Women partners at the prestigious US law firm Skadden Arps are sent out to talk to the young female associates about their future. The word nanny is mentioned even before baby is.
A succesful tech company in Eugene, Oregon has taken a different path. Gwen Moran writes: Palo Alto Software, a company that develops business planning and other business-focused software, every day is Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. CEO Sabrina Parsons, who has led the company since 2007, is a staunch advocate of family-friendly policies and is trying to help her employees and others in the tech sector deal with the fact that people have babies. Taking care of them shouldn’t derail your career.
Parsons says that the juggling work and parenting is tough for all parents, but the physical and societal demands placed on women hold particular challenges. From getting pregnant and giving birth to the disparity in many caregiving situations, she says parenting puts women’s careers at risk more than men’s.
“You’re in the prime of your career with all of this experience, when you get mommy-tracked. They get ‘concerned’ that you can’t do your job. That’s a huge reason why we’re not seeing women in leadership roles across Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies and in politics,” she says.
So, Parsons–the mother of three boys ages 10, 7, and 4–is trying to show them how it’s done. At her 55-person tech firm, which was founded by her father, employees enjoy family-friendly policies including flex time and an environment that welcomes children. Parsons herself brought her children to work after they were born, and wore them on a sling around her neck until they were four months old, allowing her to practice attachment parenting while being the CEO of the company, she says.
Kids have comfy couches, crayons, and “there’s always a spare iPad or laptop around,” she says. The company also offers employee health club memberships, which include children’s programs on some days, so parents can take a break by bringing their children to the gym or taking them to lunch, she says.
Palo Alto’s kid-friendly policies aren’t a substitution for day care and there are limits. You can’t bring your kids to work every day, but if they have a week off of school or a particular day when your child care situation has hit a bump in the road, the policies give you options, Parsons says. Children need to sit quietly with their parents–no running and screaming in the halls allowed. And colicky babies aren’t welcome because they’re too disruptive.
While still a small firm, Parsons says that her policies have had real bottom-line benefits. First, Palo Alto enjoys a loyal workforce with little turnover, she says. Fully one-third of her development team is women versus Silicon Valley’s average of 7%.
Revenue from the company’s flagship product has grown 106% over the past 12 months, which she attributes to the contributions of loyal, happy employees. That includes the four working fathers who take advantage of the kid-friendly policies on a regular basis, she says. But there is still more work to do to get all working parents feeling supported and able to pursue their careers without having to sacrifice their roles as parents, she says.
“We need more women in a position to say that we are going to have these types of policies. It’s just assumed that it’s unprofessional. Why is it unprofessional? We need to find a way to make work and family work for everyone,” she says.
