Bumble CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd is a generous boss. At Bumble, the female-first mobile dating app, Herd treats her employees to twice-weekly blowouts and hair trims, $100 monthly wellness stipends, and 16 weeks paid parental leave, according to her company’s website.
But now the 29-year-old is rethinking some things regarding her company’s wellness policy, wanting to shift the focus beyond maternity-paternity leave to more work-life balance.
“Now that I myself am pregnant, I understand, just from the basic demands of needing to go to a doctor’s appointment on a certain week, that I can’t imagine the stress that someone might feel who can’t make their own hours,” Herd said, according to Fast Company. “So many CEOs think about parenting within the context of maternity-paternity leave, but that’s kind of where it stops. But there are nine months of pre-paternity or pre-maternity. Then there’s everything that comes after.”
“So I’m really starting to think about the white space on the beforehand and after-hand of that actual leave. And making sure that once a parent does come back to work, how do we do that in a flexible way?”
Herd, who’s expecting her first child in November, said she’s considering tinkering with Bumble’s new headquarters in Austin, which is scheduled to open next May. She suggested dedicating more space for new parents including a childcare area where employees can drop their kid off while they work in the same building.
She also said that Bumble will start offering stipends to parents, which can be used toward childcare, tutoring, or anything that can better the work-life balance.
“I definitely have always thought about parental leave and parental well-being, just because I have always worked with somebody who’s been a parent, whether that be a father or a mother,” she said. “I’ve always wanted parents to prioritize their children’s well-being alongside their job. So I never wanted them to feel like they have to choose one or the other. I don’t think that’s a fair position to be in.”
Originally published on The Ladders.
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