Netflix Parental Leave Was Flawed From the Start: Beth Kowitt

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.

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 ...