Parental Leave Revolution Moves From Tech To Banking

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As tech companies like Facebook, Netflix and Spotify up the ante on parental leave benefits, they're putting pressure on the staid world of banking to do the same.

Credit Suisse announced Monday that it would begin offering all of its U.S. employees 20 weeks of paid maternity leave. Previously, the Zurich-based bank had offered 12 weeks paid plus eight weeks unpaid leave to its 8,300 U.S. employees.

The company also announced it would pay for new parents to bring a nanny with them if they had to travel for business in the first 12 months of their child's life.

Competition from increasingly enlightened tech firms drove the change, said Elizabeth Donnelly, Credit Suisse's head of benefits for the Americas. "We're no longer just competing with other financial services firms," she told The Huffington Post.

You hear tech companies talk a lot about game-changing disruption. There are endless examples: Uber "disrupted" the taxi industry, Seamless made calling for pizza obsolete, Netflix changed the way we watch television. Less discussed is the way tech is starting to change and improve how new parents get treated at work -- at least at certain high-end employers.

Giving employees at well-paid, white-collar jobs more maternity and paternity leave is the new hotness of 2015.

The same day Credit Suisse announced it would beef up leave, Facebook said it would offer four months' paternity leave to all dads worldwide -- previously, just male employees in the U.S. had the benefit.

Also this year, Netflix gave 12 months parental leave to employees that work in its streaming business. Spotify gave six months of leave to its U.S. employees. Amazon, Microsoft and Adobe also increased their leave allowances this year. 

In banking, Goldman Sachs increased paid maternity leave to 16 weeks, Donnelly pointed out. Most of Credit Suisse's competitors offer about 12 weeks. "We didn't necessarily want to mimic other banks," she said.

As for the "gilded" nanny perk, elite private equity firm KKR announced a similar benefit in August, as part of an effort to attract more women to the old-line firm. Only 13 percent of KKR's employees are women.

Women in finance face many of the same issues as women in tech -- feeling like you've just walked in on a boys' party, etc. -- especially at the elite investing and private equity firms.  While there's parity in the lower ranks in the finance industry, as you move up women start to disappear, according to data from the nonprofit women's advocacy group Catalyst. 

There's only one woman, out of 13 of people, heading up one Credit Suisse's regional offices in the U.S. 

Credit Suisse's new policy is also distinctive because it gives employees a year to take time off. All primary caregivers, including same-sex and adoptive parents, are eligible for the leave and can take it within the first year of a child's arrival. That means a man working at Credit Suisse can take 20 weeks off, after his employed spouse takes her maternity leave from her job. That's a huge win for a dual-income family -- essentially doubling the amount of time a baby gets to bond with her parents at home.

These People Got Way Too Aggressive On Black Friday

If it's worth waking up for at 3 a.m., it's apparently also worth waking up for at 3 a.m. and then punching someone in the face. 

Welcome to Black Friday, the annual tradition where bargain-crazed shoppers gather at big box stores and reenact scenes from Lord of the Flies.

At a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, bystander Adolfo E. Arzaga captured a chaotic scene as a scrum of shoppers scuffled over discounted flat-screen TVs:

In Springfield, Virginia, a college student waiting in line at a Best Buy told Fox 5 that he was attacked by a woman who tried to save a spot at the front of the line by leaving a chair there, then returning hours later.

“She was angry, and I was telling her, ‘No, you’re not getting in the front of the line. I’ve been here since 12 [p.m.],'” the student, Ahmad Shukrey told the outlet. “And she proceeds to attack me with the chair, pushing into my friend, knocking me over and twisting my ankle.”'

Steven Boone, another man in line, told the station the woman "refused to calm down" and ended up getting arrested.

Lady cut Blk Fri line @BestBuy, assaults cust & police, gets arrested. Officer very professional. @fairfaxpolice pic.twitter.com/fag1pcPTU2

— Al Luna (@AlLunajr) November 26, 2015

Not to be outdone, shoppers at the Alexandria Mall in Alexandria, Louisiana, were treated to the sound of gunfire Thursday night after a fight in the mall parking lot escalated, reports the Town Talk. One person was injured.

Police said afterward that the "dispute [appeared] unrelated to shopping or mall operations."

Real estate search site Estately crunched the numbers last week and came up with the top 10 states most likely to see fights over Black Friday deals. Be careful out there, discount shoppers.

