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Inspiration February 8, 2017
Facebook’s new policy to extend leave for staff who are grieving the death of a family member strikes especially close to home for the social media giant’s Chief Operating Officer.
She lost her own husband, Dave Goldberg, in 2015, when he fell off a treadmill while exercising during a family vacation.
So Sandberg, who was left to balance raising their two young children with her top job as a tech executive, understands more than most the importance of taking time to grieve before returning to work.
She praised the flexibility and sensitivity of the working environment of Facebook for her ability to cope in those dark days but knows other corporate cultures are very different.
The United States is one of only eight countries in the world that does not make it the law of the land to offer bereavement leave. Those companies that do offer it have different policies on paid time off.
But Sandberg has put a new paid family leave initiative in place at Facebook and the COO is urging other companies to do the same.
“I hope more companies will join us and others making similar moves, because America’s families deserve support,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “People should be able both to work and be there for their families. No one should face this tradeoff.”
The company will double paid family leave following the death of an immediate family member from 10 days to 20. Staff will also get up to six weeks paid time off to care for a sick relative.
Author and grief expert Alison Gilbert applauded the decision as good for both companies and employeed. She told NBC’s “Today” that the more time a bereaved worker is given to grieve, “the more that worker is going to be allowed to come back to the office and focus on the task at hand.”
Sandberg said posting about her tragedy helped her connect with other people around the world who were going through similar devastating losses. “I have lived thirty years in these thirty days. I am thirty years sadder. I feel like I am thirty years wiser,” she posted a month after her husband’s death.
“Anything you experience, no matter how tragic or devastating… there are many people in the world who’ve experienced that,” she wrote. “There’s something universal about the ability to share and connect and say to someone else, ‘It gets better.’”
