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IPFS News Link • Employee and Employer Relations

Tech firms face growing resentment of parent employees during COVID-19

• https://www.cnet.com, Ian Sherr

Silicon Valley had to change the way its employees work when the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close, businesses to abandon their offices and millions of people to quarantine in their homes across the US starting in March. Among the changes, companies offered flexible schedules and increased time off to help caregivers and employees in their ranks take care of their families.

But though the companies said they'd support parents at home with their children, not all managers and co-workers agreed. Over time, an undercurrent of resentment has bubbled up across the tech industry against those splitting time between work and family, and it's spilled out in public on employee message boards, company chat software and on social networks. At Facebook, the pushback has forced COO Sheryl Sandberg, a parent herself, to defend the company's policies.

"I do believe parents have certain challenges," Sandberg said in an August meeting, according to a report in The New York Times. "But everyone has challenges, and those challenges are very, very real."

Meanwhile, some employees at AppleFacebook and Uber say they're barely making it all work. 

More than half of 1,000 people surveyed by Care.com said they felt like they'd let down their colleagues due to juggling children and work during the pandemic. Fifty-two percent of respondents to the survey, published in August, said they hide their childcare issues because they worry colleagues won't understand. And 45 percent believe their career advancement has suffered because they've have to juggle work and kids at home.

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