| I am so very sorry for your loss. As a parent, your post is incredibly impactful. As a company owner(20 FTE), I've had several staff take leave for catastrophic health issues in their immediate family. It's been incredibly costly for my small company to keep paying them indefinitely beyond their accrued and used holiday/sick leave, but it's been worth it in the long run. It has engendered the kind of effort, loyalty, and performance that can't be bought, only earned. From the company's perspective, it hurts a lot up front but it makes sense ethically, morally, and I think financially as well. Here in NZ, we have paid parental leave. Mostly taken by mothers, but with some nudging for fathers to take some of it as well. When we had our children it was 12 weeks total combined paid parental leave. It has since been extended to 26 weeks combined paid, with up to another 26 weeks unpaid. |
Hot take: it can be bought -- you bought it with paid leave!
Ok, I know what you're trying to express. But I don't think it's dirty at all to acknowledge that taking care of your employees generates loyalty. It's a competitive advantage to offer benefits like this -- that's why all the big tech co's do it.