Let’s Bring Moms and Dads Back Into the Animal Hospital. | by David Saginur | GoodVets | Medium

https://medium.com/goodvets/lets-bring-moms-and-dads-back-into-the-animal-hospital-9bd876012420

After over 18 hours of labor, my daughter, Tatum, was born on a snowy evening on the last day of January. At work, I was preparing for a new hospital opening, leading our website redevelopment project, and overseeing the launch of wellness plans at all of our hospitals. Simply put, I was super busy. As a result, I was able to take only a single week of leave before getting back to work, and I still feel guilt and regret over the missed moments in the early months of Tatum’s life.

In the almost two years since her birth, I have experienced first-hand the many stressors all working parents face struggling to juggle work responsibilities with raising a child. From having to cancel meetings because her daycare closed unexpectedly, dealing with the mounting costs of childcare, and feeling the pains of only being able to see your child at bedtime because of a busy workday, the challenges faced by working parents are numerous and difficult.

Me and my daughter, Tatum.

What GoodVets is Doing to Solve These Problems

As you may have heard, GoodVets recently launched a first-of-its-kind Working Parents Benefits program for veterinarians. This new initiative — offering industry-leading, unique benefits catered to parents and part-time employees — hits particularly close to home for me and the rest of our GoodVets leadership team.

Many of us are parents of young children and understand first-hand the difficulty of balancing a career and a growing family. Unfortunately, in our industry, veterinarians too often feel the responsibility of choosing one or the other.

While I am not a veterinarian, I am career-driven and ambitious, but I also strive to be a great parent to my daughter. I know those qualities and aspirations are shared by many veterinarians, and too many have left the workforce because of an inability to balance parenthood and their career. As a co-founder of GoodVets and a parent, I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to curate a suite of benefits to bring moms and dads back into the hospital.

Our Chief People Officer, Maureen, and her daughter, Addy.

Two or Three Day Work Weeks

The five-day, 40-hour work week has many critics. Whether you feel it is an antiquated paradigm or a necessary construct, it’s about time organizations stopped forcing a one-size fit-all approach on their employees.

We believe animal hospitals should follow suit, and that’s why we are offering both two-day and three-day work weeks for doctors. While compensation pro-rates accordingly, our two- or three-day work week veterinarians are still eligible for full benefits, including comprehensive and affordable medical insurance, an unlimited CE budget, PTO, and 401(k) matching. To emphasize, even a part-time veterinarian would be fully eligible for our full array of medical insurance plans at the same generous employer premium contribution levels as a full-time veterinarian employee. Medical costs for families, a major driver of stress and anxiety, are substantially alleviated while achieving a greater home-life and work-life balance.

For any parent (and really every parent) that knows the stress of juggling childcare with their partner, a part-time schedule is the holy grail. Daycares and nannies are expensive, asking grandparents to help out is complicated or not an option for many, and there is really no replacement for a parent caring for their own child. Historically, it hasn’t been an option for working veterinarians to also be the stay-at-home mom or dad. We are proud to provide our doctors with a choice to have the best of both worlds.

Child Care Allowance

For new parents, the cost of childcare can be shocking. Whether it’s a daycare, nanny, au pair, or night nurse, there is no inexpensive option and the men and women that care for and educate children deserve every penny they get. But for new parents, who have never had to budget for the expense before, it’s a tough pill to swallow. Coupled with the cost of clothing and feeding, childcare costs can be a major obstacle for veterinarians to re-enter the workforce (or even decide to have children of their own in the first place).

We’re excited to be able to directly contribute to reducing the cost of childcare through a GoodVets childcare allowance for all veterinarians with children. This is a first-of-its-kind benefit, especially carved out for working parents.

Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr. DeMarco, and his son, Luca, and daughter, Ari.

Backup Child Care

In addition to a regular stipend to alleviate childcare expenses, we’re also partnering with Care.com, the world’s largest online platform for connecting caregivers to parents, to offer backup childcare coverage for all working veterinarians.

I’ve had to miss meetings and scramble to find help from family members on a workday because a nanny has called off or our daycare center closed unexpectedly. It’s stressful and discouraging, but it is a reality of being a working parent. With the backup childcare benefit by Care@Work from Care.com, GoodVets offers complete choice and transparent access to quality backup care, both in-home or in-center. We know being a parent is stressful enough, this is one, big way we can help.

Paid Maternity Leave

One of my greatest regrets is not taking enough of a leave after the birth of my daughter. As a startup founder in boot-strap mode, taking more than a week was not an option. This lesson has stuck with me and launching an official maternity and paternity leave policy for new parents is a personal priority I share with our entire leadership team.

To be frank, the minimal, legal parental leave in our country is not enough for primary caregivers. It’s unpaid and too short, and acts as an incredible deterrent for working professionals from having children. While we’re not able to solve this entirely for all employees, or offer the length of paid leave we hope to one day offer, we are pleased to be able to offer a paid, eight week maternity leave for veterinarians at GoodVets, with a paternity leave policy forthcoming.

The time spent with a newborn is precious and invaluable, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience and bonding opportunity. GoodVets recognizes and respects that.

Our Veterinary Recruiter, Erika, and her daughter, Kendall.

These new benefits, in summary, are meant to bring moms and dads back into the animal hospital. Like with all of our benefits, we are actively listening to our employees on what is most important and impactful to each of them. Without any doubt, the Working Parents Benefits program creates a suite of unique benefits that will help veterinarians achieve a coveted work-life-family balance.