BRINGING a baby into the world is one of life’s most joyous occasions, unless of course you’re an experienced midwife when it probably all becomes a bit old hat after a while.
A couple of weeks off work to help you bond at home with your child is also a key component in helping with the child’s development.
But I’m sure I speak for most parents when I say the novelty soon wears off and you’re champing at the bit quite quickly to get back to work. Unfortunately only one of us normally can.
READ MORE: Profits hit but assets rise at Standard Life Aberdeen
It’s not that we don’t like getting our hands too dirty with the really nasty stuff that comes with newborns, it’s just – well actually, most of us men don’t really like getting our hands too dirty with the really nasty stuff and try to avoid it.
Fathers can, and do, play an integral part in a child’s development and we share the workload, or at least we should.
But I feel that Standard Life Aberdeen’s decision to give staff nine months’ parental leave on full pay when they have a child, regardless of gender, could have unintended consequences far beyond the pension giant’s plush floors.
Obviously, many will view it as great news, especially if you’re two members of staff at the company who are having a baby together.
However, in a wider context it could set a dangerous precedent if it is adopted across the board as many firms will struggle to implement it and it could cause serious staffing problems.
I’m not convinced that both parents should be granted exactly the same amount of fully paid leave – it should be one or the other but not both.
READ MORE: Standard Life fined £30m for sales failings
If there is an employee off work for 40 weeks in one go then their shifts have to be covered by someone and while large firms like Standard Life Aberdeen can cope fairly easily, smaller firms cannot without additional expense.
Those firms that can also afford to implement it will be automatically at a competitive advantage as they will be able to attract some of the best young talent due to the benefits.
Also, what would happen to the public sector if it was adopted as law?
Many vital services, already struggling to cope, would be badly affected by staff being allowed to take such a long spell of paid leave.
Ultimately though, having a child is a lifelong commitment and it’s a bit of a stretch for even large corporations to extend paid paternity leave to more than 30 years which is, after all, a truer reflection about the age that children finally let go.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel