Netflix made headlines a few weeks back when itannounced unlimited, paid paternity and maternity leave for itsemployees during the first year after birth or adoption.

Not long after, tech firms Microsoft and Adobe joined in,announcing their own new generous parental leave policies.

People everywhere cheered, calling it a revolution in workplacebenefits. A sign that employers are finally pushing for work-lifebalance. A win for parents. A win for all American workers, whosoon may be offered the same benefits. The new norm.

Call me cynical, but I'm not buying it.

The biggest impact so far? Kudos and PR success for thosespecific companies.

While company heads are looking great, there are a number ofquestions and issues that arise from such moves that makecelebration premature.

For one thing, not all employees are benefiting. Netflix's newpolicy, for example, only applies to “salaried streamingemployees,” which pisses off the workers in the DVD division.

I also can't help but wonder who will actually use thesegenerous policies. Sure, a whole year of time off to bond with yourkid sounds pretty great, but given that most American workers don'tuse their allotted vacation days and won't even take a lunch hourdue to a backlog of work and overall guilt, I'm not confident thatthe parental leave policies will ever be embraced. Again, it looksgood in print, but who's really benefitting, besides the Netflix PRdepartment?

Of course, I do appreciate news coverage of the benefits world,just as I appreciate the idea of promoting better work-lifebalance. Our country is behind on workplace leave policies andbenefits overall, and, it's worth clarifying, the U.S. stilldoesn't offer paid maternity leave (unlike pretty much every othernation).

I would love to think that companies are making this a priority,but of course, we have one other thing to consider: We're talkingabout some of the biggest, coolest employers in the country. We'retalking about Silicon Valley companies that offer unlimitedvacation, nap rooms, massages, in-house dry cleaning, free lunchesand a host of other benefits that largely seem unimaginable.

For every Netflix, there are hundreds of cash-strapped employersthat don't offer much of anything to employees. Silicon Valleypolicies on unlimited parental leave and vacation time aren't goingto start a ripple effect. And frankly, I'm not so sure how far theripple effect will go even in Netflix's own building.

The real test will be a year or two from now, when the policy isfirmly in place.

Maybe I'm wrong (and let's hope so). Maybe this will be thebeginning of a new benefits revolution. But don't count on it.