We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

Well what I would do is this…

Shared Parental Leave: How should business prepare for its effects? … so asks an article in City A.M… and surely the correct answers are to reduce your workforce with improved automation, find ways to outsource off-shore, or just move the whole business somewhere the state does not run your affairs to quite the same extent, unless the nature of what your company does precludes those options.

15 comments to Well what I would do is this…

  • CaptDMO

    “Our company’s policy is to preference disadvantaged individuals with little Gub’mint “Safety Net”
    assumptions. We encourage Able Bodied, Unmarried, Heterosexual, Caucasian, Natural Citizen, Tax PAYERS to Apply. Post parole Felony, and Homeless, status will not be considered”

    What could go wrong?

  • Unmarried, sterilised men only need apply.

  • Friday Night Smoke

    CaptDMO: Surely employing lots of gays would minimise the chances of someone taking parental leave?

  • Mr Ed

    Shared Parental Leave is so complex, unwieldy and ludicrously difficult to understand (it was drawn up to suit HMRC I believe, as they are responsible for monitoring payment of maternity and shared parental pay, which employers can offset against National Insurance, keep awake at the back there!), and then there are the consequential amendments to other subordinate legislation, also there might be ‘Parental Order parents, with their own regulations, and, for some, adoptions from overseas, that it is likely to be one of those regulatory burdens that is self-limiting, as no sane employee would bother reading up on it to the end, and the mother would prefer to stay on maternity leave with a screaming, occasionally sick infant, than go through the forms and check all the requirements for qualification.

    But like turtles hatching under a full moon on a beach, some will get through.

    Any of course, shared parental leave applies to adoptions.

  • Molly Millions

    Speaking as a diesel dyke in-yer-face lesbian libertarian who shares digs with a floridly gay bloke who is a self described whig, clearly our employability and general attractiveness to employers has just increased greatly 😉

  • Molly, you may have missed Ed’s last point 🙂

  • Regional

    The time is approaching that to get a job you’ll have to buy it i.e. buy a substantial whack of shares to get through the front door.

  • Dale Amon

    Molly: as a hetero male whose grad school drinking buddy (and one of 4 housemates) was a lesbian bassoonist, I bid you welcome to our humble abode of liberty minded and very diverse folks.

  • NickM

    Dale,
    Is the bassonery rel to this. Or was she a closet player of the pink oboe as well?

  • Nick:

    The German word for bassoon is Fagott. Make of that what you will.

  • Fred the Fourth

    I love this site…

  • Paul Marks

    Every day the state does another little push toward “The Collapse” (TM).

  • Roue le Jour

    Have you trademarked “The Collapse”, Paul? If so, can I have “The Purge”™? 😉

    I have to say I’m increasingly reminded of a group of people at the base of a dam attacking it with pickaxes. What on Earth do you think will happen?

  • A few years ago I did some work with a company that had a software team in the UK and one in the USA. A few years after I left, I spoke to the IT manager and he explained why. At one point, in a team of 5 developers, they had 2 women on maternity leave. Both had taken the year off option. That meant that after paying for the costs of recruiting developers, training them and so forth, they then, quite soon after, found themselves bringing in contractors. He told me that the difference to the costs in the USA was just huge and it was a no-brainer to fire the UK team.

    The original point of maternity leave was that it was unsafe for women to go straight back to work after giving birth, especially with physical jobs. That was all. It was 6 weeks off, a time period that most employers can handle a couple of times per female employee. This “up to a year off” is the sort of idea that only people who never see the cost of it would come up with. No-one I know that runs a tiny IT company has employees. It’s all offshored to the Philipines, Poland or India.

  • Schrodinger's Dog

    Roue,

    I love your analogy of people attacking a dam with pickaxes.

    More generally, you can bet that, before this measure was introduced, it was focus group tested and was found to have overwhelming support.

    Sometimes, I despair.