{"id":4347,"date":"2018-10-15T14:16:36","date_gmt":"2018-10-15T18:16:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=4347"},"modified":"2023-01-09T11:26:09","modified_gmt":"2023-01-09T16:26:09","slug":"family-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/family-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the outside, it looked like Stephanie Ramos \u201910 couldn\u2019t possibly make policy changes for her entire company. She was a brand-new hire who didn\u2019t work in human resources. She wasn\u2019t a CEO or even a manager. But something compelled her to try anyway.<\/p>\n<p>Just four months into her new job as a social media specialist at the New Jersey tech company Internet Creations, Ramos teamed up with a coworker and developed a proposal to bring paid family leave to IC. Now the policy that they crafted and refined is the company\u2019s official rule.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<header>Be the change<\/header>\n<p>Stephanie Ramos says anyone looking to champion a paid family leave policy at their place of employment needs to do three things:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Focus on why this is good for business\u2014rather than simply the humane thing to do\u2014and back it up with facts and data.<\/li>\n<li>Be prepared to answer every question that could arise, because the decision makers are going to ask them.<\/li>\n<li>Be persistent, even if things move slowly or you encounter pushback. \u201cPersistence is the reason [our policy] was passed,\u201d says Ramos.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m still in shock,\u201d says Ramos. \u201cI had a big idea, I proposed it, and people said yes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She traces the spark back to 2013, when she read Sheryl Sandberg\u2019s book Lean In. That\u2019s when she learned that the United States is the only industrialized country that doesn\u2019t guarantee its workers paid leave when they welcome new babies or care for sick parents.<\/p>\n<p>New Jersey is one of only four states that require paid family leave\u2014six weeks covered at two-thirds of the employee\u2019s salary\u2014but Ramos thought her company could still do better. The policy she helped design provides eight weeks of paid time off, with the option for a gradual return-to-work schedule spread over 12 weeks total.<\/p>\n<p>When she showed up to present her idea to IC\u2019s board and CEO, Ramos knew it would be a big commitment for the small company. Rather than tugging at heartstrings, she focused on why paid leave is good for business: It boosts employee retention, helps recruit better talent, and keeps workers engaged and happy.<\/p>\n<p>One new parent has already used the leave since it became a policy earlier this year. \u201cWhen he got back, we talked about how impactful the leave was and how he\u2019s so happy and thankful that he was able to take it,\u201d says Ramos. \u201cI know that it impacted him, his wife, and his new child. And I\u2019m sure the ripple continues to get bigger from there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Energized by her policy victory and the current political climate, Ramos is now serving as an elected county committee member and volunteering as a coach for the nonprofit Paid Leave for the United States, where she helps other employees push for better family leave policies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m trying to put myself out there and show people that you don\u2019t have to be a manager or a director to make an impact,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can make an impact here, today, with the tools you have in your hand right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Stephanie Ramos is paving the way for expanded paid family leave in New Jersey and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":4359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":53,\"y\":35}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[81],"class_list":["post-4347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-back","tag-alumni-profile"],"thumbnail":"<img width=\"269\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-269x300.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-4359 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" role=\"presentation\" style=\"object-position:53% 35%\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-269x300.jpg 269w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-768x857.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-918x1024.jpg 918w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-1120x1250.jpg 1120w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-560x625.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-280x312.jpg 280w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-320x357.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-640x714.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-2800x3124.jpg 2800w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-2048x2285.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-1536x1714.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-1400x1562.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-1024x1142.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-828x924.jpg 828w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-360x402.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2-9x10.jpg 9w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/ramos2.jpg 3001w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 269px) 100vw, 269px\" \/>","catString":"The Back","issue":"Fall 2018","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4347"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4755,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4347\/revisions\/4755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}