When college roommates Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman cooked up the idea for Reddit[1], they weren't thinking about company culture or worker benefits. But now Ohanian, Reddit's executive chairman and fiance of tennis champion Serena Williams, is taking full advantage of his company's new parental leave policy after welcoming a baby girl on Friday.
Ohanian joins Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg[2] as a prominent male tech executive taking parental leave. The move illustrates how tech firms, after a flurry of coverage about their poor work-life balance, are working to change their tune as they - and their founders - age.
The work culture at these firms is notorious for demanding that employees throw their whole selves into work, said Ellen Bravo, co-executive director of the advocacy group Family Values @ Work.
A few years ago, then-Yahoo[3] chief executive Marissa Mayer[4] faced harsh criticism, twice, for taking less than a month of maternity leave after the birth of her children - but some saw it as a reaction to the pressure that women in tech face to devote their lives to their jobs.
Sheryl Sandberg[5], Facebook's chief operating officer, speaks often on the difficulty that women face balancing family and work. The social network was one of the first to offer 16 weeks of leave to new parents, including contractors. And in 2017, after Sandberg lost her husband, Facebook[6] bolstered its bereavement leave and other family leave policies.
Reddit's head of people and culture, Katelin Holloway, crafted the firm's policy by drawing on her experience: While at a different tech firm, she found herself on a conference call while heading into the delivery room.
Ohanian said that coming...