12 weeks of unpaid parental depart. In some states — New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, California, Colorado, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington D.C. — employers are required to supply 12 weeks of paid parental depart.
Guimarães instructed the WSJ that the ambiguous language on how a lot time workers are literally allowed to take for parental depart “can influence how lengthy individuals really feel comfy taking.”
In 2022, some employees reportedly expressed issues that it appeared Netflix was “focusing on” workers on parental depart or getting back from parental depart by laying them off from the corporate. Former worker Becca Leckie, who had been with Netflix for greater than 5 years, was laid off from the streamer the day earlier than she was to return from a six-month maternity depart. In a since-deleted LinkedIn submit seen by the WSJ, Leckie mentioned she had joined Netflix largely due to its beneficiant parental depart coverage.
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Another worker claimed that when he instructed his supervisor that his associate was anticipating, the supervisor allegedly mentioned: “You’re not taking a yr are you?” The worker’s job was reportedly eradicated in a reorganization this yr, shortly earlier than he returned from a six-month paternity depart.
In an announcement to The Independent, a Netflix spokesperson mentioned that its parental depart coverage “has at all times been to ‘maintain your youngster and your self,’” and defined that “workers have the liberty, flexibility and duty to find out what’s finest for them and their household.”
A spokesperson additionally maintained that, after an evaluation, solely a small proportion of these impacted by layoffs at Netflix had been on parental depart.
“We haven’t pulled again on our parental depart coverage,” mentioned Sergio Ezama, chief expertise officer, in an announcement.
