Moral Values of Modern Time Motherhood in HR

The leading companies such as Apple and Facebook’s announcement to offer female workers egg freezing as a health plan benefit, there is a lot of noise about the moral values regarding this. It is a not about the dominant side of our culture, it is about the modern day working women and the decision they make. It can be a huge factor in deciding how the world is going to look like in the future, whether it will be a lot of single or married women preferring to be childless or saving it for later. The Human Resource of Corporate think tanks have decided to give them better benefits in this regard. The bitter sweet side effects of increasing pressure on women to do well and beyond their scope. The horizons to any limits they might stretch are blurry and it is always a step into more and more if there is a choice. No matter what you believe is right or wrong you can always question the technicality of the procedure.

Let us consider the pros and cons of the situation. Lets suppose a manager in a  firm decides to work till the end of her pregnancy and at that period she will be allowed paid leave for maternity, it is always a loss to the company one way or the other. Even if she give a trained person to replace her for that period of time there is always a question that comes to mind, what happens to that person after she is back, would you want her to continue or would you prefer the other manager to replace her since it is convenient. By law the company would have to hire the same person so all that juggling is a bit of a hassle. The last term of the pregnancy at work does decrease the productivity of the woman and there is only a little less than 60% of her efficiency compared to the work load. She might leave earlier because it is just natural for her to get tired too quickly and then might take some odd days off for her regular doctor visits. Then again we cannot doubt the fact that it is her prime time to carry a baby naturally and take care and nurture it while she is young and energetic. That is how it is designed to be for them, the earlier they have the babies the less chances of birth related complications and fetal abnormalities it is. The only problem in this whole scenario is how the HR department manages all this; they have a whole lot of home work assigned just to deal with pregnant women, their insurance, their leaves and then the paid maternity leave, all of which takes a toll on the company’s financials. This might be the reason that the corporate darlings want to have an option, not just for them but for the ladies that might just want to set their priorities straight and have a no-nonsense attitude towards work.

Women can have their own eggs frozen if there’s a medical issue that stops them from using their own but sadly the focus has been shifted to working women and is often used for women who aren’t ready for mother hood. The American Society for Reproductive Medicine has their reservations about it. Mostly women have their eggs frozen because of medical issues, such as cancer treatment, that may affect their fertility. So it isn’t a simple procedure to follow at all and there are always risks of safety and efficacy and emotional turmoil it has over women.

Andrew S

Andrew S is a HR Go-To Person and a Blogger at ActiveHR.io. He is currently pursuing his Master's degree in digital journalism. He graduated with majors in journalism and English literature.