s/o Is your employer family friendly?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another Fed. I think mine is fairly friendly:
No flexible hours, although I only have to work 8-4:30.
No Telework (up to boss and my boss hates telework)
No maternity, but can use sick leave. So far after working 6 years I've saved up 9 weeks. Baby #2 is screwed.

This is awful. I would leave

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Freddie Mac - used to be very family friendly in 90's and early 2000's, but with latest management, the focus is on "culture" and changing the "culture".

in my group, what that means is that you are a target if you are not in the office everyday. fixed hours are gone, it is working until work done.

people are periodically "disappearing" and you find out they were fired. they never have huge layoffs, just continuous firings group by group.

another Freddie Mac employee. And in IT department. Every day I go in thinking I may be fired. There is nothing family friendly about Freddie Mac.

Completely arbitrary. No one in management feels safe and it ripples down. I have been through 5 VPs in last 4 years. Managers live in NY and have no investment in firm.

In one month, worked 3 weekends in a row, on top of full 50 hour weeks, and the weekends were 5:00 AM calls with 16 hour for deployments, and managers calling monday asking why I haven't completed something. I say managers because norm is to have people matrixed to multiple projects, so you thrash and show up for meetings and status calls, but get little done. No one cares about your family because most people are contractors from a managed service provider.

Really, how much has a 30 year loan changed over the years, it is not that hard, but the politics and restatement, and recession, and outsourcing, have turned it into a very un-family friendly place.

[Anonymous]

Consultant here.

- Flexible hours (just need to be online during "core" business hours of 9am-3pm if we're on a project, if we're not on a project as long as we get everything done within the week doesn't matter when it gets done.)
- Flexible leave policy (if my PM approves it I can take it)
- 8 weeks paid maternity leave, can take another 8 weeks unpaid then 2 at half time
- Yearly company retreat (including cruises, Miami, Vegas, San Diego)
- Telework 100%
- Able to take off during the day for school functions
- Free employee healthcare

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another Fed. I think mine is fairly friendly:
No flexible hours, although I only have to work 8-4:30.
No Telework (up to boss and my boss hates telework)
No maternity, but can use sick leave. So far after working 6 years I've saved up 9 weeks. Baby #2 is screwed.

This is awful. I would leave

huh? I think the fact that feds can save their leave for years makes it a family friendly place. I don't really know any feds that got a whole 12 weeks paid though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another Fed. I think mine is fairly friendly:
No flexible hours, although I only have to work 8-4:30.
No Telework (up to boss and my boss hates telework)
No maternity, but can use sick leave. So far after working 6 years I've saved up 9 weeks. Baby #2 is screwed.

This is awful. I would leave

huh? I think the fact that feds can save their leave for years makes it a family friendly place. I don't really know any feds that got a whole 12 weeks paid though.

Yeah, you are not including some of the best benefits of being a Fed. A defined pension for life once you hit five years, sick leave that you can save forever, growing annual leave until you hit five weeks a year, ability to take LWOP, leave bank (if you were in your Agency's leave bank baby #2 would be just fine), good health care benefits for life, matching TSP. So the person who said it was awful and you should leave... I wouldn't unless you find another Fed position in a slightly more relaxed office.

[Anonymous]

Tech firm. Big recognized name. Yes. I've brought my dog, I've brought my kids. I work from home sometimes.

[Anonymous]

I work for a small construction contractor as an engineer. My daily schedule has some flexibility moving site to site but some deadlines and appointments are inflexible. No paid leave, no health insurance, no retirement, no dental, etc. Money is OK, about $60k, which means we both work, so I'll call it not so family friendly overall.

[Anonymous]

I would consider my job pretty family friendly in many ways but not great in others.

I work for a local school system 12 months (not a teacher). I get four weeks vacation plus winter and spring breaks, two weeks of sick leave, and three personal days. I can use that leave pretty much whenever I want and it carries over. I have good health benefits and will have a pension when I retire. I have fixed hours but am home by the same time almost every day (there is a lot of predictability to my schedule). I never have to travel for work. I have my own "rules" - I don't take work home, for example.

[Anonymous]

I work for a medium sized nonprofit. In some ways it's great- federal holidays plus 8 weeks PTO (can't rollover though), good 401k, heavily subsidized healthcare, people very understanding when you have to take sick leave. But it's community-based and the work is very stressful and never ending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Freddie Mac - used to be very family friendly in 90's and early 2000's, but with latest management, the focus is on "culture" and changing the "culture".

in my group, what that means is that you are a target if you are not in the office everyday. fixed hours are gone, it is working until work done.

people are periodically "disappearing" and you find out they were fired. they never have huge layoffs, just continuous firings group by group.

My husband used to work there and there wash;t enough work to do ever. So boring. Is that still true? 10 years ago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Freddie Mac - used to be very family friendly in 90's and early 2000's, but with latest management, the focus is on "culture" and changing the "culture".

in my group, what that means is that you are a target if you are not in the office everyday. fixed hours are gone, it is working until work done.

people are periodically "disappearing" and you find out they were fired. they never have huge layoffs, just continuous firings group by group.

