Are Parental Friendly Policies Leaving Out Child-Free Employees?

Can we talk about another taboo? Parental friendly policies leaving out child-free employees? Or actually inadvertently penalizing child-free employees?

Years ago, at a high-tech company, a friend and co-worker of mine took maternity leave. I was super happy for her – yay her first baby! But our boss immediately dumped her client load on me. It was just assumed that I would take on her work, in addition to my already full-time job, without complaint or additional compensation. It was ridiculously unfair. I was really angry at him, which was justifiable, but also really resentful at her, which was completely not her fault. I remember feeling like the only way I could ever get time off was to have a baby. For 3 months my clients and her clients got really crappy service from me, and I felt like a complete wreck. Bitter party of one.

When she came back there was no “thanks for all of your hard work in doing two jobs” or recognition at all from anyone. Why couldn’t other creative solutions have been explored? I can think of a few including bringing in a temp or contractor, offering a bonus or temporary bump in pay or extra time off at the project end to an existing employee to cover the additional work, or simply not doing the work she was doing for that amount of time. I highly suspect that the company felt “put out” that they were already losing money on her for being out for maternity leave and they weren’t about to lose even more by having to pay extra for a contractor or bonus or additional time off.

The whole ordeal just left me bitter about that boss, the company, and the impact of maternity leave on the “left-behinds”. Being expected to pick up the extra work, either from leaves of absence or even just vacation, tends to fall on women disproportionately and is yet another example of structural sexism. Managers may expect unmarried or childless employees to pick up the slack because they are seen as having no life or more free time. Research has actually found that women without children work the longest hours of any group in the workplace.

So, what should companies do? Immediately evaluate your practices for handling work for employees who are out on leaves of absence. Covering for another employee for one or two days is one thing, but expecting an employee to pick up another employee’s full-time job is completely out of line. Have a process in place to accommodate leaves that does not burden other staff. Yes, that probably means that you will need to spend additional money to bring in a contractor to cover that work. Also, take a hard look at your practices for evidence of sexism – have you been expecting women to pick up the slack, even inadvertently? Do you expect a woman to take notes in meetings, pick up the donuts for the team meeting, organize the quarterly off-sites, order the team lunches, schedule the picture day, remember birthdays, clean up the break room, hound people for their time cards, and plan the vacation coverage schedule? Really? Do better.

In this 2018 article from Harvard Business Review, they point out these supportive structures that should be baseline expectations in modern workplaces and enable success for all employees, regardless of child status: more flexible schedules work better for everyone; work-from-home policies should be reason-neutral; ensure that employees can actually use the flexible work policy; set clear boundaries and procedures for being in touch; establish trust with your employees and trust them; and then measure outcomes, not the process.