
Why It's So Hard to Be a Working Mom. Even at Facebook - docker_up
https://www.wired.com/story/i-am-a-data-scientist-and-mom-but-facebook-made-me-choose/
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lacker
I feel for the author, but this article doesn't seem fair to me. For what it's
worth, I was working at Facebook when I had a kid and IMO Facebook has really
good parental leave policies. You get four months of leave, but you can use
that however you want over the next year. The way that worked for me was
taking parental leave days scattered through the year rather than taking off a
4-month chunk of time. So I basically was working part time for a while, even
though the article makes it sound like this is impossible.

I think the author got a really good deal from Facebook. She worked there for
four months, got four months of paid leave, and then quit shortly thereafter.
The parental policies are very clear, and she knew she was 5 months pregnant
when she took the job, so in a sense this was her plan all along.

I don't blame her for leaving when she had a kid. It just seems like chutzpah
to complain to the media about Facebook's maternity policies, when those same
policies just gave you 4 months of paid leave for a job you only spent 4
months actually working at.

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ng12
Raising a child is a job. And not just any job, a stressful 60+ hour a week
job.

No company can alleviate that.

~~~
chaosbutters
I mean, basically you're on duty 24/7 making sure that creature doesn't try to
kill itself through dumb luck. I'd say it is closer to 168 hour a week job
during the early years.

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40acres
I'm surprised that Facebook does not have part time options or other
accommodations that working mom's can use.

At my company you can work part time for reduced pay: ie. take Fridays off and
be deduced 2 work days pay per check. A co-worker of mine works from home
Fridays and Mondays to be with her daughter, I can't imagine the savings
they've accumulated over the past 3-4 years by not having to pay for those
days of preschool.

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dmm
It would help a lot if full-time meant <20hrs a week.

EDIT: As recommended by Keynes.

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jason_slack
John Maynard Keynes, the Economist, wrote a lot for those that are interested:

[https://cas2.umkc.edu/economics/people/facultypages/kregel/c...](https://cas2.umkc.edu/economics/people/facultypages/kregel/courses/econ645/winter2011/generaltheory.pdf)

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tmaly
Raising a kid is a full time job. I think the standard deductions for
dependents should be way higher than 4k. If you look at some of the projects
in cost to raise a kid, it is huge.

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laurex
As more women enter tech, fully remote companies may become more attractive
and viable on a larger scale.

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dudul
I wish it was true, but if a company with the resources of Facebook doesn't
allow remote or part time work, how can it become really mainstream?

