Facebook's Zuckerberg Says He'll Take Two Months Off for Daughter's Birth

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is going where very few technology titans have gone before: He's planning to trade the 24/7 pressure of leading one of the world's biggest companies for a different kind of round-the-clock job.

In a Facebook post Friday, Zuckerberg said he'll take advantage of his company's generous parental leave policy as he and his wife, Priscilla Chan, get ready for the birth of their first child sometime in the next few months.

Zuckerberg said he and Chan, a pediatrician, have 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."

He added: "Studies show that when working parents take time to be with their newborns, outcomes are better for the children and families."

Zuckerberg's announcement was met with the standard hearty congratulations. Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, who has two children, wrote, "Enjoy the precious early months with your daughter — I can’t wait to meet her."

Some commenters called on Zuckerberg to support a movement for more extensive parental leave. He noted in his post that Facebook, offers its U.S. employees up to four months of paid parental leave.

It's among a growing list of mostly tech-centric companies that offer generous childbirth benefits.

Netflix said in August it was giving U.S. workers up to a year of paid leave following the birth or adoption of a child. Twitter, Reddit, Google, Adobe Systems and Microsoft all offer extensive benefits, ranging from 10 to 20 weeks of fully paid leave for mothers and fathers.

But few in the U.S. workforce enjoy anything like that kind of benefit. The U.S. Department of Labor says just 12 percent of the nation's private-sector employees have access to paid family leave.

[ZuckerbergPost]