Study: Dads Influenced by Other Dads to Take Paternity Leave
If a new dad takes paternity leave from work, his colleagues are more likely to follow when their own children are born.
So says a new study, highlighted by The Atlantic. The key findings: Dads who see their male coworkers take paternity leave are 11 percent more likely to do so themselves. And employees will follow the leader; the effect gets amplified significantly—about three times over—when a manager takes the time off.
The study was done in Norway where paid leave is law, so the findings are not muddied too much by differing workplace policies. Employees might be affected by different company cultures, but that’s where the study comes in. “[A]rmed with information of how an employer reacts to a peer’s paternity leave, a father will probably be a lot less worried about any unforeseen consequences at work,’’ The Atlantic’s Joe Pinsker writes.
Closer to home, a recent Boston College study showed that the largest percentage of men will take about as much time off as their company allows following the birth of a child. That study also found that younger generations are more likely to care about paternity leave, and that 40 percent of dads surveyed wouldn’t take time off unless they’d still receive their full, normal pay during the leave.
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