Map of which states are most likely to have #BlackFriday sale fights https://t.co/OmY6z9Z1Zu pic.twitter.com/YaQRk0SGrx

— Estately (@estately) November 23, 2015

Also on HuffPost:

The Case For A Meat Tax

A lot of the talk around fighting climate change is focused on big business and the auto industry. But what about meat? 

The livestock sector generates nearly 15 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2013 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. That footprint is roughly equivalent to the one created by cars, planes, trains and boats combined: Transportation produces around 14 percent of global emissions.

Though public awareness of the environmental effects of meat and dairy consumption is relatively lower, a new report suggests that people are willing to adopt financial incentives, like a meat tax, that would encourage them to shift their diets away from those items.

Researchers at Chatham House, a London-based policy institute, surveyed people across 12 countries and focus groups in Brazil, China, the United Kingdom and the United States, and found that many would welcome a food charge if it helped alleviate high emissions levels -- though concerns about costs and alternatives to meat remain.

The report cautions that consumer knowledge alone won't be enough to cut back on these emissions. The push will have to come from government policy and business coalitions, including retailers and producers in the food supply chain.

"You only see the impact on consumer behavior when you put additional incentives," said Antony Froggatt, a senior research fellow at the institute who co-authored the study. A meat tax, in addition to helping curb emissions, could also benefit people's health and generate tax revenue.

Less visibility might explain why people are more attuned to the environmental impact of their cars, for example, than their meals. Refilling a gas tank over a lifetime reinforces the connection between a driver and gas pollutants, while most people's initial reaction to emissions resulting from food is centered on packaging, not the consumption itself, Froggatt said.

Participants in focus groups reported limited access to meat alternatives, which also tend be more expensive. "There's concern about prices and the impact on poorer people," Froggatt said. Unless alternatives are easily available, something like a meat tax would be "detrimental," he added.

The researchers say that stores and schools could lead the way in raising awareness of these foods. Offering fruit and vegetables at the front of a supermarket, for example, could significantly boost shoppers' likelihood of selecting something other than meat or dairy. The government could also provide subsidies for plant-based foods to support low-income households.

With the COP21 climate talks set to begin in Paris next week, many expect the participating countries to reach a global agreement about curbing carbon emissions. Some of the world's biggest polluters, including the U.S. and India, have already made reduction commitments for 2020.

But a deal on meat consumption is unlikely to be on the table. As of last month, only 21 of the national proposals include commitments to reducing livestock emissions.

"This is very low on the policy agenda," Froggatt said. "But part of the discussion will be what do we do next, and how do we increase our ambition. We hope diet is given greater consideration. Attention placed on the food sector is overdue."

The Case For A Meat Tax

A lot of the talk around fighting climate change is focused on big business and the auto industry. But what about meat? 

The livestock sector generates nearly 15 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to a 2013 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. That footprint is roughly equivalent to the one created by cars, planes, trains and boats combined: Transportation produces around 14 percent of global emissions.

Though public awareness of the environmental effects of meat and dairy consumption is relatively lower, a new report suggests that people are willing to adopt financial incentives, like a meat tax, that would encourage them to shift their diets away from those items.

Researchers at Chatham House, a London-based policy institute, surveyed people across 12 countries and focus groups in Brazil, China, the United Kingdom and the United States, and found that many would welcome a food charge if it helped alleviate high emissions levels -- though concerns about costs and alternatives to meat remain.

The report cautions that consumer knowledge alone won't be enough to cut back on these emissions. The push will have to come from government policy and business coalitions, including retailers and producers in the food supply chain.

"You only see the impact on consumer behavior when you put additional incentives," said Antony Froggatt, a senior research fellow at the institute who co-authored the study. A meat tax, in addition to helping curb emissions, could also benefit people's health and generate tax revenue.

Less visibility might explain why people are more attuned to the environmental impact of their cars, for example, than their meals. Refilling a gas tank over a lifetime reinforces the connection between a driver and gas pollutants, while most people's initial reaction to emissions resulting from food is centered on packaging, not the consumption itself, Froggatt said.

Participants in focus groups reported limited access to meat alternatives, which also tend be more expensive. "There's concern about prices and the impact on poorer people," Froggatt said. Unless alternatives are easily available, something like a meat tax would be "detrimental," he added.

