Following in the footsteps of progressive employer Facebook, Apple has joined the ranks of companies offering up to $20,000 in coverage for non-medically necessary egg freezing for female employees as well as spouses of male employees.
The media’s handling of the announcement has been littered with narrow assumptions about both women’s health and work habits, as well as employer motives. The argument goes that these companies are attempting to coerce women into postponing motherhood in order to maintain female employees as long as possible.
But are Apple and Facebook secretly plotting to manipulate female employees or are they simply responding to the modern work habits and professional goals of a growing female workforce?
Essentially, which came first — the chicken or the egg? Pun intended.
Facebook and Apple have long been on the cutting edge of employee benefits in the race to provide the happiest and most productive workforce around. So is it any surprise that either company would extend their already stellar benefits package even further?
Facebook is arguably one of the most revolutionary companies in the world when it comes to employee benefits. The city-like structure of the Facebook campus offers employees services such as medical offices, a barber shop, communal bicycles, a variety of free restaurants, and vending machines which dispense accessories like charging cords — all at no expense to its employees.
The goal of this inclusive work environment is to reduce employee stress and financial strain, and consequently increase employee productivity and satisfaction.
Why would any company go to these lengths for its employees? Because happy, well-compensated employees work harder to ensure they keep their job, in turn increasing productivity and reducing employee turnover.
While Apple isn’t quite as accommodating of their employees, they have always provided exceptional health-related benefits. Ranging from more routine benefits like wellness programs and on-site fitness centers to more attractive, less common benefits like adoption assistance and cafes that use only organic ingredients, Apple has also managed to create and maintain an environment of high employee productivity.
Until now these companies have been praised, not condemned, for their employee-focused benefits and concerted effort to provide a more comprehensive work-life balance in an increasingly fast-paced world.
So why all the fuss over the addition of egg freezing coverage to the already-broad employee benefits package?
Much like the birth control debate, the media has quickly diluted the topic to an issue of when and how a women will abandon her thriving career and take on the obligatory role of the barefoot and pregnant wife.
What the media seems to be missing is not that Facebook and Apple are introducing new pressure on women to postpone motherhood in order to further their bottom line, but that Facebook and Apple are simply responding to the lifestyle and work habits that modern women have willfully created for themselves.
Offering women the ability to control their reproductive health so they can create their own priorities in both work and life will only further the work-life balance of female employees while increasing both productivity and employee satisfaction — a win-win for employer and employee.
Reach the columnist at dprobst1@asu.edu or follow her on Twitter @DonnellProbst
Editor’s note: The opinions presented in this column are the author’s and do not imply any endorsement from The State Press or its editors.
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