How Can Public Companies Take Care of Their Employees?
Image by Joshua Hoehne
This week, we featured Donnie Smith, former CEO of Tyson Foods, on the podcast to share about the role of chaplaincy in their organization. And recently, CNBC featured an article that dealt with an employee-related problem at Facebook.
When it comes to large, publicly-traded companies, it’s time to ask the question: how do we ensure that we’re doing everything we can to care for our employees? How do chaplains and employee resource groups play into this? As Faith Driven Investors, it’s our responsibility to push this conversation forward. Below is one example of why this matters…
Why I Quit Facebook to Become a Mother
A year ago, I had to make the hardest decision of my life: Choose between my dream job and my baby girl.
I loved being a data scientist in Facebook’s Social Good department. The open culture and shared sense that we could reach so many people and improve their lives made me enjoy my work even more.
Facebook’s benefits for new parents were quite generous by US standards, including four months’ paid leave, $4,000 in “baby cash,” partial reimbursement of childcare expenses and ample lactation rooms in every building.
I was incredibly lucky to work there for five months while pregnant with my third baby. My 5-year-old and 3-year-old spent the day with a patchwork of family members and babysitters, while my husband worked as a software developer. Working full-time left me just enough time to feed my kids, tuck them into bed and catch enough sleep for myself and my unborn baby. I was both exhilarated and exhausted.
After my daughter was born, I soaked up as much time with her as I could. I loved her tiny yawns and delicious toes — and dreaded the end of my leave. During wakeful nights of nursing, my mind ran in circles scheming on how to return full-time. I wished for on-site child care so I could bring her to work and take nursing breaks.
Maybe I could leave early and make up the hours after my kids went to bed. I’d catch up on missed sleep over the weekends. Holding the baby who saw me as her world, I tried to convince myself that I could leave her all day. I couldn’t.