Netflix's flip-flop on parental leave: Just PR?

HERE'S SOME FREE advice for HR departments: If you don't want your employees to make use of the benefits you offer, avoid launching a media blitz to promote just how great they are.

- BETH KOWITT Bloomberg

This seems to be the obvious lesson Netflix Inc. has learned nearly a decade after it first allowed new parents to take unlimited leave during the first year of their baby's life—a policy that was seemingly unrivaled among US companies back then, and remains so today.

But The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the company has been walking back the generous parental leave guidelines it debuted in 2015. The reversal is part of a broader cultural shift at Netflix as it moves away from its one-time core values of "freedom and responsibility."

Back when the parental leave benefit was introduced, the company's chief talent officer wrote in a widely covered blog post that "we want employees to have the flexibility and confidence to balance the needs of their growing families without worrying about work or finances." Behind the scenes, she told other executives she did not expect that many people would take a full year, the WSJ reported.

Surprise! Within 24 hours of the policy's announcement, requests started pouring in.