You can tell a lot by an organisation by the perks and
incentives it offers its employees. Only a few weeks ago, Virgin announced a
very generous perk of unlimited leave*.
I heard today that both Apple and Facebook are adding to the
‘perks’ of working at their companies, the option to freeze women’s eggs.
Of course it is offensive when the choice of a woman (or a
man) is taken away or even hinted at.
However, it’s not the freezing part, that annoys me about
this. It’s the fact that organisations
still don’t think about structuring their work in family friendly ways.
Giving women the option (and even hinting) to defer having a family is a band
aid solution as opposed to acknowledging the structural issues. What about the extra assistance parents need in order to
work? Where is the childcare close to or at the office? How do you engage parents in business goings-on while on parental leave?
I guess it is cheaper to freeze their eggs than to
restructure the business and culture.
*I am sure there are T’s & C’s attached to this,
however, I don’t know too much detail.
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