It is kind of getting cooler in Austin and if you are looking to buy some jackets for your kids there are very nice groupon option Groupon for kids jacket. Also there is another deal Groupon for fleece check these two out.
In April this year I read an article on the extension of maternity leave for employees of Yahoo. I felt like “wow”. It said
*New parents both mom and dad at Yahoo can get a paid an eight weeks of paternal leave and mothers get an additional eight weeks. Plus they give a $500 for the new parents for baby stuff like check out these two posts New born essentials I and New born essentials II.
Then on further reading I found out that
*Google offers a seven week paid leave for parents who did not give birth and the mothers can take off between 18 to 22 weeks.
*Facebook also offers four paid months for both parents and a cash of $4000 as ‘baby cash’.
Obviously all companies do this to retain their employees. I have always wondered why traditionally all US companies are so stringent about the maternity leave. I know how difficult it is to get back to work after 6 weeks of delivery. The idea is that a woman’s body recovers back in 6 weeks so she is fit to work. But what about her mental and emotional health??. That is not taken into consideration and in other cases companies talk about stress and emotional management.
I have heard from my friends that Australian companies and the Government treat this very differently and parents are given more days off …why?? is it because those kids are different from American kids?? No idea. But I really appreciate that US companies are also realizing this and bringing in some changes. Recently “Apple Inc” is also following this suit and have announced a change in their maternity leave. They are giving 14 weeks of 100% pay and 34 weeks of 70% pay. So you can stay home for a year without getting much of a financial hit. Hope it gets better and future moms and dads have more time to spend with their loved ones. Hope this gets more attention and more companies follow in line and parents return back to work with more energy to focus on work.