Amazon expands parental leave for all full-time employees
Amazon is rolling out a parental leave policy that includes up to 20 weeks of paid leave for mothers and six weeks for fathers. Effective, Jan. 1, 2016, workers can share up to six weeks of leave with their spouse, and mothers or primary care givers can participate in a flexible and gradual return-to-work program.
The changes come three months after a New York Times report on Amazon's work culture cited several fathers who "said they left or were considering quitting because of pressure from bosses or peers to spend less time with their families."
According to CBS News financial contributor Mellody Hobson, the shift in Amazon's policy has more to do with an industry trend than the retail giant trying to respond to the scathing report.
"Because if you look at their competition, it seems a lot of their peers were updating their policies in August. So Microsoft updated their policy, Adobe updated theirs, Netflix updated theirs in a big way, so it seems like this has been going on in their industry," Hobson said Tuesday on "CBS This Morning."
However, Hobson didn't deny the Times' characterization of Amazon's work culture.
"Certainly in my own reporting, I found when I talked to people everywhere, the words were often the same: intense, brutal," Hobson said. "They just acknowledged that it was a very different kind of place with a startup mentality that of course has been incredibly successful - but it's intense. I'm not sure this completely changes the culture, the culture that Jeff Bezos doesn't not acknowledge or say that he agrees with, but it has to be a step in the right direction."
Amazon's six weeks is lower as compared to the retail giant's industry peers, Hobson pointed out. Adobe offers 16 weeks of paternity leave and Netflix offers up to a year.
Ultimately, Hobson said it's not about companies trying to be nice.
"It's about recruitment and retention. So maybe they'll be encouraging this in order to keep people at their company," Hobson.
As expanded family leave policies gain momentum among tech companies, Hobson said she also expects to see a similar trend outside of the industry.