Hi Leah,
No way this was a “mistake” or anything. You simply can’t get parental leave in CZ unless you’re willing to live without salary for that time. Same thing in Germany a decade ago, by the way. I have two kids (13 and 15 now), zero days parental leave. It was a challenge, to say the least. It’s somewhat better in DE nowadays, but in most companies you will still risk your career and your job if you dare to take what you’d be eligible for by the law.
In contrast, an American member of my team just returned from two months parental leave. He got no salary, but his benefits were covered by Hartford while he was on leave. As his (German) manager, I had thought it would be a painful and bureaucratic process because no one in the US would even understand the concept of parental leave, but no. A simple email to the HR rep was enough, and two short forms filled out and approved (by me). Much easier than in good old social Europe.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a US fanboy who thinks everything in Europe is much worse. But I’ve grown really tired of comparisons like in the article I was commenting on, basically all saying that in the US, it’s all about predatory capitalism, and most of the rest of the civilized world, particularly Europe, is so much better off. That’s simply not true, and I know first-hand, because I’ve been running a team for 14 years that’s 50% in Europe and 50% in North America (US, Canada).
If you’re interested in hearing more about this, I can share a story from 12 years ago (and could still happen today) that would make you think I was reporting from the ugly unsocial US of A.
