Agrawal, who’s the manager sponsor of Twitter’s interior oldsters crew, introduced his plan to take parental go away at an all-hands assembly closing week. He has now not named an period in-between CEO and plans to stick involved along with his government group.
“At Twitter, we inspire and entirely reinforce staff taking parental go away in no matter method works highest for every individual,” Laura Yagerman, Twitter’s head of company communications, stated in a remark. “It’s a private choice, and we created a parental go away program (supporting as much as 20 weeks of versatile go away) this is customizable because of this.”
Some Silicon Valley tech companies, together with Twitter, were leaders amongst U.S. companies in extending paid go away to new oldsters irrespective of gender. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Fb mother or father corporate Meta, made headlines in 2015 via taking two months of paid paternity go away when that used to be a rarity for male executives at primary companies. A rising frame of analysis presentations that paternity go away has bodily and psychological well being advantages for the entire circle of relatives.
But paternity go away remains to be debatable in some circles. In October, U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg used to be criticized via Fox Information host Tucker Carlson and others at the proper for taking paternity go away. Palantir co-founder and undertaking capitalist Joe Lonsdale derided Spotify’s coverage of providing six months of parental go away, pronouncing that “any guy in crucial place who takes 6 months of go away for a new child is a loser.”
Such backlash can give a contribution to the stigma connected to taking go away, particularly for males, stated Joelle Emerson, co-founder and CEO of Paradigm, an organization that consults on range, fairness and inclusion.
“I’m stunned continuously to seek out that businesses which might be very modern in a large number of different ways nonetheless have in reality out of date insurance policies in regards to supporting all oldsters in taking go away,” Emerson stated. In that context, a extremely visual chief like Agrawal taking parental go away can ship a wholesome message.
“I feel males and leaders specifically modeling this habits units a tone that may empower other folks of all genders taking go away, so long as their jobs reinforce that,” Emerson stated. She added that she idea a CEO comparable to Agrawal taking lower than the entire quantity of go away allowed to Twitter staff might be “totally affordable” as a result of “they’ve other duties, and continuously other ranges of reinforce to navigate the transition to parenthood.”
Twitter declined to mention whether or not Agrawal took parental go away when he had his first kid, however a 2019 tweet from his spouse, Vineeta Agarwala, means that he did. Agarwala, a normal spouse on the undertaking capital company Andreessen Horowitz, tweeted a learn about that discovered moms’ well being benefited when their companions stayed house after a kid’s start, including that she couldn’t consider what her personal postpartum existence would were like with out Agrawal at house.
Norms on parental go away are in flux in a rustic that has lengthy lagged in the back of different evolved international locations in paid break day for fogeys, leaving corporations to set their very own insurance policies. President Biden’s “Construct Again Higher” plan, which proposed 12 weeks of paid circle of relatives and clinical go away for all employees, has stalled in Congress. As of March, 23 % of U.S. civilian employees had get entry to to paid circle of relatives go away, in line with the Bureau of Hard work Statistics.
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and a hero to many in Silicon Valley, has downplayed the significance of fatherhood. Requested in 2020, following the start of his youngest kid, how he discovered time for his youngsters in a hectic paintings time table, Musk informed the New York Instances that his spouse Grimes had “a miles larger position” in taking good care of the child, including that “at the moment there’s now not a lot I will do” since “young children are simply consuming and pooping machines.” The pair have since separated.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, by contrast, has advocated publicly for paid paternity go away, pronouncing the 16 weeks he took in 2017 have been a very powerful after his spouse, the tennis celebrity Serena Williams, suffered just about deadly headaches in childbirth.
How a lot parental go away feminine leaders take will also be simply as debatable, or extra so. The similar 12 months that Zuckerberg took go away, then-Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer stirred debate via saying she deliberate to take simply two weeks of go away after giving start to twins, whilst “operating all over.” As a girl in a management position, Emerson stated, “you continuously simply can’t win it doesn’t matter what you do, since you face bias in each and every route.”
Two Twitter staff, who spoke at the situation of anonymity as a result of they weren’t approved to remark publicly, stated they welcomed Agrawal’s taking go away as a wholesome instance for others on the corporate. “I feel it’s candy and speaks smartly to Twitter tradition,” one stated. Some other added that there’s a large number of stigma about taking go away and stated they discovered it encouraging to peer a pace-setter accomplish that, even if it could be inconvenient.
But different Twitter staff expressed fear in regards to the corporate’s monetary outlook and the opportunity of a management vacuum in Agrawal’s absence. It comes at a difficult time for Twitter, whose inventory has slid just about 50 % because the fall because it struggles to develop as rapid as buyers would love. In December, Agrawal introduced a primary reorganization of the corporate that incorporated the ouster of 2 most sensible executives.
Closing week, Twitter reported income for the primary time since Agrawal took the helm. The corporate stated it’s been including lively customers and lengthening earnings, however now not as rapid as Wall Side road analysts had was hoping — and a ways slower than the tempo that will likely be had to meet the corporate’s bold long-term goals. The company added 25 million day by day customers in 2021, achieving 217 million via 12 months’s finish, however has set a goal of 315 million via the top of 2023, together with a doubling of earnings. Twitter executives reaffirmed the ones objectives on a choice with buyers.
Agrawal took over as CEO on the finish of November when Jack Dorsey, who co-founded the corporate in 2006, stepped down rapidly. Agrawal used to be an established deputy and maximum just lately Twitter’s leader era officer. Dorsey — who could also be CEO of the monetary services and products corporate Block, previously Sq. — were underneath drive from activist shareholders to satisfy competitive expansion goals, regardless that he stated the verdict to renounce used to be his personal.
When Buttigieg’s paternity go away used to be within the information closing fall, his critics incorporated podcaster Joe Rogan, who has a profitable unique licensing take care of Spotify, and Lonsdale, a outstanding tech funder who co-founded Palantir with conservative tech iconoclast Peter Thiel.
“Within the previous days males had young children and labored more difficult to offer for his or her long run — that’s the right kind masculine reaction,” Lonsdale tweeted. His feedback sparked rejoinders from different male tech leaders, together with undertaking capitalist Garry Tan, an early Palantir worker and co-founder of Initialized Capital.
“Initialized has 4 months go away, and I took all 4 months to ensure everybody at Initialized felt like they might do it,” Tan tweeted in October.
Reached by the use of e mail, Lonsdale stated he wrote the tweet whilst indignant about leaders who he felt have been taking go away to be “woke” quite than doing their responsibility and has since reconsidered his stance slightly. He now says “there may be not anything incorrect” with leaders taking paternity go away, supplied they “first be certain the entirety is operating smartly” at their process.
“Taking go away and spending time with youngsters and spouses and our households clearly issues an enormous quantity and there are probably a variety of tactics of doing it proper,” Lonsdale stated. “I plan to take some part-time go away to spend time with my daughters and lend a hand my spouse when our fourth daughter comes this spring.”
Elizabeth Dwoskin contributed to this record.
