A group of more than 1,800 working mothers at Amazon are waging a campaign to convince CEO Jeff Bezos to provide backup daycare for parents dealing with flu outbreaks, school closures and other emergencies, according to Bloomberg.
The self-styled “Momazonians” have been collecting anecdotal evidence to make their case that a lack of daycare options force women to choose between their child and their career – derailing the professional momentum of talented women who might otherwise be promoted to more senior jobs, according to an email reviewed by Bloomberg.
Among the accounts: an Amazon.com Inc. manager tired of seeing colleagues quit because they can’t find childcare in one of the country’s fastest-growing cities and a recruiter frustrated when top talent leaves for companies that offer working parents more support. –Bloomberg
The “Momazonians” are slated to meet with Amazon senior management in the coming weeks to ask that the company provide backup daycare for instances where regular childcare arrangements fall through. They will also ask that Amazon’s Human Resources department start collecting data about employees’ daycare challenges via interviews with both incoming and departing employees in order to “eliminate the management blind spot and prevent such problems from festering any longer.”
“Everyone wants to act really tough and pretend they don’t have human needs,” says former Amazon employee of 12 years, Kristi Coulter. “You don’t want to be the one to step forward and say ‘I’m a mom with kids and I may not be as single-mindedly devoted to my career as everyone else.’ They’re all trying to assimilate to this male-dominated culture.“
In response to a Bloomberg inquiry, Amazon said that it provides valuable benefits to its 250,000 US workers – including healthcare coverage which begins on the first day, flexible paid leave for new parents and “discounts at daycare centers around the country.“
“When creating benefits, we focus on efforts that can scale to help the largest number of individuals, and work in partnership with our employees to ensure that what we are building offers meaningful support,” said the company.
A tight labor market has pushed benefits to the forefront, making them a powerful recruiting and retention tool, especially in the competitive technology industry. The issue of paid parental leave, which the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says is available to only 17 percent of U.S. workers, has gotten most of the attention. But the focus has started to shift to childcare, which can cost almost as much as rent or college tuition.
Amazon has several family-friendly policies. Employees can take paid parental leave all at once or spread it out over time to suit their needs. They can share it with a spouse or partner not employed by Amazon who misses work due to pregnancy and childbirth. Parents returning after childbirth can work part-time for up to eight weeks to smooth the transition. Amazon reimburses mothers traveling for work for their breast milk shipping expenses. –Bloomberg
All of the current perks aside, backup daycare is a serious shortfall in Amazon’s benefits package – currently offered by companies such as Facebook, Microsoft and Apple.
via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2EzNUrz Tyler Durden