Related Posts
Custodial or 529 for child?
Conversation Starter
Which work-paper is "your baby"
More Posts
How are these? Mens Suede Black from Todd’s
Pro
Additional Posts in Accounting
Does EY pay for the CFE exam and Review course?
I hate the word provision now
TWD episode though!?
Is the CFE pretty easy?
Ladies, are gifts important to you?
Thoughts of transfer pricing?
New to Fishbowl?
Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
I find that my firm is very supportive. When my wife and I were going through the pregnancy process, I felt like the firm had my back. Granted, I'm a man, so I'd be curious to hear what women in the industry think. I feel like I'm frequently reading stories about women who feel like it is hard to communicate their pregnancy to the firm if it coincides with busy season
At Deloitte both men and women get 16 weeks plus you can take PTO, etc. up to 24 weeks off. In most places this is unheard of for men. I’m about to start my paternity leave and the partners have been supportive of it. I would say that working with a newborn at home during busy season can be rough. When I get home late, I’m exhausted but need to help with the baby. It’s also a balancing act when I work the weekends as well.
US businesses do not do enough to support new parents. Our parental leave is terrible compared to the most progressive countries. Even the Gates Foundation recently took back their year-long parental leave policy, which was disappointing.
And opponents of longer parental leave can say it affects business all they want, but you don’t see Canadian businesses or Swedish businesses complaining about needing to train people to replace those on leave because they care about their people and make it work.
Which is why I said US businesses don’t do enough =) Also government.
And even the Gates Foundation which is better than most retracted a policy that has been implemented elsewhere successfully. So that tells you how bad it is.
I’m not even a parent. Just hearing stories about people’s lack of time to spend with their little ones makes me sad.
There's a struggle with women since they are the ones going through the physical bearing. While B4 have very good parent leave (at least Deloitte, as mentioned above), many women don't start their leave until right before they are due. This means those last few weeks at the firm are rough as they have physical stress of being pregnant while mental stress of making sure everything is wrapped up or transitioned before they leave. I once had a senior who was fairly along pregnant during busy season, and I was legitimately concerned for the amount of stress on her and the baby. Men on the other hand, also wait closer to deliver date, but don't have as much burden. Now, men may be going the extra mile taking care of their spouse, however they themselves do not have to go through it.
Completely agree, and this is best case scenario of a “normal” pregnancy where you “only” have regular aches and pains that come with pregnancy and not additionally side effects that come with being pregnant.
An acquaintance got really bad morning sickness (like lost a ton of weight in 2 weeks so she ended up in the hospital) from some complication and was at first concerned about the men on her team not understanding and thinking she was using pregnancy as an excuse to not work.
My firm's heart is in the right place but the execution... man. From the outside it looks like we have some decent parental benefits like providing lactation pumps, shipping breast milk if you're traveling, and flexible work arrangement (FWA) but, in practice, nobody knows these benefits exist and FWA and parental leave end up hurting peoples' careers. Say you're out for 3 months on parental leave. They don't prorate your yearly sales targets like they do your utilization/chargeable hours. So you still have to make the same amount of sales as if you were never out. Also our maternity leave! Its only 4 weeks! That's lower than any other competitor. Wow talking about this gets me so angry.
Protiviti 1, I think these benefits are well known. We have great benefits for parents except the actual leave length.
Tax Manager 1- Protiviti’s leave is 4 weeks in addition to 6 weeks of disability. So not as bad as it sounded above, but still lots of room for improvement
RSM was incredibly supportive of my time off and breastfeeding. Plus they promoted soon after I returned from work and my promotions haven’t been hindered a bit from having kids. Which is just nice to see.
After you have the child is really when you need support. Since our industry is dominate by men and many women in leadership positions don’t have children, it’s hard for them to fully understand what it means to be a working mother. Which includes how to retain working mothers. To have a childless partner say that they don’t understand how having a child is different than a pet speaks volumes to the overall mindset of many.
My personal experience is that most female partners who have children are even harder on women who are pregnant. "I had to work through my pregnancy too, so what makes you so special? You can do it too." :(
I'm 7 months pregnant right now, and it's tough! I'm due a couple weeks after 4/15, and the are many days where 5 hours in I'm thinking how many more hours I can push it. I'm probably over- honest with my staff because I want them all to know that when they go through it, I'll advocate for them to put themselves and baby first, as I do now. However, I'm in my late 30s, and even at my salary (and a second job) i'm worried for how my finances are going to be hit while taking STD. Yeah, it will be great to have the TIME off, but it feels like from above posts, few people are focusing on the drastic decrease in PAY we're taking to spend time with newborns. Also, I'm "partner track," but not sure how that's going to work out raising an infant at the same time and possibly having a second right away (before I'm 40). We'll see...
