Airvet’s Post

Many workers can now get time off to volunteer, grieve a death in the family or, more recently, process a miscarriage. Should caring for an ailing pet get an extra paid day off, too? “Pawternity leave”—time off specifically to tend to a new or sick pet—remains a niche workplace perk, but some members of the New York City Council want to change that. Several co-sponsored a bill last month that would let nongovernment workers employed in the city use their paid sick time for pet-related medical care. Given the proposal could apply to millions of employees, it has spurred a broader debate about pet benefits and how many kinds of leave bosses are expected to grant. “Does that mean we would need to ask the vet for a doctor’s note?” human-resources consultant Teri Chilcoat, MS, PHR, SHRM-CP quipped in a LinkedIn post. The proposal follows a rush of employee pet benefits in recent years—a reaction to workers’ demands for more work-life balance, not to mention the millions of Americans who adopted dogs, cats and other animals during the pandemic. Companies such as United Airlines and Verizon provide discounted pet insurance while some, including Adobe and Lyft, offer access to subsidized online vet calls via pet telehealth services like Airvet. The job market has since cooled, though, and employers say there’s a limit to how far they’ll go to accommodate their workforces’ out-of-office needs. In the new climate, some bosses say granting paid sick time for employees’ furrier family members is one benefit too far. Read more from Ray Smith: https://lnkd.in/eD4F4Bm3