I am recently back at work after taking one month off for paternity leave. Mama and baby are both doing well and I am very grateful that I could spend so much quality, uninterrupted time with them.
During the entire month, my focus was where it needed to be and I didn’t check my work email once. Okay, maybe I checked email a handful of times but on such little sleep, one has to wonder how effective I’d be if I really stayed plugged in. Thankfully, I had full confidence that the team at Parse.ly could keep the ball rolling while I was on leave — and sure enough, everyone stepped up. It is a huge relief to have such capable colleagues here and I am thankful for their support.
Parse.ly’s Paternity Policy Leads the Way Among Startups
Stefan and Daughter
Startups can change the world not simply through neat products, but by also rethinking how we work. At Parse.ly, there are concrete pro-family benefits like paid leave and the option to work from home and values that contribute to work/life balance such as the expectation of no unnecessary meetings, real vacations away from email and a respect for the weekend.
All this adds up to a better company culture that helps us win as a business long-term. While I was on leave, frequently my family, friends, and colleagues from other companies would ask about Parse.ly’s paternity policy. When I told them that I received one full month of paid paternity, the shock (and envy!) was universal.
This needs to change. American standards towards family leave should catch up with the rest of the developed world so that all new parents can spend time with their families. First, it’s absolutely unacceptable that America does not provide paid leave for new mothers. I hope all can agree on that and now the only question is how we enact paid maternity nationwide.
But we can’t stop there. If you believe in gender equality and basic fairness, then you must support paid paternity leave as well. I must admit this isn’t an issue I knew or cared much about until it became relevant to me personally. If you had asked me about this a few years ago, I would probably default to a macho view and assume men should be back at their desks within a few days. But now I understand how much work is involved in caring for newborns. Furthermore, if society expects men to return to work immediately, then we reinforce the idea that men should be breadwinners while women stay at home with the kids.
Source: i2.cdn.turner.com
I recognize that I am a privileged knowledge worker employed by a company that has more progressive policies than most. It’s certainly easier to have generous leave when your revenue is growing around 100 percent year-over-year as it is at Parse.ly.
But that’s why I believe the tech community is in a unique position to lead the way on this issue. And we have an obligation to change attitudes in society.
Unfortunately, many startups and tech firms take the exact opposite view and purposefully hire twenty-somethings with no families so that they can squeeze as many hours as possible. Perhaps this is due to immature leaders, VC pressure, or a misplaced view on the value of work. I bet the core cause is the nearly religious belief among many tech company bosses that they are changing the world with their products. Therefore every employee’s entire life must be dedicated to the cause.
Paid Paternity Leave from Pro-Family Companies in the U.S.
But let’s have a reality check: while some wannabe Steve Jobs may eventually put a ‘dent in the universe,’ many more will see the fate that is often parodied on the TV show, Silicon Valley. And Facebook is doing fine even though Mark Zuckerberg took time off for paternity. Meanwhile Marissa Mayer was back at work immediately after giving birth and she isn’t exactly leading Yahoo to the promised land.
Pro-family companies like Parse.ly actually attract better talent, enjoy lower staff turnover, and are generally more stable and productive places to work. Here’s the bottom line: with these policies and values in place, we still have products ship on time and our sales are growing consistently.
I suspect other companies are going to need to offer similar benefits to compete for talent and soon society’s standards will improve for the better.
So startups of America: forget the free snacks and other phony perks (although admittedly we do have a foosball table in our brand new office). I’ll take real benefits like generous family leave any day.
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