Ask the U.Ok. boss of streaming big Spotify about his proudest achievement final 12 months, and also you may be shocked to search out music, podcasts, and audiobooks exempt from the dialog.
However once you’ve spent half that point caring on your new child little one, it in all probability places issues in perspective.
“That was harder than being a managing director, without a doubt,” Tom Connaughton, Spotify’s U.Ok. managing director, informed Fortune as he obtained his ft again underneath the desk of the $35 billion firm after profiting from its extremely beneficiant parental depart coverage.
“It’s long hours, you don’t get much feedback, and any feedback you do get is kind of shouted or cried out.”
6 months at full pay for folks
Spotify permits dad and mom to take six months of absolutely paid depart once they have a toddler, whether or not they’re a mom or a father. It may be taken anytime throughout the three years after a toddler is born and can also be offered to adoptive dad and mom.
Even Connaughton’s senior function didn’t preclude him from taking over the complete perk.
The daddy of two, who has been in command of Spotify’s U.Ok. operations since 2018, seems to be again at the moment as an opportunity to type a singular bond together with his new little one and revel in an uninterrupted summer time together with his rising household.
However with the hindsight of the maelstrom of latest fatherhood underneath his belt, he additionally doesn’t know the way he or some other new dad and mom ever managed to work within the days and weeks after the delivery of their little one.
“I think back to those first weeks together as a new family. It’s beautiful, but it’s so relentless. And I couldn’t imagine having to make decisions at work in that period. When you’re hallucinating, have no sleep, I don’t think you should be at work.”
Spotify’s coverage isn’t simply meant to present its workers household time and much-needed relaxation. It’s additionally a part of a wider try and confront probably the most distinguished inequalities within the workforce.
The motherhood penalty
The gender wage hole is a pervasive challenge that engrosses practically each nation’s economic system, averaging 11.9% across the OECD.
There are various causes for the stubbornness of the hole regardless of a number of makes an attempt at rebalancing, together with structural points and flat-out discrimination.
However a big contributor is regarded as the “motherhood penalty”—the slower wage development a girl sees in comparison with her male colleagues after giving delivery.
This partly comes from the profession break sometimes taken by moms to care for his or her new child. Some teams, together with Spotify, see the answer in providing fathers the identical advantages.
Others like drinks provider Diageo and retail financial institution M&G be part of Spotify in offering six months of absolutely paid depart to some or all of its new fathers and moms. New dad and mom at Netflix take as much as eight months of paid depart.
It’s unsurprising that Spotify, a Swedish firm co-founded by native CEO Daniel Ek, is forward of the curve on that potential answer. Sweden ranked high in a Unicef evaluate of family-friendly insurance policies throughout international locations.
The U.S., in the meantime, ranked worst in school when it got here to statutory parental depart, each for moms and dads. The common American father takes only one week of paternity depart, in keeping with analysis from jobs web site Zippia, a fraction of the quantity Connaughton and his colleagues took.
However Spotify’s coverage—which extends to its U.S. workers—isn’t simply an outlier on a nationwide stage. It additionally stands out towards Fortune 500 firms.
A 2020 study of America’s largest firms by lecturers at Bell State College discovered greater than a 3rd supplied moms twice as a lot parental depart as fathers.
There’s good purpose to consider upping paid paternity depart is the reply to partially closing the gender wage hole. Analysis compiled by McKinsey discovered paternity depart reduces the hole by growing moms’ wages within the brief time period and serving to to extend family revenue in the long run.
Connaughton took eight weeks when his little one was first born simply after Christmas, earlier than returning to work for 3 months. He took the remaining 4 months of paid depart over the summer time.
Nevertheless it was nonetheless troublesome for Connaughton, who had his first little one at an organization with a way more restrictive parental depart coverage, to initially embrace the advantages himself. Nevertheless, he says a dialog together with his supervisor allayed his fears.
“There was an element of Spotify wanting me to lead by example and setting the right precedent for our team,” Connaughton mentioned.
“I think a welcome side effect of me taking my parental leave entitlement has been that others in the business hopefully feel more comfortable doing so.”
‘A no-brainer’
A tenth of Spotify’s workers took parental depart underneath the corporate’s coverage final 12 months, in keeping with Connaughton, and virtually three-fifths of these have been male. One among them was new starter Paul Blyth, a senior software program engineer.
When Blyth was approached by the group’s recruitment crew in early 2022, he was simply excited that he would possibly lastly get to work for a corporation that his buddies had heard of.
Then actuality set in. Blyth’s companion Laura was 4 months pregnant with the couple’s first little one when he obtained the decision from Spotify, and he nervous he may not be eligible for the corporate’s parental advantages package deal if he took the job.
Blyth says he was assured that offered he handed a brief probationary interval, he was entitled to the identical advantages as colleagues who had been there for years.
“At that point, it was almost a no-brainer,” Blyth informed Fortune. “It was huge for us as a family.” He took the job in March, and his son was born in June.
Like Connaughton, it was fairly the tradition shock for Blyth, who at his earlier firm remembers a U.S. colleague dialing into a piece name from a hospital rest room after his companion had simply given delivery.
“I was like, I don’t want to be that kind of person.” However throughout paternity depart, he was additionally reminded of the U.Ok.’s personal shortcomings on parental advantages.
Blyth mentioned he was typically the one male in attendance at parenting courses. A buddy who attended one class was solely in a position to take action by taking trip time.
“I believe I developed a bond with my son that I wouldn’t have had in any other case, the event course of each day is superb.
“If I had been working, you wouldn’t get time to see things like that.”
Blyth says the advantages prolonged to his companion, who was in a position to go to reboarding days at her work whereas he taken care of their son, rushing up her transition again into the workforce.
Connaughton’s spouse was additionally in a position to return to work sooner than deliberate whereas he parented the youngsters by himself for the final month of his paternity depart.
Extra to be achieved
There are nonetheless many obstacles to lowering the “motherhood penalty,” notably what occurs when parental depart ends.
Childcare prices are costly and rising quick, growing by 60% between 2010 and 2021 within the U.Ok., in keeping with the Institute for Fiscal Studies. This has made it financially irrational for each dad and mom to proceed working in lots of households.
Sometimes, the burden falls on the mom to surrender her profession. Analysis from the Fawcett Society suggests childcare prices have pushed practically 250,000 ladies out of the workforce. A examine published by the group Wednesday mentioned a scarcity of versatile working choices for ladies would hold the U.Ok.’s gender pay hole—at the moment at £6,888 ($8,625)—in place till 2051.
Nevertheless, Spotify continues to put in a flexible working coverage for workers. That has let Blyth—who lives a four-hour practice trip from Spotify’s U.Ok. places of work—get pleasure from caregiver duties even when he’s again at work. It additionally allowed him to reside close to household who may lighten the load.
Connaughton says a part of his job has concerned bringing different firms round to this versatile construction, although it’s not at all times straightforward.
One govt from a Zurich financial institution requested him how may ensure his workers weren’t skipping off on a paddleboard at 5 pm on a Friday afternoon in the event that they weren’t within the workplace.
His reply?
“I’d much rather our team on a paddleboard at five o’clock than signed off burnt out.”