The researchers say that stores and schools could lead the way in raising awareness of these foods. Offering fruit and vegetables at the front of a supermarket, for example, could significantly boost shoppers' likelihood of selecting something other than meat or dairy. The government could also provide subsidies for plant-based foods to support low-income households.

With the COP21 climate talks set to begin in Paris next week, many expect the participating countries to reach a global agreement about curbing carbon emissions. Some of the world's biggest polluters, including the U.S. and India, have already made reduction commitments for 2020.

But a deal on meat consumption is unlikely to be on the table. As of last month, only 21 of the national proposals include commitments to reducing livestock emissions.

"This is very low on the policy agenda," Froggatt said. "But part of the discussion will be what do we do next, and how do we increase our ambition. We hope diet is given greater consideration. Attention placed on the food sector is overdue."

Why Mark Zuckerberg's Paternity Leave Is A Win For Women

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Hoodie-wearing Facebook founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced recently that he’ll take time off -- two whole months! -- after his wife Priscilla Chan has their first baby.

This is a big deal for working men both at Facebook and in the U.S. (and their families). Guys here rarely take paternity leave -- few companies even bother offering it. For the chief executive of a Fortune 100 company to take leave, is just unheard of.

Zuckerberg’s move signals that it’s OK for men to prioritize family over their jobs -- at least for a hot second when you have a brand-new infant at home. There’s a good chance he’ll inspire other fathers to take time off.

And that is amazing news for women -- that’s right, women -- who face serious penalties and discrimination at work for becoming mothers. When men take paternity leave, it is a signal that juggling work and family isn’t just “lady business,” it promotes real understanding and empathy between the sexes at work and goes a long way in eliminating outdated, useless stereotypes that harm everyone.

“It fosters a different sense of cooperation when the women and men are both taking leave and understanding what it’s like to have newborns at home,” Nancy Altobello, the vice chair for talent at the consulting firm EY, told The Huffington Post this summer while explaining why the firm encourages fathers to take paternity leave.

Working women and men are both up against certain stereotypes and expectations when they become parents. For men, this mostly works in their favor on the job and hurts them at home. Women, well, they’re just screwed either way.

Priscilla and I are starting to get ready for our daughter's arrival. We've been picking out our favorite childhood...

Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on  Friday, November 20, 2015

There’s a cultural expectation that a good father prioritizes his job because he is the breadwinner -- indeed, fathers often make more money after having kids, studies have found.

And despite the fact that women are the sole or primary breadwinner in 40 percent of U.S. households with children, it’s assumed they’ll prioritize family over work and, as a result, become less reliable and less hard-working.

“Mothers are less likely to be hired for jobs, to be perceived as competent at work or to be paid as much as their male colleagues with the same qualifications,” Claire Cain Miller explained last year in the New York Times, citing an extensive 15-year study that showed women’s pay decreased 4 percent for each child they had. Men’s pay increased more than 6 percent after having kids.

Some research has found that the pay gap between mothers and non-mothers is wider than between men and women. 

If a woman signals that work is her priority -- over her children -- she runs into problems. She’s judged extremely harshly for being a terrible mother.

“Women are fundamentally [supposed to be] oriented to the family not to work," Robin Ely, a professor at Harvard Business School, who studies gender expectations at work, explained to HuffPost a few months ago. “The expectation is if you don’t do it, then you’re not a good mother.”

When Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced this fall that she’d only be gone a couple of weeks after she gives birth to twins in December, critics pounced. “Marissa Mayer’s Two-Week Maternity Leave Is Bullsh*t,” was the Daily Beast's headline. There were similar hot takes all around the internet.

Referring to Mayer’s two-week maternity leave stint in 2012 after she had just landed at Yahoo, the Telegraph summed up her double-bind pretty well: "Her 14-day maternity leave caused many to question her priorities as a parent. Others cast doubt on her dedication to her career."

Men face a different challenge: one that's become more problematic as more young dads of Zuckerberg's generation actively want to be more involved parents. These men run into problems because guys are often stigmatized or penalized if they demonstrate that work isn’t their top priority.

“The idea of a guy taking paternity leave was just [makes face] for my managers. Guys just don’t do that. They teased me," one consultant at a prominent firm told researchers from Boston University in a recent study.  "Then one of the partners said to me, ‘You have a choice to make: Are you going to be a professional or are you going to just be an average person in your field? If you are going to be a professional then that means nothing can be as important to you as your work.'"

