Paid Time Off MattersA (slow) progress report

When Mark Zuckerberg mentions unions as 'supportive communities'

In his recent post about Building global community Mark Zuckerberg mentions unions as 'supportive communities': 

Building a global community that works for everyone starts with the millions of smaller communities and intimate social structures we turn to for our personal, emotional and spiritual needs.

Whether they're churches, sports teams, unions or other local groups, they all share important roles as social infrastructure for our communities. They provide all of us with a sense of purpose and hope; moral validation that we are needed and part of something bigger than ourselves; comfort that we are not alone and a community is looking out for us; mentorship, guidance and personal development; a safety net; values, cultural norms and accountability; social gatherings, rituals and a way to meet new people; and a way to pass time.

Sheryl Sandberg: Working Together Toward Equality: Let Us Keep Fighting

In the last chapter of her Lean In bestseller, Facebook  COO Sheryl Sandberg, writes (p.169)

" I am fully aware that most women are not focused on changing social norms for the next generation but simply trying to get through each day. Forty per cent of employed mothers lack sick days and vacation leave, and about fifty per cent of employed mothers are unable to take time off to care for a sick child. Only about half of women receive any pay during maternity leave. These policies can have severe consequences; families with no access to paid family leave often go into debt and can fall into poverty...

When leadership insists that these policies change, they will.

On page 171 she makes the case for more female leadership: "More female leadership will lead to fairer treatment for all women. Shared experience forms the basis of empathy and, in turn, can spark the institutional changes we need... Research already suggests that companies with more women in leadership roles have better work-life policies... (we are) dissatisfied with the status quo. This dissatisfaction spurs the charge for change. We must keep going... We owe it to the generations that came before us and the generations that will come after to keep fighting."