Careers are important. But when you look back on your life, you'll likely dwell more on your time with your family than the extra hours you put in at the office.
A balance between careers and family is essential, and it's, arguably, become harder in recent years, with two working family members now the norm.
That's why we join Auditor Nicole Galloway in asking Gov. Eric Greitens to consider approving new family friendly leave policies for executive branch state employees.
The policy would let new parents who work in the state's various executive departments use either vacation or sick time to take a total of 12 weeks paid leave for "parental bonding" after the birth or adoption of a child.
The policies were approved unanimously by the state's Personnel Advisory Board (PAB) in December, but were frozen by Greitens in January, along with other new regulations. In addition, the governor ordered a review of all state regulations.
That leaves in effect the state's current policy, which allows employees to use only accrued vacation time for parental bonding. Sick leave is limited to pregnancy, childbirth and recovery from childbirth.
State employees already can take up to 12 weeks off after welcoming a newborn or newly adopted child, but when their vacation time is gone, so is their paycheck.
Implementing the PAB policies would incur no additional cost to the state.
"This is paid time off employees have earned through their time in the state workforce but can't use during the critical bonding period that exists in the weeks and months after a child is born or adopted," Galloway said in a news release. "Families benefit when parents are involved in the care of a child - and without these policy changes, many state employees will remain prohibited from using their own paid leave to take time off to bond with and care for a new addition to their families."
Galloway, who recently gave birth to a son, implemented this policy change in her own office, and other statewide officeholders have the authority to do the same.
Such leave benefits are needed for newborn/adopted children to bond with their parents, and they also would help the state attract and retain high-quality government workers. Implementing the newly recommended family leave policies would be a win-win move for the state.