Tell that to his little baby. Men who take paternity leave set themselves up to be more involved parents for that child's entire life. Seems important, yah? Oh, and fathers who are more involved at home certainly make life easier for their partners. Too often it's working women who wind up taking on more of the parenting work in dual-income couples.

Men want time with family, stigmas often keep them from doing so. @JoshLevs #AllIn

— marcyheinz (@marcyheinz) November 22, 2015

Paternity leave is a really powerful lever in changing these outdated paradigms. In Sweden, which provides paid time off for fathers, women’s earning potential rises 7 percent on average for every month a dad takes off. 

Some enlightened employers are recognizing this -- including Facebook, Spotify and Netflix -- and treat parental leave in a gender neutral way, offering equal amounts to men and women.

Facebook offers four months leave to dads -- but most do like Zuckerberg and only take two.

There’s still a long road till we get to equality. 

As Chevy Ends Award-Winning Sustainability Plan, The Climate Is Just As Screwed As Ever

Should an automobile company be applauded for its contributions to the environment when its core business is fundamental in destroying it? Well, Chevrolet is trying its luck. 

The company just completed a five-year carbon reduction initiative. It spent $40 million buying carbon offsets from over 30 different projects across America. When a company buys a carbon offset, it usually pays another company to reduce emissions, in order to "offset" emissions elsewhere. Chevy bought offsets that reduced the amount of carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere by 8 million metric tons.

"That's like planting a forest the size of Yellowstone," according to the initiative's website. It's also equivalent to about 3 percent of the annual carbon pollution from cars that Chevrolet's parent company, GM, sells in a single year.

Though the magnitude is small compared to the damage that cars do across the U.S., the 8 million metric tons of offsets that Chevy bought over the last five years made up a huge chunk of the voluntary carbon market. 

The company also won an award from the Environmental Protection Agency in early 2015 for the Campus Clean Energy Campaign it created as part of Chevy's offsetting initiative. The campaign helped universities set up the right protocols to be able to sell their own carbon credits on the voluntary carbon market. Chevy then bought credits from the universities.

"Our purchases were really swinging the voluntary market," said Pat Nye, a senior consultant on carbon and renewable energy for the Bonneville Environmental Foundation, which ran the program for Chevrolet. That says more about the market than it does Chevrolet. Carbon offsets are a largely voluntary market in the U.S. since only a few regional regulators make companies buy carbon credits. 

But there's obviously a disconnect here. The language about Chevrolet's environmental initiatives glosses over the fact that it makes cars. It's part of an even larger corporation dedicated to manufacturing automobiles. We can't talk about stemming CO2 pollution without talking about where that pollution is coming from. Chevrolet's raison d'être is to sell carbon dioxide-producing machines. And this environmental effort is a marketing tool to sell more cars. 

"As a company, we view sustainability as a business approach, a mindset, on maximizing long-term stakeholder value," said David Tulauskas, the director of sustainability at General Motors. "We are focused on the customer and they expect us to do a lot."

The EPA estimates the average car emits 4.7 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. Therefore, 8 million metric tons of carbon is, incidentally, about equal to the annual emissions total of the number of cars Chevrolet sold in the United States in 2010, when Chevy launched its offsetting initiative. With about 2 million Chevy cars sold in 2014, that emissions total is up to about 9.4 million metric tons. 

Chevrolet's parent company, GM, sold almost 10 million cars around the world in 2014. That would put GM's indirect carbon emissions at 47 million metric tons for 2014, while it offset only 1.6 million metric tons. And the initiative won't continue now that Chevy has met its five-year goal. 

Climate change is not just Chevy's problem, it's humanity's problem, created in part by every automaker, every car owner and every person who has ever used a car as transportation.

 

The real lesson here is that a huge, award-winning corporate environmental initiative can only manage to make up for about 3 percent of the carbon pollution that the brand's parent company causes per year -- even when it takes over the voluntary carbon market. Chevrolet put a band aid over a gaping, still-bleeding hole in environmental conservation.

This is not to point the finger only at Chevy -- it's a company that's at least thinking about sustainability, though the impact is limited. Climate change is not just Chevy's problem, it's humanity's problem. It's a global catastrophe created in part by every automaker, every car owner and every person who has ever used a car as transportation.

