New Twitter CEO taking ‘a few weeks’ of paternity leave

Twitter’s new CEO is preparing to take “a few weeks” of paternity leave, the company confirmed to The Washington Post.

Parag Agrawal, 37, who took over as Twitter CEO less than three months ago, announced his plans to take parental leave during a meeting with Twitter employees last week, the Post reported.

He intends to stay in touch with his executive team while on leave and has not named an interim CEO, according to the newspaper.

For Agrawal, the head of a major tech company, to take leave to be with his family sets a good example, said Joelle Emerson, the co-founder and CEO of Paradigm, according to the Post.

“I think men and leaders in particular modeling this behavior sets a tone that can empower people of all genders taking leave, as long as their jobs support that,” Emerson told the newspaper.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 23 percent of civilian workers in the U.S. had access to paid family leave in March 2021. Those numbers were even lower in the transportation and service sectors.

A stigma can also be attached to paternity leave in particular. Last year, for instance, Fox News host Tucker Carlson criticized Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg for taking leave after becoming a father to adopted twins.

The U.S. currently has no national paid family leave. The Family and Medical Leave Act provides only certain employees with unpaid leave for 12 weeks per year. Democrats were working to advance a proposal for a federal paid family and medical leave program last year as part of their $2 trillion social spending package, but the efforts faced opposition from Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and the package has stalled in the Senate.