Parental Leave @ Netflix
Credit: Netflix

Parental Leave @ Netflix

Netflix’s parental leave program is a simple statement: "take care of your baby and yourself." It’s a popular benefit and seen as favorable by most employees. Netflix has a flexible offering that allows an employee to take the time they need to bond with their new little one (during the child’s first year for both births and adoptions).

Discussions are held between the employee and the manager along with their HR Business Partner (HRBP) to determine the right amount of time that best supports both the employee and their family, as well as their Netflix team and the business’ needs.  Each employee’s journey is unique; below are five examples from Netflix employees sharing their parental leave experiences.

Raul Varela

I thought I was very lucky after getting six weeks of paid parental leave with my previous employer in Texas after my first kid was born, especially considering there is no federal paid parental leave program in the US. But I guess Netflix is just different.

Before my second kid was ready to be born, the team and I put a plan in place to make sure that our business needs were covered. For me, it included things like my on-call rotation and ensuring that the TV brands I usually monitor were handed off to a teammate. I also had a couple of discussions with my manager and my HRBP at Netflix, and they were both really supportive. They stressed the importance of taking as much time off as my family required. So based on our previous experience with baby #1, I decided that I would split my leave in two for a total leave of 6 months. 3 months right after the baby was born and 3 more months before the baby turned 1. We knew that usually the first few months are brutal, since the baby's sleeping routine is nonexistent and they are so dependent on their caregivers. The other 3 months before the first birthday would allow me to bond more with my baby, enjoy their ever growing collection of cues and smiles, and hopefully be present for their first steps. It also takes a bit more off the primary caregiver role, alleviating some pressure from mom.

I have to be honest, I had some anxiety about getting 6 months of leave being a non-gestational parent, but everyone around me in Netflix reassured me that I should follow the company's parental leave program: "take care of your baby and yourself." So that is what I did, because in the end being a parent is a full time job for both parents.

Baby Dallas (copyright: Luciana Lima)

Luciana Lima

We were in the middle of a pandemic, it was my first child and I was lucky enough to be working at Netflix! I’m from Brazil and maternity leave typically lasts from 4 - 6 months. I was shocked when I realized that here in the US, many companies do not adequately support their employees in one of their most life-changing events. At Netflix, I was encouraged by my HRBPs and managers to take the amount of time that worked best for me and my family. They also made it clear that I could readjust my leave in case I needed more time. My colleagues told me to focus on my baby and forget about work! Their best advice: 

  • Take a bunch of pictures and videos, they grow so fast, you will want to record every little milestone;
  • And they reassured me: everything will be just fine, your only priority is enjoy every single moment bonding with your baby.

6 months later I was back. So many things had happened in the company and in my life, and I was not the same. Neither was Netflix. At the beginning I was feeling terrible; not giving my all to the company and what hurt the most, not giving my all to my little one. In the first weeks it was hard to adjust since working from home due to the pandemic made me feel more guilty every time I listened to my baby crying, leaving her with the nanny and not being able to concentrate in meetings. My team welcomed her to our video-meetings and it is always a celebration when she joins us. As she is learning new skills - how to crawl, clap, walk - I am learning to be a better professional than I used to be. Being a mother is not easy! It is hard work, however, I am up to this task with the support of my team and company.

Xin Xu

I joined Netflix one month before my wife's due date. With the help of my team and HRBP, I decided to split my parental leave into two parts - right after my baby was born and then towards the end of the year when my team’s workloads are usually light. Before I joined Netflix, I had heard that Netflix has a great parental leave program, but I was still a bit concerned about taking a leave so soon after joining. So I communicated this with my manager. He was very supportive and encouraged me to take time off for this "amazing reason" (in his words).

In fact, not just my manager, my colleagues were all very supportive as well. They provided a lot of information as context so that I could make better planning decisions about my leave. When I talked with the HR partners about my plan for leave, to my surprise, their first reaction was "Are you sure you are taking enough time?". HR made sure that I put my family first and made the plan accordingly without having to worry too much. My colleagues were very supportive as well. My teammates helped me adjust my onboarding plan to accommodate my leave, and provided a lot of context about our team and our work to help me plan better. It turns out that this plan worked very well for me, my family, and for the team.

Natali Itzler

My maternity journey with Netflix started even before I officially joined the company. After rounds of interviews, Netflix extended me an offer and I was absolutely excited to join the company. The only thing: I was around 5 months pregnant at the time. Before accepting my offer, I was very upfront with my recruiter and asked to clarify whether my new manager is comfortable with bringing on a pregnant employee who will want to spend some time with her first newborn in a few months. It wasn’t even a concern! Both my recruiter and hiring manager were extremely supportive. I joined the company and after a few months experienced the joy of motherhood. With Netflix's generous parental leave program I took some time off to bond with my new baby. Not only did I not feel pressure to return back, but quite the opposite. I saw a lot of encouragement from leadership to take even more time and they made sure I was comfortable with my choice.  

My second pregnancy happened during my third year at Netflix. I knew how much support Netflix provides its expecting-parents and was delighted to talk to my manager about the new family addition. I learned a lot from my first parental leave. The only difference this time was the actual transition to parental leave. I spent more time preparing for the occasion: making sure I transition my work to colleagues, providing proper context to stakeholders, wrapping up my responsibilities, and verifying they have proper delegators. I enjoyed some (much needed) time off while my team kept everything going well at Netflix.

I’m extremely grateful to Netflix for the opportunity to experience the world of motherhood without having to give up on my career and professional growth.

Baby Milani’s first Halloween (copyright: Michael James)

Michael James

Two of my teammates above, Raul and Luciana, took parental leave in the past year.  The rest of us on the team had to cover while they were away.  Did this mean more work for us?  Yes, a little.  Did it make us uncomfortable?  Not at all.  Our team took it as an opportunity to streamline our operational duties, knowing that we would have less headcount for a few months.  We reviewed what we were doing and decided to lean into ruthless prioritization. That meant no longer supporting some things that weren’t worth the return given the effort.  Specifically for us, this meant retiring or offloading some automated alerts, deciding that some metrics we used to monitor closely were no longer worth the attention, and we created some more self-service tools, dashboards, and documentation so that others could get the data & information they needed without involving us directly each time.

After a few months, we got to actually see the new babies during video meetings.  I don’t know why, but it brought me such joy seeing their little ones; it reminded me of when my two kids were infants and this triggered many happy memories.  Everyone on the team is very interested in what the babies are up to, to get a peek at what they look like now, and it turns out, we are eager to share our own stories of baby experiences + tips we learned along the way.  We love it whenever the baby wanders into frame during video meetings.  This may seem like a distraction to some, but our team doesn’t view it like that at all; we look forward to it. Actually we  are disappointed when the baby is napping and we can’t get a look at them.  I didn’t realize this was a benefit, but it is: working at a company that values and welcomes families and children, which realizes the important, daily, core component of that family in each employee’s life and makes accommodations for it.

Interested in joining our team? Keep an eye out for open roles on our Jobs Site and follow @WeAreNetflix on all social platforms (just @Netflix on LinkedIn).

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