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Matthew Haag, "Company Is Offering ‘Fur-ternity Leave’ for New Pet Owners", NYT 8/20/2018:

A Minneapolis marketing company recently made tweaks to its employee benefits this summer, ranging from conventional to unusual. It gave workers a larger commuter stipend, as well as a reason to avoid the office altogether: “fur-ternity leave,” or the ability to work from home for a week to welcome new dogs or cats.

“This is kind of a no-brainer,” said Allison McMenimen, a vice president at the company, Nina Hale, who helped devise the new policy. “The idea of offering benefits that just help keep employees at the office, that’s over.”

A similar idea has appeared under a slightly different coinage, pawternity — Anne Kadet, "More Employers Treat Pets Like Part of the Family", WSJ 12/27/2017:

Subhed: Perks for workers include paid bereavement leave, time off for vet appointments and allowing pups on premises

When Meredith Heller adopted Bodie, a young Beagle mix, she knew shelter dogs often have trouble settling in. But she wasn’t worried. Among the benefits offered by her Manhattan employer, customer data platform provider mParticle: two weeks paid “pawternity leave” for workers adopting a rescue dog.

Ms. Heller and Bodie, who turned out to be perfectly well behaved, spent their time off hanging at the dog run and meeting other canines in their Brooklyn neighborhood.

“It was nice to have that option to really get to know him,” she says.

As Americans increasingly treat their pets like furry children, employers are responding by extending family benefits to pets. The trend is especially strong in New York City, where the closest many come to having a child is buying a schnauzer.

“We offer maternity and paternity leave, and a pet is another member of the family. We don’t discriminate just because they aren’t human,” says Laurel Peppino, head of talent acquisition at mParticle.

Ms. Peppino says the company’s paid-leave policy also applies to exotic pets such as iguanas.

Leah Fessler, "Pawternity leave for new pet owners is the latest cushy benefit", Quartz 1/4/2018:

The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world in which federal law does not mandate paid maternity leave for all mothers. Meanwhile, some US companies are expanding their parental leave policies past human children.

“Pawternity leave,” as these companies call it, provides new pet owners with paid days off so they can get in some much-needed cuddle and house training time with their new fluffy companion. After all, is Charlie the Chihuahua any less a son than Charlie the boy?

Gene Marks, "More firms are now offering ‘pawternity’ benefits", WaPo 1/8/2018:

Think having a baby is rough? Just try bringing home a new puppy. All babies need is a couple of diaper changes, a few feedings and a burping session once in a while. But puppies? They need way more attention, particularly if you consider all the playing, the outdoor walks in the rain, the house training, the gnawing on furniture, the chewing of shoes, the non-stop barking and…did I mention the house training?

You know what I’m talking about, puppy-owners. It’s exhausting.

But don’t worry. It’s 2018. The labor market is tight, good employees are in high demand and paid time off, particularly for new parents, is a hot benefit many firms are offering. Now some of these firms are taking this concept one step further and offering the ultimate solution to the ultimate first-world problem: paid time off specifically for new pet owners. It’s called “pawternity” and no, I am not joking.

There's been lots of other documention and discussion of this trend.

But since this is Language Log and not  Anthropological Exotica Log, the question on the floor is how to locate the likely boundaries of this natural class of frankenwords.

We have the analogical quasi-morpheme -ternity, generalized from maternity and paternity (and maybe also fraternity), with fur or paw substituted for ma– or pa- or fra-. But why not (say) "pet-ternity", which doesn't seem to work nearly as well, or "tail-ternity", which I think you'll agree doesn't work at all?

And will we also see "fur-eavement" and other substitutions for -ternity?

Also, why the general hyphen in "fur-ternity" and not in "pawternity"?

 

August 22, 2018 @ 5:57 am · Filed by Mark Liberman under Words words words

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