I’ve just turned on my out of office autoresponder to link to this video!

Transcript:

Hi! I’m Ben and I’m here at the Financial Times newspaper offices. I wanted to tell you about an exciting new role that I’m about to take on: maybe you’re thinking along the lines of a journalist, or an editor or a data scientist? Nope — my new role is that of a father! Exciting.

I’ve been talking to other fathers about the amount of paternity leave they took after the birth of their baby, which is mostly about 2 weeks’. But I’ve decided to do it differently. So how much leave am I taking — 2 weeks, 3 weeks? One or two months? Nope — I’m taking 5 months, that’s 5 months’ — not weeks’, of leave. So how am I managing that? I’ll tell you.

I’ve just been in talking to HR about the Government’s new policy on shared parental leave — fathers can share up to 9 months paid leave with the mother. In addition to that, FT offer enhanced paternity pay — that’s up to 5 months’ leave on full salary.

You might be wondering why I’ve chosen to do this, well, it’s for 3 reasons.

I’ve talked to a lot of mothers and families who have said that after the birth the mother can feel a bit overwhelmed and stressed looking after the baby on her own while the father goes back to work. Disagreements and arguments can also cause couples to easily drift apart after the birth of the child and I don’t want that to happen; I want a happy mother, a happy baby — a happy family!

Secondly, I want to be able to focus on one role. Having spoken to others they’ve said they find it hard juggling and finding a balance between working and caring for a baby. It’s hard and that’s why I’ve decided to remove work from the equation and focus fully on my family, and on the baby getting a good start in life.

The third reason is that it’s important for my employer, the FT, to show everyone that we are a family-friendly employer and that if you have a family then come and work for us because we will support you.