Bosses lead on paternity leave

The staff stepped up when left to make decisions

Olark co-founders Matt Pizzimenti, left, and Ben Congleton.

More new fathers are getting a taste of the pressures that working mothers have faced for decades.

These involved dads want to carry an equal load at home while keeping their careers humming. New research suggests striking this tricky balance offers plenty of rewards.

Mindful of the benefits, many employers are expanding parental-leave offerings for men and ­encouraging them to take it. None is going further than Olark, a 30-employee provider of live-chat software. Chief executive Ben Congleton and chief operating ­officer Matt Pizzimenti, Olark’s co-founders, took more than three months off with their newborns this year — at the same time.

Taking paternity leave tends to increase new parents’ satisfaction with their relationship, easing the marital strain that often follows childbirth, according to a study published in April in the Journal of Marriage and Family.

This comes after a 2016 study of paternity leave in 11 nations showing that extending a father’s leave to one month or more tends to make men more assertive in parenting, rather than deferring to mothers. Fathers on extended leaves also do more housework and savour time spent with their infants more.

Olark is profitable and ranked second on a top 10 list of high-quality live-chat software pro­viders by GoodFirms, a research and ratings company. Its workers found that life at work didn’t go off the rails with the bosses gone. The company’s employees, who work mostly from home or co-working spaces, revamped the website’s home page, planned the next quarter’s projects and completed a new marketing strategy.

“I’m really proud of our whole team,” Pizzimenti says. He kept office hours on Mondays during his leave but otherwise tried to avoid getting involved with work.

The absences increased other managers’ workload. “There were a few times when we said, ‘Yikes,’ ” says Julie Williams, director of product for the company. The ­unexpected resignation of one of four members of a tight-knit R&D team left them scrambling to plan a farewell ceremony while helping remaining team members regroup and move on, she says.

But the experience also improved teamwork and bolstered employees’ confidence in their ability to solve problems, she says.

The example the co-founders set couldn’t have resounded more with their staff, says Mandy Smith, director of people operations. “When employees see the CEO and COO use our parental-leave policy and have faith that it’s going to work, they think, ‘Hey, I can do the same thing if I need to.’ ”

Few men take more than a few days’ parental leave without an explicit endorsement of their right to it, according to the 11-nation study. Many face social stigma and career damage if they do.

In the US, only 15 per cent of civilian workers have access to paid family leave, skewed towards high-paid workers in white-collar jobs at companies with 500 or more workers, according to an ­annual federal survey. It’s available to 24 per cent to 28 per cent of employees in financial services, insurance and teaching, compared with 6 per cent to 9 per cent in construction, service and transport jobs.

Unpaid leave is mandated by US federal law. About 88 per cent of workers have access, but few can afford to take much time off without pay. New York, New Jersey, California and Rhode Island offer paid family leave and Washington, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia are preparing to roll out similar programs. But access in the US comes largely through employers.

The corporate policies have a big impact. Cisco Systems’s 2017 policy offering a minimum of 13 weeks’ paid parental leave for primary caregivers, regardless of gender, has increased men’s average time off in the US to 5.9 weeks from 2.2 weeks, says Ted Kezios, global benefits leader. To further reduce the obstacles, Cisco trains managers on how to cover employees’ work while they’re gone.

Bank of America is seeing a sharp increase in new dads taking time off since it expanded paid parental leave to 16 weeks in 2016. American Express promotes its 2017 expansion of paid parental leave to 20 weeks via an internal “Don’t Miss a Moment” campaign aimed at fathers. Since 2016, Moody’s and Visa extended paid parental leave to 10 weeks, and Discovery began offering new parents 12 weeks.

Pizzimenti says he gained confidence in his parenting skills after taking on solo responsibility for his infant son, Amadeo, for three months starting in February. He made the shift after his wife’s six-month leave from her job as a school instructional coach ended. Tiffany Pizzimenti says her husband’s experience as a solo caregiver also increased her trust in his skills, making it easier to step back and share Amadeo’s care.

Pizzimenti was surprised to find he had little time to tackle some projects he’d planned at home. “It’s one thing intellectually to understand that full-time parenting is difficult. But until you do it yourself, you don’t really have full empathy for how much of a mental load it is,” he says.

Focusing on Amadeo helped Pizzimenti set healthier boundaries between work and home. He also gained a fresh perspective that he believes will make him a ­better leader. He found himself thinking five to 10 years ahead, not only about his son but also about long-term strategy for the ­company.

Congleton took three months off after the birth of his first child, Nora, in 2017 and another three months after his second daughter, Hannah, arrived in January. He and his wife, Katherine Connors, a research manager at Stanford University’s medical school, were home together for several weeks. Caring for two children born 17 months apart sometimes overwhelmed them.

“There were times when I couldn’t get Hannah to stop ­crying,” Connors says. “Having a partner through that — I can’t explain how important that was.”

The Wall Street Journal