Hope you make partner so you can then get paid to spend time with your kids !
I took 3 months of leave and I'm a father. Great feeling. But upon returning i noticed my team and executives acting differently, not giving me time or much attention. Seems like i shot myself in the foot progression wise. W.e, if i could id do it all over again
It’s just another one of those things like flexibility- it doesn’t really matter as much what the overall firm is pushing, if the people you work with and who will be evaluating you don’t buy into it then you’re kinda screwed. It’s incredibly unfair
I feel like I’m punished because I don’t have a kid and I don’t have to pick them up from daycare so I have to work more and don’t get the flexibility 🤷🏻♀️
EY1: sorry I just haven’t met any parents who do that but it’s nice EY is so lenient. And I guess if the work gets done and on time it works for everyone :)
Stress during pregnancy https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/can-stress-during-pregnancy-harm-my-baby-20170822-gy1dbl.html
Or my favorite is all the talk about all the things you get because of the pregnancy that I don’t get. Want to take your rating from the prior year without going through ARC? You can. Want to roll off all the difficult clients and let some poor schmuck clean up the mess you left while you get to start over on clients that you like better? Have at it.
(PwC) I think we get pretty good benefits comparatively for the US but still depressing compared to most of the rest of the civilized world. I’m due July 24, and will have short-term disability kicking in 2 weeks prior to my due date. That plus the 4th of July shutdown means I’ll only be working 3 days total in July! Planning to then take off the rest of the year and return in Jan- haven’t decided whether I want to take the 60% phased return yet but I’ll probably need to be jumping in at 100% for busy season prep then. I think in my group we do a pretty good job of promoting flexibility for parents- I always say it doesn’t really matter what the overall firm says about flexibility, the key is how the group you’re working with treats it. If you’re working with an old-school partner who thinks if he doesn’t see you, you’re not working- well, it’s not going to be a good time.
Thanks! Actually leaning towards taking it now. At least for the first couple weeks when everything’s ramping back up, since we usually don’t get crazy till mid-Jan. And if I end up working closer to 80% or 90% well, at least it’s at 100% pay! Also considering maybe doing the 60% starting in mid Dec or something and then getting the holiday shutdown- but there’s something so psychologically satisfying about thinking I’ll be taking all of the rest of the year off!
Worst part about all of this, it will not change; I’m a proponent of change but when your <30 and everyone you work for partner wise is >45 ; they don’t understand provided they craft and manipulate their own schedules to fit their needs because they can. Super sad, silver lining - I’ve heard of law firms not providing any parental leave; grass isn’t always greener
I work for a smaller firm. They offer 0 paid leave. They only offer the legally required FMLA 12 weeks unpaid time off with a guarantee of having your job when you return. It is the one thing that really angers me about a firm I otherwise mostly love. They do allow you to accrue your sick leave for however many years and use it all during parental leave... at 6 days of sick leave a year, it would take 10 years to get 12 weeks paid time off.... many of us will be too old to have kids by then..... 😒
Pretty insane that US is so behind on that, I think it’s the only western county without a proper one, not even to mention how expensive is daycare. I can’t believe kinder garden doesn’t start early like other countries. It’s pretty crazy US government doesn’t care at all especially with all the equalities battles and all the working women. I’m very shocked, I’m not saying that you should be like Europe and Canada, but a new law is needed.
Honestly the struggle is childcare. The time off was great - I took 6 months with each kid and I was ready to come back to work but then the reality of great, affordable childcare kicked in, especially since both my husband and I work for the firm.
I became a father shortly after EY’s sixteen weeks of paid leave went into effect a few years ago. I wouldn’t trade that time at home with my newborn son for anything. There was no impact on my career path (audit senior manager) and I felt support from my teams and clients.
PA is the only place where “parental leave” is defined as leaving your kids
I took all the paid leave that was offered (available after 1 year of work) and, with spouse's leave plus family, it helped.
Echoing other people that the huge issue is being able to tend to work and kid(s) through pre-K. Daycare? Nanny? Are you able to bug out without any hassle by 5:30, knowing that after a few hours of dinner and bed time you log in again at 9pm? If you travel a lot it's a different story, but either way be up front about your priorities. You will get more respect by being honest. Your career will last 40 years or more, so keep perspective.
(Male M&A Tax Mgr w/4 yr old)