I am taking my Paternity Leave just like Mark Zuckerberg and I'm loving it!

Last week I read on Facebook that Mark Zuckerberg is planning to take some time off from work to spend with his growing family. As he did with his first daughter Max, The Facebook's CEO will take two months of paternity leave to bond with the new little one, taking advantage of Facebook’s option to take leave in parts.

Well, this news that could have gone undoubtedly unnoticed in my newsfeed, caught me at a perfect time because, on December, 13th Sofia, my second daughter was born here in Wroclaw, Poland.

I remember when my first child, Stella was born, in August 2007 in Italy I was able for many reasons to have only 3 or 4 days on my annual vacation time scheduled for the time around the birth.

This time, in Poland, working at IBM, I was able to take one week of vacation while waiting for the natural birthday and took another two weeks of unpaid Parental Leave, starting from the day when my daughter was born, and now I will take one of the two weeks of Paternity Leave that law entitles me here in Poland.

Putting it all together with weekends, Christmas and New Years'day I can count on a total of 40 days to be entirely dedicated to my family. Also, I still kept the remaining week of Paternity Leave for the future, when necessary, maybe in summer.

Why Paternity Leaves matters?

Numerous studies show that Paternity Leave, just like Maternity Leave, offers health benefits to families. There are several reasons why paternity leave policies benefit both working fathers and mothers.

According to the "State of the World's Fathers" report published by MenCare, studies in several countries have shown that children who have a consistent and close contact with their parents at the beginning of their life develop better empathy and social skills, higher cognitive development and better performance in school, more mental health for boys and girls and lower rates of delinquency among children.

Parents, in turn, also become healthier physically and mentally, abuse less alcohol and drugs, and astonish, they are more productive at work than other men.

The benefits for the companies are proved startling. A study reported in a Think Progress report supply overwhelming evidence that paid family leave kept workers happy, loyal and committed to staying in the workforce.

Most businesses found the program had either “positive” or “no noticeable effect” on productivity (89 percent), profitability/performance (91 percent), turnover (96 percent) and most critically, employee morale (99 percent).

Paternity Leave in Poland

Parental Leave in Poland is regulated by the amendments to the Polish Labor Code from June 2013 which have doubled the number of days parents can take off work to look after their child immediately following the birth. Under the new rules employees will be able to take up to 52 weeks’ leave, made up as follows:

• Ordinary maternity leave – employees will be able to take up to 20 weeks’ ordinary maternity leave, the first 14 weeks of which must be taken by the mother. The remaining six weeks can be taken by the father.
• Additional maternity leave – employees (mothers or fathers) will be able to take up to 6 weeks’ additional maternity leave.
• Parental leave – a further 26 weeks’ parental leave will be available to either mothers or fathers. This is a new concept in Poland.
• Childcare leave – employees (mothers or fathers) will be entitled to take up to 3 years’ leave during the first five years of their child’s life.
• Paternity leave - fathers will still be entitled to take two weeks’ paternity leave up to 12 months after the birth of the child.

Paternity Leave in the rest of the world?

In developed countries across the globe, more and more men are taking the opportunity to spend time with their children. For example, in Finland, the share of dads taking leave doubled between 2006 and 2013 while it went up 10 percent in Belgium during the same time frame.

Aimed at reducing the abyssal gap between paternity leave and maternity leave, many countries have adopted a scheme in which the couple can choose which of the two in the relationship wants to take their leave to stay with the child and how many days each one of them wants to get the full benefit.

I think it is nice that Zuckerberg talked openly about Paternity Leave, showing his public two-month leave because it can help to set an example to update the traditional image of working fathers, changing some popular stereotypes.

Many men are still afraid to take it for themselves when it is offered—for some, taking parental leave in one large chunk might cause them to lose momentum in a way that’s tough to rebound from. I believe that more parents should consider this.

I am really glad how IBM helped me figuring out the arrangement that works well for me and to my team at this crucial moment of my life.

When organizing my Paternity Leave, I had great support from my people manager, my functional manager and of course, from IBM HR Department to deal with all the staff being out of the workplace for such long periods of time.

Fatherhood is a slow, rolling tidal wave of unfamiliar emotions. Even though the father’s feelings are not the primary focus of the pregnancy, I believe it is essential to manage it appropriately, and undoubtedly have enough time to enjoy the arrival of my tiny new family member.

These first few weeks full of timeless and irreplaceable memories of my child's life would be impossible to recover if I had passed them to the office instead of next to my little one and her mother.

Jair Ribeiro