This title doesn't do it justice- I hope his rant about how working moms aren't fair to the company gets him sued.
So children and dogs are a distraction for the rank and file that's unfair to the company, but being on a bunch of boards and committees is fine and cool for executives. Pretty obvious what "good" and "bad" mean here - "good" is anything that makes the CEO more money, "bad" is anything that is the opposite. Classic "mask off" moment.
Engineer divides his day up so he can work multiple full-time jobs: Huge problem
I understand having children does take time, but I've experienced a parent that ends up being available around 4 hours a day while they are the linchpin in a certain part of the process that prevents a job from being completed. They're slow to respond to messages, emails, and calls and sometimes async responses are just not good enough when we have contractors ready to put equipment into the ground.
Just seems like at some point, the role should be part time and not involved in some crucial aspect of the process. My complaint should probably be towards the company though and not the parent.
Yes, it should. Don't put responsibility on people you know won't fulfill it. The fact people even entertain the idea of not putting the blame on bosses for this is ridiculous.
Surely all the time spent making everyone homogenous and replaceable would infer otherwise.
Check out the "In Comments" section.
Over that time span almost everyone I worked with closely has had children. And for the life of me, I cannot think of one instance where it affected their overall productivity.
If anything, kids tend to be a stabilizing influence. I much prefer working with the person who is AFK every day from 3:00-4:00PM because he is picking up his kids versus the person who drops offline at 3:00PM randomly because they scored some concert ticket and the venue is 2.5 hours away.
Your org sounds different from mine though. It sounds like immediate responses to short notice requests are very important. Maybe folks are getting rewarded for heroics and not for planning and proactive communications? That is not an atmosphere that is conducive to parenting. Or anything else, really.