Friday 14 March 2008

Paternity Leave

I am all in favour of paternity leave, but I cannot see why it should only be available so early in the child’s life. Especially if the child is still breast-feeding, what, with the best will in the world, is the father actually doing all day?

Whereas a teenager, in particular, might very well benefit enormously if his or her father were in a position to say, “That’s it, I’m taking that bit of paternity leave I’ve been owed all these years, and since I’m either back at work the following Monday morning or I lose my job, then this will be sorted out by that Sunday night at the latest, oh yes it will be!”

So let him be able to take it at any point up until the child is 18 or leaves school, I say.

2 comments:

  1. David -

    We couldn't agree with you more. Parents need to be able to spend whatever time is necessary with their children (no matter what their age). So take 'paternity leave' out of it...we'd like to see people be able to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as their work gets done.

    Sleep in and eat breakfast with the kids? Yup.

    Take time to hang out with your teenager during the week for no reason whatsoever -whenever you want? Yup.

    Go on a picnic with the family on a Thursday afternoon at 2:00? Yes.

    No PTO submitted. Just do these things with NO judgment from the workplace. Work gets done. People live happy lives.

    Why not?

    Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson
    Creators of the Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE)
    Authors of the forthcoming book "Why Work Sucks and How to Fix It"

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, I didn't actually say that...

    ReplyDelete