Chevy is not attempting to completely absolve itself of the carbon its cars put into the atmosphere. Tulauskas said that when the company originally started planning this initiative, it wanted to make Chevrolet a "carbon-neutral vehicle brand." But, he said, the company quickly realized that "you can’t buy your way to carbon neutrality." Instead, it tried "to do something that had a measurable impact in communities across America."

Over the longer term, part of the solution is more electric vehicles, which GM is slowly moving toward. Chevrolet has one all-electric car, the Volt. But automakers are still automakers. GM also sold nearly a million large SUVs, known colloquially as "gas guzzlers," in 2014. (Let's not talk about this truck.) 

"We’re not making a commitment where we foresee a world where we are just going to get rid of petroleum," said Tulauskas. 

The real point, though, is the world cannot rely on corporations to do the right thing, because the right thing is rarely good for the bottom line. "Supporting strong regulations is the most important thing a car company can do from a climate standpoint," said Carol Lee Rawn, the transportation program at Ceres, a non-profit that focuses on sustainability advocacy.

Climate change is a society-wide problem and will require a society-wide solution.

Elon Musk Just Dropped Another Hint That Tesla May Take On Uber

Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk said Thursday night the electric automaker is beefing up its self-driving car software. 

Ramping up the Autopilot software team at Tesla to achieve generalized full autonomy. If interested, contact autopilot@teslamotors.com.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2015

We are looking for hardcore software engineers. No prior experience with cars required. Please include code sample or link to your work.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2015

Should mention that I will be interviewing people personally and Autopilot reports directly to me. This is a super high priority.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 20, 2015

The urgency of Musk's offer, and the fact that he chose to tweet it to the public, could signal that the company is preparing to launch a self-driving mobility service akin to the one being built by Uber, the $51 billion ride-hailing service. 

Tesla declined to comment on Thursday night about how many engineers it hopes to hire and its future plans for them.

"We're going to let the tweets speak for themselves," a Tesla spokeswoman told The Huffington Post in an email.

Tesla launched its Autopilot feature last month. The current software enables restricted self-driving functions that allow the cars to steer themselves on highways and even to drive themselves on private property wherever an owner summons them. 

But the current software is limited. Soon after it became available, drivers began posting daring, if at times reckless, videos to YouTube that demonstrated the cars' inability to detect some badly worn lane markers, resulting in near-collisions with other vehicles. All along, Musk has insisted that drivers must remain attentive to the road and ready to grip the wheel at any time. 

Tesla's autonomy efforts at first glance may appear to be in keeping with the auto industry zeitgeist. 

There's currently a race in the auto and tech industries to perfect the self-driving vehicle. Google -- with its fleet of bug-like prototype vehicles puttering around Mountain View, California -- has probably garnered the most attention for its autonomous car program. 

In July, the University of Michigan opened a testing facility, designed to look like a town, where a consortium of traditional automakers and tech firms can test the software for their vehicles.

In March, Mercedes debuted a sleek, futuristic self-driving concept car around San Francisco. Two months later, its parent company, Daimler, unveiled an autonomous 18-wheeler. Then last month, General Motors announced "aggressive" plans of its own for self-driving vehicles. 

But despite these advances, Tesla's main competitor in the self-driving space may be Uber.

Earlier this year, the transportation company poached nearly "everybody" in the robotics department at Carnegie Mellon University, including the director, for its self-driving program. Adam Jonas, a revered analyst at Morgan Stanley who covers the auto industry, predicted that self-driving technology would radically upend traditional car companies. Fewer people will own cars, he said, and will instead rely on fleets of self-driving vehicles that come on demand, like Uber or Lyft drivers do now.

In August, Jonas wrote a memo to clients predicting that Tesla would launch a self-driving competitor service to Uber by 2018. After pressing an uncharacteristically tight-lipped Musk during an analyst call, Jonas doubled down on his prediction, forecasting that Tesla would announce a mobility app within the next two years. 

It could be that Musk, burning through investors' cash as he is, is just making sure Tesla remains a leader in the self-driving sphere. But -- perhaps if his tweeted job offer yields the right candidates -- Tesla could be moving beyond electric luxury cars and storage batteries fairly soon.