My husband used to work there and there wash;t enough work to do ever. So boring. Is that still true? 10 years ago

I couldn't agree more. I used to work there and one day I just stopped going to work. A year later I came back in to quit.

Total voicemails in that time: 0
Total emails addresses to me specifically: 0

I literally could have kept the job and probably still be getting a paycheck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Freddie Mac - used to be very family friendly in 90's and early 2000's, but with latest management, the focus is on "culture" and changing the "culture".

in my group, what that means is that you are a target if you are not in the office everyday. fixed hours are gone, it is working until work done.

people are periodically "disappearing" and you find out they were fired. they never have huge layoffs, just continuous firings group by group.

My husband used to work there and there wash;t enough work to do ever. So boring. Is that still true? 10 years ago

I couldn't agree more. I used to work there and one day I just stopped going to work. A year later I came back in to quit.

Total voicemails in that time: 0
Total emails addresses to me specifically: 0

I literally could have kept the job and probably still be getting a paycheck.

which group did you work in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Freddie Mac - used to be very family friendly in 90's and early 2000's, but with latest management, the focus is on "culture" and changing the "culture".

in my group, what that means is that you are a target if you are not in the office everyday. fixed hours are gone, it is working until work done.

people are periodically "disappearing" and you find out they were fired. they never have huge layoffs, just continuous firings group by group.

My husband used to work there and there wash;t enough work to do ever. So boring. Is that still true? 10 years ago

I couldn't agree more. I used to work there and one day I just stopped going to work. A year later I came back in to quit.

Total voicemails in that time: 0
Total emails addresses to me specifically: 0

I literally could have kept the job and probably still be getting a paycheck.

Wow. Did you get paid the whole time?

[Anonymous]

I think family friendly is marketing BS for the most part. Why do I say that? Cause I'm likely the person who wrote the marketing copy and applied for awards in Working Mother then stuck a big ole stock photo of "Happy Family in Grass" on the cover of the benefits brochure.

I work for big Corp HQ. I'll leave name off. All of our marketing and PR work is about family friendly, better life balance etc. but in reality the only people who get that are in the C suite. No maternity leave. People are pressured to even come back weeks before FMLA ends. Nickel and dimed like they no longer will buy paper cups for the coffee machine ...which I get "green" but they put up a note about cost savings so no more cups but for $$ you can buy coffee now at our cafe (which Corp gets a cut). Time working tracked by the minute for everyone but executives. Lots of days off that you can't really take off. Many jobs have absurd travel requirements like 70% travel when it's really not needed. (Note: I just had a baby 6 weeks earlier, was told I was up for promotion but job now needed 75% travel... Umm. I just gave birth).And the constant threat of "restructuring" which means layoff abs your job duties keep increasing because someone with a "C" in their title needs a new yacht...for their family. (See, family friendly!!)

It's just the reality of the US business scene. My coworkers in Europe and Canada have it much better. Same company. Same Job. Different culture and perks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Freddie Mac - used to be very family friendly in 90's and early 2000's, but with latest management, the focus is on "culture" and changing the "culture".

in my group, what that means is that you are a target if you are not in the office everyday. fixed hours are gone, it is working until work done.

people are periodically "disappearing" and you find out they were fired. they never have huge layoffs, just continuous firings group by group.

My husband used to work there and there wash;t enough work to do ever. So boring. Is that still true? 10 years ago

I couldn't agree more. I used to work there and one day I just stopped going to work. A year later I came back in to quit.

Total voicemails in that time: 0
Total emails addresses to me specifically: 0

I literally could have kept the job and probably still be getting a paycheck.

Wow. Did you get paid the whole time?

Yea. It was pretty humorous actually. I even got a birthday card from people I worked with saying stuff like "Can I join your team?" And the like. I tried many times to get involved in things but I was regularly rebuked - don't get involved in recruiting that's Susys job - that kind of thing. I tried expanding my workload by offering to take on other projects in other divisions but they all ended up territorial (one called my boss asking her if she was trying to take over her work). After a few experiences like that, I stopped trying. I started going to work M,W,F .... Then I just did T,TH and then I just stopped going at all.

When I came in to quit a year later most people assumed I'd already left - a lot of folks asked me "Oh hey man! Long time no see - where you working now?". I was basically Milton from office space. To their credit the HR lady seemed genuinely interested in why I was quitting; she said a lot of folks had been leaving and she was struggling to get honest answers why, so her superiors were beginning to question what was going on. I told her flat out that in a year I'd probably done 15 minutes of actual work, I'd tried to find more but got my hand slapped continuously whenever I stepped outside my box, and I was so incredibly bored I couldn't stay at the firm any longer. We ended up doing a 4 hour exit interview which was surprising. I felt so bad for that lady, her job was to build this office and it was crumbling.

Six months after that they shuttered the office; I heard that folks were offered stupid retention packages to hang around and transition their work (which for many was literally nothing). I had been transferred to VA so I don't know if I'd have kept my job but I sometimes wonder - what if I still had it and just kept collecting $100K for the last decade? Me and my damn ethics made me quit, but I probably should have just stayed.