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Friday, February 1, 2019

IVF in demand

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February 1, 2019

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Heidi Cruz was a near miss for the World Bank job, Victorina Morales of the Trump National Golf Club will attend the State of the Union, and more companies are beginning to cover infertility treatment. Have a fantastic Friday.

EVERYONE'S TALKING

• In demand: IVF. At The Broadsheet, we've covered a plenty of companies' splashy new parental leave policies. (And to be clear, we hope to cover many more!) But there is one related benefit that doesn't often get the same Official Press Release treatment: coverage of infertility treatment.

Yet according to a story in the New York Times, such policies are increasingly in demand, and are in fact becoming more generous and widespread—not just in the hyper-competitive industries you might expect (tech, banking, consulting), but also at companies like General Mills, Chobani, and Designer Shoe Warehouse.

The Times credits to the shift to "a combination of fading taboos around difficulty conceiving; a competitive job market with employers eager to adopt recruiting and retention tools; and the reframing of infertility as an issue less about ambitious women who have waited too long than one of corporate diversity and inclusion. The rising power in the workplace of women in their 30s, many of whom take responsibility for building a family, cannot be discounted."

But while it's great to see such policies becoming more common, employers as a whole are clearly still in the very early stages of truly working out how to help employees who are facing fertility issues. On that front, I found this Slate piece to be a helpful companion to the NYT.

Among the issues pinpointed in the two stories: the massive time suck and emotional toll of going through fertility treatments while balancing the demands of work, the possibility that your employer might change its infertility coverage in the midst of the sometimes years-long process, the frequency with which coverage does not extend to same-sex relationships or single employees, the fear that revealing the intention to get pregnant could harm a woman's career, and of course, the still massive gap between the "haves and have-nots" when it comes to any infertility coverage at all.

I suspect we'll be hearing much more about the importance this benefit in the months and years to come. In the meantime, I'll be thinking about the women who came forward to tell these journalists about their infertility struggles. As their stories make clear, talking about the issue—and thereby fostering empathy and wiping away stigma—is one critical step toward supporting our coworkers and employees in their quest to become parents.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

• Be our guest. It's certainly shaping up to be an interesting State of the Union. Victorina Morales, the former worker at Trump National Golf Club in New Jersey who came forward as undocumented, will attend the address as the guest of her congresswoman, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman. Washington Post

• Close call for Cruz. An unexpected twist in the World Bank president saga: President Trump reportedly met with Heidi Cruz about the job, but passed on her as a candidate. If you'll recall, Trump said many less-than-kind things about Cruz while he ran against her husband, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, during the 2016 Republican primaries. Bloomberg

• Lawyering up. Here's one distinction Melania Trump has earned during her time in the East Wing: she's our most litigious first lady. Trump has won settlements against three media outlets for "false statements" so far—and is the first presidential spouse to even sue a publication over those kinds of stories. Washington Post

• Hartz's history. In a long interview, Eventbrite CEO Julia Hartz describes how she navigated founding a company with her now-husband. "I was 30, we had just had a baby, and I was like, 'Am I just a random sideshow? How am I going to be a value add to this business?'" she says. "So I decided to focus on people. That can itself sound nebulous, but it was one of the best moves for the company." New York Times

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Julia Steyn left General Motors and her role as head of its car-sharing program, Maven. Diane Greene, most recently CEO of Google Cloud, is joining Stripe's board of directors.

content from Deloitte

Shifting Board Demographics

As demographics and buying power in the United States become increasingly more diverse, forward-thinking boards are determining ways to gain more diversity of background, experience, and thought in the boardroom.

Run, Howard, Run

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February 1, 2019

Good morning.

When I wrote earlier this week that I thought it was a good idea for ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz to run for president, my colleague Claire Zillman warned me to brace for some "spirited feedback." Well, I did get a flood of feedback, but surprisingly, most of it positive. CEO Daily readers seem to be in favor. A small sampling:

"I fully agree with your recommendation that Howard ‘Go for it!’ The country needs a middle. We are losing our younger generation to leftist crazies and the older generation to the far right …. but most people are in, or close to, the middle.”

–RG

"I do not know that I would or would not vote for Howard Schultz, but I like that he threw his hat into the ring as an Independent… If he ran for either party's nomination, he would be shouted down. As an Independent, he will have an open mic, at least until right before Labor Day."

–NR

"There is an available majority in the center for a true leader who is willing to find sensible compromises that solve problems without regard for partisan pandering. Who’s to say Schultz would draw more votes from a left-wing Dem than from Trump? There are lots of disaffected Republicans still identifying R or in that increasing Independent cohort who would jump at the chance to vote for a responsible centrist.”

–RB

On the other side, there was this:

"In the end, third party candidates are indicators of the level of division in the country. They have never been solutions to that division.”

–HB

I'm not sure I can argue with that historical analysis.

Separately, LS wrote in after yesterday's post on the Fed's suspension of interest rate increases, where I said black swans must be circling:

"This is all natural response to secular stagnation. You are right that there are risks, but there are also recession risks in continuing to raise rates."

Thanks for the feedback. More news below.

Alan Murray

@alansmurray

alan.murray@fortune.com