“Apple employees are getting a few new perks today (and no, its not free iPhone 6’s),” Michal Lev-Ram reports for Fortune. “On Thursday morning the company’s head of HR, Denise Young Smith, sent an employee-wide memo outlining a handful of new and updated benefits, including longer parental leave, education reimbursements for all classes taken by employees, an expanded donation-matching program, subsidized student loan refinancing and full acceleration of stock in the event of an employee’s death.”
“U.S. employees will now have a few more weeks of paid parental leave: Young Smith says expectant mothers can take up to four weeks before a delivery and upwards of 14 weeks after and expectant fathers (and other non-birth parents) can take six-week parental leaves. While the new policy is far from revolutionary, it shows that Apple gets that it needs to compete to recruit and retain talent,” Lev-Ram reports. “Most other large Silicon Valley firms have fairly similar rules for parental leave – though some, like payments company Square, offer more time off to both birth and non-birth parents. (And ultimately, the U.S. pales in comparison to most other countries, which have mandated maternity leave; Apple already abides by local rules in other countries.)”
“She is also toying with the idea of bringing back some sort of sabbatical program, though she prefers the term ‘renewal.’ After the late Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, he got rid of the company’s sabbatical plan, which let long-time employees take several months off of work every few years,” Lev-Ram reports. “Now, Young Smith says she’d like to find a way to bring back some form of lengthier vacation for certain employees.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Is Apple trying to do too much too quickly? – October 2, 2014
Former managers on Apple execs’ work habits: ‘These people are nuts’ – October 1, 2014
Perhaps they could let them sleep between 2am and 4am?
While there may be a small number of employees working hours like that at the very, very end of a product cycle, this stuff just doesn’t happen. Once Scott Forstall left, the forcing people to work certain hours went away. People work what they need to work to get their job done. If they are over their head, their schedule is adjusted or help is brought in. Apple is better than most tech companies I’m aware of, where work and life are typically equivalent. People at Apple often have significant outside interests that would not happen if the culture were like former employees are claiming. Many people in significant positions have families and go home to be with them. For what it’s worth, these former employees are probably right for the era they worked in under Scott.
This is another case of inappropriate focus on Apple – what we technically call “bullshit”. Does anyone believe that senior management and staff at other incredibly successful companies work 35 hours a week?
not in the real world.
Steve Jobs left Apple and returned stronger for it.
Perhaps Apple can call their new sabbatical program “NeXT phase”.
That’s GREAT news!! I start next week. 😀
Congratulations!
I think the college loan refi option via Apple may be a huge benefit to some who may need it……
Sabbatical does not equal vacation
Explain.
From Apple’s dictionary. “a period of paid leave granted to a college teacher for study or travel, traditionally every seventh year.” This is not like a vacation where you go for fun and relaxation. Or stay at home and do large repairs or other projects. A sabbatical is for self improvement. Hopefully the employe will return with improved skills for their job. One could think of Steve Jobs’s NEXT years as a long sabbatical. /s/
Unless the wife has complications, I do not understand why six weeks of paid leave is available to a husband.
A newborn is a lot of time consuming work. Before the 70’s when husbands were breadwinners, wives were housewives, and their families lived nearby prenatal leave was not necessary. Today’s family and job market are very different. Welcome to the 21st Century.
bah…welcome to Boobville.
incidentally, raised four children in the 70’s-80’s.
You mean your wife did while you watched.
hardly…unless you work for the government, you simply cannot be gone from a job for six freakin’ weeks.
YOUR world veiw supports that mindset,
kids don’t, wives don’t, actual data about society does not so why do you believe that the home and children do not require the focus and attention to excel???
oh, yeah, never mind
yeah right, no stranger or fscking day care center took care of our kids, WE DID. You remain a boob.
the inclusion of bureaucratic click words such as “worldview, mindset, actual data about society and focus” immediately tell me you have no concept of what family is at all. In the real world, you have a job because your services are vital to the success of a company…in the real world, no company can succeed without vital contributions from key players for six freaking weeks. In the real world, eMo, if you don’t produce you are not paid.
When ah wuz yung, we beat our 10-year-olds before we done sent them off’t mill for 12 hours. They licked the road there f’r breakfast and licked it on the way back for dinner. How we did it back then wuz THE proper way to do things. Built character it did. They didn’t suffer for it. At least I don’t think they did. Don’t really know, because none of them talk to me. Haven’t for thirty years.
So you didn’t take any time off and didn’t do anything about raising your kids? That it the meaning of your retort.
I took a couple of years off to help raise my kids. They are more important than my company.
you are a jackass.
I wonder if their clinic needs an eighth doctor…
stop trying to understand anything that has to do with someone connecting with their family since you obviously can’t
you obviously don’t care and we should not care about you as such
as a father and lover of most things birth oriented, i say….
go away again
boob.
Botvijerk’s eruptions of nastiness, swearing, insult and name-calling have no more meaning than the eruptions of foul-smelling gas in a stagnant marsh.
In a marsh, you’ll get the occasional bubble of stink. From time to time, there will be a larger discharge of many bubbles, with much fuss and foul smell.
That’s all you’re seeing.
So don’t take it personally, anyone.
And, preferably, don’t bother replying, any more than you’d reply to the bubbles of smelly marsh gas. If you poke the bottom of the marsh, you just get more bubbles of stink.
My only point, before I was crucified as a “horrible family man” by the forum liberal scavengers, was you cannot keep a real job in the real world being gone for SIX goddamned weeks. And that’s a fact, jack.
No, not as “horrible family man”… just as “horrible”.
Sean, have you ever had a job that you could be absent from for six weeks?…no, wait, have you ever had a job?
Sean: “You’re a horrible, nasty jerk.”
Botvijerk’s attempted counter, “Have you ever had a job?”
Suuuure, botvijerk, that REALLY counters my assertion.
you put the “ass” in assertion, Cocoa Boy.
Ah, the wit… the insight… the repartee.
But even such brilliance still does nothing to contradict the plain fact that you are a nasty little jerk.
…and the fact you are obsessed with me.
Hmmm. Still nothing that actually contradicts the FACT that you are a nasty little jerk.
see?…get help, Sean.
hope this helps:
http://webhome.idirect.com/~readon/lies.html
botvijerk sez to various posts
welcome to Boobville
You remain a boob.
you are a jackass
boob
Mild compared to some of your vitriolic outbursts. But still, it’s pretty clear who has a problem. How about you try for a month to do all your posts without swearing, insulting, or calling anyone names? Very little to ask, I think.
I don’t think you could do it though, since the majority of your posts have little content besides swearing, insulting, and name-calling.
this jerkbot guy is portrayed clearly in this video, if he could sit through it he might burst into pure nothingness, lets hope he has a moment between his vitriol to imagine a different way, or….. maybe nothingness will be good enough