Netflix made headlines a few weeks back when it announced unlimited, paid paternity and maternity leave for its employees 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 workplace benefits. A sign that employers are finally pushing for work-life balance. A win for parents. A win for all American workers, who soon 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 those specific companies.

While company heads are looking great, there are a number of questions and issues that arise from such moves that make celebration premature.

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

I also can't help but wonder who will actually use these generous policies. Sure, a whole year of time off to bond with your kid sounds pretty great, but given that most American workers don't use their allotted vacation days and won't even take a lunch hour due to a backlog of work and overall guilt, I'm not confident that the parental leave policies will ever be embraced. Again, it looks good in print, but who's really benefitting, besides the Netflix PR department?

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

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

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

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

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

Instant Insights /

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