Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months of Parental Leave
Mark Zuckerberg Will Take Two Months of Parental Leave
AUTHOR: JULIA GREENBERG - DATE OF PUBLICATION: 11.20.15. 8:23 PM
Mark Zuckerberg said today that he will be taking two months off when his first daughter is born.
“Priscilla and I are starting to get ready for our daughter’s arrival,” the Facebook founder said, referring to his wife, Priscilla Chan, in a post on his Facebook page.
“We’ve also been thinking about how we’re going to take time off during the first months of her life. This is a very personal decision, and I’ve decided to take 2 months of paternity leave when our daughter arrives.”
This news is, of course, great for Zuckerberg and his family. We wish them the best. But this is a big deal for the rest of us, too. Zuckerberg is perhaps the most prominent chief executive of a major public tech company to take this much time off following the birth of his child. That’s important, because executives set the tone for a company (and, in some ways, the country) when it comes to balancing work and family.
Like some other major tech companies, Facebook already offers new parents a parental leave plan considered very generous by US standards. New parents at Facebook can take four paid months off. They receive benefits such as $4,000 for each child born or adopted. As we’ve written before, however,
employees may feel reluctant to take advantage of such plans if their companies don’t have a culture that encourages taking time off. And company culture typically comes from the top.
Full article:
http://www.wired.com/2015/11/mark-zuckerberg-will-take-two-months-of-parental-leave/
