Netflix, Microsoft Expand Parental Leave Policies

New parents at Microsoft will be provided with 12 weeks of paid leave, and at Netflix they will receive a full year, after both companies announced changes in employee policies this week. “As we ask our employees to bring their ‘A’ game to work every day to achieve our mission, we believe it’s our responsibility to create an environment where people can do their best work,” Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s vice president of human resources, wrote in a blog post. “A key component of this is supporting our employees with benefits that matter most to them.” Netflix has offered “unlimited leave” for one year after a birth or adoption, and Microsoft will allow new parents to choose whether to take leave in one continuous chunk or split into two separate periods.