What does family friendly really mean? Please be specific.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spent 10+ years at Booz Allen. Totally NOT family friendly. Left a year after I had my first. How that company has made Working Mothers magazine every year is a joke. I left for the federal government 6 years ago and love my job and where I work. Completely different than I thought it would be, for the most part. And family friendly.

It's because the company writes applies for the honor. From what I remember from my Booz friends, they had tons of FF policies but they penalized people for using them.

I'm at Booz Allen now. It totally depends on your team and your ambition. I've been on teams that were mostly women with families and they were very family-friendly. Right now I'm on a team run by a single woman with no kids who claims to be family-friendly but is really fairly inflexible. Also, if your project requires on-site delivery, the family-friendliness goes down.

I'm in a middle range position and do just fine working my 40 hours/week. Client is happy, I'm easy to staff, been around long enough that I don't have to be involved in too many "extras" to prove myself. I have no desire to move any further up the corporate ladder though. If I did, the family-friendliness would decrease.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Spent 10+ years at Booz Allen. Totally NOT family friendly. Left a year after I had my first. How that company has made Working Mothers magazine every year is a joke. I left for the federal government 6 years ago and love my job and where I work. Completely different than I thought it would be, for the most part. And family friendly.

It's because the company writes applies for the honor. From what I remember from my Booz friends, they had tons of FF policies but they penalized people for using them.

Discovery Channel/Communications was like this as well in my experience. After my maternity leave I was assigned the work of 2 full-time resources and received horrid reviews as a result of accessing family friendly policies.

Anonymous wrote:Spent 10+ years at Booz Allen. Totally NOT family friendly. Left a year after I had my first. How that company has made Working Mothers magazine every year is a joke. I left for the federal government 6 years ago and love my job and where I work. Completely different than I thought it would be, for the most part. And family friendly.

It's because the company writes applies for the honor. From what I remember from my Booz friends, they had tons of FF policies but they penalized people for using them.

Big 4 firm

Extremely family friendly, but many of us work long hours - work hard, play hard.

Flex work arrangements and telework in every group in our firm. I work 3 days from home, 2 days in the office or client.

Maternity leave starts two weeks before your due date. You get 6 weeks post-birth maternity (plus two more for multiples or c section) 4 weeks parental leave (men get 3 weeks parental leave) and 4.5 weeks of vacation. If you are out on maternity leave for 6 or more months, then you can elect to carry over your review rating from the prior year.

We don't get all the federal holidays, but we get 2 floating holidays. Plus the firm shuts down from Christmas Eve to January 2nd every year (we have to use 2 days of our vacation during this break, but the rest is holiday leave). And it really does shut down. Client requests are addressed and people keep things moving forward, but internal emails cease, and you really do not start new projects or expect people to work during this time. We also get extra days around the Fourth of July.

Adoptions provide for 6 weeks of family leave.

Very family friendly nonprofit.
Flex hours, WAH, telework, compressed workweeks are all very common although can vary based on what kind of work you do, your boss, etc. most people are given some mobile tech so catching up in the evening, squeezing in a little on snow days or kid sick days, is generally easy.
6 wks STD at full pay for vag birth, 8 wks ceasarean. No paternity leave though, and youcant use sick leave to extend past those 6 wks. FMLA applies and it seems many people are allowed to use it to support a part time schedule upon first returning to work.
Multiple pumping rooms with all the amenities
Really great medical benefits.

Absolutely. We can work from home when necessary, take time off on short notice, and work flexible schedules. Government contracting firm.

Tech company.

I work from home 3-4 days a week and go to the client 1-2 times a week (lately it's been more like once or twice a month).

I need to work at least 5 hours between 9-5, the other 3 can be before or after.

"Flexible" PTO (if my boss approves, I can take off).

Great other benefits including 401k matching, covers my cell and internet, and a 6 figure salary. I have STD with them which would give me 50% of my salary for the 12 weeks, but I would probably start back part time at 8 weeks.

I realize I am insanely lucky to find this job, and normally end up working 9ish hours a day because of it. DH is a fed, works 9-10 hours (says he can work remote 1-2 times a month but rarely does), has accumulated 6 weeks of PTO, plus 2 other banks of hours (I forget what they're called) totaling 84 hours.

Another fed.
Flexible hours, good leave accumulation.

Cons
My agency does not allow telework for the majority of its employees.
No maternity leave.
Vacation requests can get denied around holidays if too many people take off.

County government - not at all. Could never use my sick leave or vacation and I had months saved up and always got use or lose and lost being denied leave.

My husband has always had family friendly jobs and lots of flexibility.

Anonymous wrote:Spent 10+ years at Booz Allen. Totally NOT family friendly. Left a year after I had my first. How that company has made Working Mothers magazine every year is a joke. I left for the federal government 6 years ago and love my job and where I work. Completely different than I thought it would be, for the most part. And family friendly.

I'd say most of the big firms on that list are the least family-friendly. DH and many friends at PricewaterhouseCoopers experienced same. It was all talk.

work for state government, VERY Family friendly

flex hours (I work 7-3:30)
Telework available (I telework once a week)
generous vacation time

pay is low, though

Spent 10+ years at Booz Allen. Totally NOT family friendly. Left a year after I had my first. How that company has made Working Mothers magazine every year is a joke. I left for the federal government 6 years ago and love my job and where I work. Completely different than I thought it would be, for the most part. And family friendly.

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.

I'll start

Fed here -- so flexible hours, option to telework, and fairly easy to accrue sick/annual leave

But, no maternity/paternity leave, so must take LWOP or use accrued leave.