CEO Calls Workers His ‘True Family’ And Refers To Their Babies As ‘Future Employees’ But Offers No Paid Parental Leave Time
Real families care for each other.
Matilda Wormwood / Pexels There are aspects of corporate culture that are so hugely out of touch with their employees’ realities, they could be a joke, if they weren’t so harmful to people’s livelihood.
Most people work to support themselves, which, for parents, means finding a balance between their jobs and their caretaking role. It’s never an easy balance, especially when their workplace is only supportive in words, not actions.
A CEO calls workers his ‘true family’ and calls their babies ‘future employees,’ yet he doesn’t provide any paid parental leave.
In a recent edition of Robyn L. Garrett’s “Bad Boss Storytime” on TikTok, the author and CEO shared a tale from “Ask A Manager,” which she called “really funny except that it is tragic.”
An employee wrote to the column to describe their harrowing work environment, saying, “I work for a contracting company that places workers in other companies' offices all over the place. I’ve never met anyone from corporate HQ, just my regional managers, but I do get emails from our CEO. A lot of emails. Every single day.”
“In the middle of misspelled and grammatically incorrect messages about hitting sales goals or wishing us happy holidays, he’ll drop in some incredibly personal details about his life,” the worker said. “I’ve never met this man, but I know all about his mother’s mental health issues, his acrimonious divorce, and his great new girlfriend.”
“Whenever an employee has a baby, the CEO sends out an all-staff congratulations email and refers to the baby as ‘A future employee,’” which is behavior that should truly raise all the red flags.
“Often, a picture of the newborn wearing a onesie with our corporate logo on it is attached to the email,” the worker said. “He often refers to the company as ‘One big family,’ and his employees as his ‘One true family.’”
Matilda Wormwood / Pexels
Despite the CEO’s insistence that the company is a family and that employees’ babies are future employees, he doesn’t offer paid parental leave.
“This company does not offer 401K matching and barely contributes to our insurance premiums… This company offers no paid parental leave,” they continued. “The policy on parental leave is explicitly the bare minimum covered by the FMLA.”
According to the U.S. Department of Labor, the Family Leave and Medical Act “provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year.”
Yet employees are only eligible for protected, unpaid time-off under certain stipulations, “If they have worked for their employer at least 12 months, at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months.”
The Department of Labor also notes that “Time taken off work due to pregnancy complications can be counted against the 12 weeks of family and medical leave,” meaning if a pregnant person takes time off due to a difficult pregnancy, they won’t get as much time off once their baby arrives.
A company that doesn’t provide paid parental leave prioritizes profit over the health of their employees’ families.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists shared their position that paid parental leave is essential for families’ health.
They cited the health benefits of paid parental leave, including decreased infant and childhood mortality and decreased infant and birthing parent re-hospitalization, along with decreased instances of postpartum depression and intimate partner violence.
Not only does paid parental leave allow parents to bond with their babies during a crucial and tender time period, but it also improves worker morale and retention and increases workers’ income over time.
As the National Partnership for Women and Families noted, a lack of federal policy leaves 80% of U.S. workers without paid time off after the birth or adoption of a baby. 46% of workers aren’t even guaranteed unpaid leave through the FMLA.
There are also disparities among lower-income earners and part-time workers, most of whom are women and people of color. Their access to paid leave is highly limited: Among the 25% lowest-paid workers in the U.S., only 9% had access to paid parental leave in 2020.
Sarah Chai / Pexels
“I don’t have a question,” the worker concluded. “It’s a [expletive] company and a [expletive] field to be in. Under a sane economy, neither would exist, and I’ll be incredibly happy when I finally leave.”
Garrett offered her perspective on the company’s toxic culture, saying, “It is astonishing how many CEOs will allow work and their employees to stand in for all their social needs.”
“Basically, they’re gonna hold people hostage because they know that they can’t really disagree and they can’t really say anything, and they have to listen to this person. And so, like this guy, they’re gonna rant and rave and have absolutely no idea how out of touch they are,” she explained. “And they do these little things thinking that it’s this big gesture of generosity, but that is just delusional if you’re underpaying people, you don’t cover their insurance premiums, you don’t cover any kind of paid parental leave at all.”
“That’s not generosity,” she said. “That is cheapskate-ism.”
In a healthy family, people care for one another by listening, showing up, and supporting major life changes. While the CEO maintains his workers are his family, he isn’t treating them as though he actually cares.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.