Wow, and I was excited about 4 weeks of paternity leave at my company. Which I'm still excited about by the way, Microsoft just seems like they are going above and beyond.
I know some places let people take longer off, and Netflix essentially lets you take a year off. This amount of leave is insane to me. Even a month seems like so much I won't know how to use it. I mean after 2 weeks I was ready to go back to work, but the option to go work 2-4 days a week and then spend the rest of the time at home would be awesome.
Last place I had to take vacation and my wife does not get Maternity leave at all.... That on the other hand is terrible.
The problem is that most Americans are shocked by this. Almost all of Europe has 6-12 months? Canada has 12? So we act like it's crazy generous thing to have so much paternity leave. Good for MS & netflix. The sooner we have a wave of big tech following the trend the better.
I (working in the US) have a handful of friends that work in Germany and UK. The only "bad" thing about US employment is vacation and parental leave. As a male I don't see a need for 12 months but the fact that my wife get shit here (8 weeks of "sick leave" for having a child) is enough to constantly keep my ears open for opportunities in other countries.
We need to stop being surprised and should be saying "about time".
Speaking from personal experience, the difference in take-home pay between Canada and the US is enough to pay for private school, private health insurance, and savings for a year of maternity leave for each child easy. It's enormous.
Now, if you're talking about being altruistic to those who aren't lucky to be Software Engineers in Silicon Valley, fine. But speaking in economic terms, you're way better off in the US than any socialist country you've mentioned.
As someone who is about to have the first new addition to the family, the 8 weeks off is further complicated by state laws and company policy. Even though my wife's maternity leave is protected by law in CA, her company can force her to use up her accumulated PTO time before allowing her to use her maternity leave ( I am skipping a lot of the technical details here..., but it was complicated enough that we had to use a spread sheet to figure out which law applies at the time frame, and if and how she is compensated during this time)
"Wow, and I was excited about 4 weeks of paternity leave at my company. Which I'm still excited about by the way"
I realize this may be better than what you had, but the rest of the civilized world puts this number to shame. And it's not really going to change unless people get angry.
I know some places let people take longer off, and Netflix essentially lets you take a year off. This amount of leave is insane to me. Even a month seems like so much I won't know how to use it. I mean after 2 weeks I was ready to go back to work, but the option to go work 2-4 days a week and then spend the rest of the time at home would be awesome.
Last place I had to take vacation and my wife does not get Maternity leave at all.... That on the other hand is terrible.