First – a career, and we will give birth on retirement
Freeze the future
These two companies were the first major employers to offer compensation for egg freezing procedures for non-medical reasons. With such an additional bonus, business giants expect to attract the most promising employees. According to Bridget Adams, responsible for the practice of egg freezing, the founder of the relevant thematic forum Eggsurance.com By offering such a bonus, companies invest in women and support their desire to plan their lives. Successful egg freezing allows a woman to maintain her fertility until she is ready to have a baby.
The procedure of egg freezing is quite expensive, as a rule, the cost starts from 10 thousand dollars for each cycle of operations, and besides, egg storage costs another 500 dollars a year.
Silicon Valley companies are traditionally dominated by male employees, while employers compete among themselves for talented female employees. The proposed compensation may attract women who, instead of arranging a personal life, are engaged in career-building while at reproductive age. According to fertility specialist Philip Schenett, compensation for the cost of egg freezing is a kind of repayment of the company's debt for the duties of female employees. Companies offer slightly different terms of compensation for this procedure, but in both cases they are ready to spend up to 20 thousand dollars for each employee. Moreover, women working at Facebook have already started using this bonus from the company this year.
The gradual increase in the success rates of egg freezing still does not give absolute guarantees that this procedure will enable a woman to become pregnant in the future. For this reason, doctors usually advise women to freeze at least 20 pieces of cells, this will require at least two cycles of the procedure. Journalist Emma Rosenblum in her article for Bloomberg Businessweek magazine (Later, Baby: Will Freezing Your Eggs Free Your Career?) She noted that since the advent of birth control pills, no procedure has had such potential to change a woman's plans for family and career.
The introduction of this bonus was another stage of the "privilege race" in Silicon Valley. This is the latest benefit introduced in a generous list of family and wellness bonuses for Apple and Facebook employees. Both companies, among other things, offer benefits for infertility treatment or adoption. Facebook even allocates 4 thousand dollars to young parents, which they can spend as they deem necessary.
These two companies are not the only ones where new bonuses are constantly being introduced, but full compensation for egg freezing procedures is currently offered only there. However, they also have reason to worry about public opinion. A lot of opinions have already appeared about the new benefit, and according to the most cynical, this is just a trick that serves to ensure that a woman almost sells her soul to an employer, sacrificing her reproductive age in exchange for the opportunity to advance at work. However, such a skeptical attitude may be caused by the not so widespread popularity of this procedure, much has been said about it recently.
EggBanxx company, which was the first to help finance the egg freezing procedure, holds themed evenings where potential clients are told about the advantages of this form of future planning. In particular, the lack of a suitable man nearby or the desire to focus on a career or study plays a role here. The main idea of the procedure is that no matter what reasons stop a woman from starting a family at reproductive age, now you can always postpone this issue for a more suitable and convenient time.
Such benefits will also be beneficial to the employer, as valuable employees will continue to work for the company, which will deprive it of the costs of finding new employees. In addition, from a practical point of view, if a woman takes advantage of the company's offer and postpones pregnancy "for later", the company will save on this in the long run, since the woman will not go on maternity leave. In addition, it is assumed that the offer itself will lead to a significant emotional and cultural gain.
In Russia, individual companies also offer their employees a wide range of benefits and bonuses for a more comfortable combination of work and personal life. More recently, the initiative was voiced by State Duma deputy Oleg Nilov ("Fair Russia"), he offered to compensate up to 75% of the costs of fitness classes to active citizens. According to the proposed norm, up to half of the expenses for an annual subscription to a fitness club for a working citizen can be compensated by the state, another 25% by the employer. The employee himself will have to pay only a quarter of the cost of the subscription.
In social networks, Apple and Facebook's concern for employees caused Russian Internet users only irony. "Some of us dress like this in winter, so they also freeze their eggs for free," writes Katerina Shelest. "This is a good social package," Olga Arkhipova supports.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru16.10.2014