So Marissa Mayer is pregnant again. With twins. And again, she’ll take just two weeks of maternity leave.
I get it. She can make her own choices, she has her own priorities, and she has the responsibility of running a multi-billion dollar company. But her decision just frustrates me.
The first time, fine. She was a newly minted CEO. She had something to prove and a group of stakeholders expecting her to turn around a troubled company.
But girl, Marissa, you’ve made it. You ain’t got shit to prove anymore. You’ve been in Vogue. Wired believes you are the right CEO for Yahoo! Fast Company gives you credit for turning Yahoo! into a mobile-first company. You’re good. Take a break. For all of us.
By taking a two-week maternity leave you are setting the worst kind of example. Many of the women in this country who take two weeks off to have a baby are those women who can not afford to take more time — and we see that as a great tragedy. By taking two-weeks off, you’re setting us back. You’re creating the expectation that maternity leave is a fallacy, something we don’t need to offer all mothers in the U.S.
Taking a two-week maternity leave is shitty leadership. It’s an amped up version of judging employees who leave before 8 p.m., expect holidays off and don’t respond to your emails at 3 a.m.
Show true leadership by taking the same leave you offer your employees, be it eight for fathers or sixteen for mothers. Show true leadership by sharing how strong childcare systems help families succeed. Show true leadership by showing that things don’t fall apart at work when a parent takes time to be with their children.
I imagine Marissa Mayer loves what she does, and I ultimately I have to respect her choices. But I think she’s being myopic. She’s glamorizing a post-natal recovery time that creates huge burdens for working families.
Do what you need to do girl, but think about the message you are giving.
