Facebook’s Big Boss Mark Zuckerberg To Take Two Months Off
Facebook's Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg is set to take two months paternity leave after his daughter is born. The social network's big boss and his wife have announced in July this year that they are expecting their first child. Zuckerberg said that he has decided to take time away from the company after the child's birth. So far, no news yet as to who will be in charge of the social network company while Zuckerberg is away.
In a Facebook post, Zuckerberg cited that studies show that when working parents take time off from their jobs to be with their newborn child, the results seen are better for the children and their families. This is one of the reasons why in Facebook, particularly those employees in their US headquarters, are offered up to four months of paid maternity or paternity leave which they can take throughout the year.
The US Department of Labor said that only about 12 percent of the private sector employees are entitled to have paid leave in their jobs. On the other hand, Silicon Valley companies are using benefits like this parental leave as an added plus to generous salaries to attract more employees.
Another company which seems to see this importance is Microsoft. Recently, it has been heard that the company has introduced or rather raised their 12 weeks paid leave offer for their employees to a total of 18 weeks. Netflix, on the other hand, is said to offer new mothers up to a year away as benefits. It is also known that both Facebook and Apple are just two of the companies that also offer their female employees the chance to have their eggs frozen as an added benefit of their jobs.
Zuckerberg's decision to take time off for the birth of his child seems to be becoming normal among today's high ranked officers in America's tech firms. It could be recalled that Yahoo's chief executive Marissa Mayer took two weeks off in 2012 after her first child's birth. She has also announced that she is again pregnant this September with twin girls and has said that she will be taking maternity leave for a limited time.