Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg drew on the personal tragedy of the loss of her husband Dave Goldberg when talking about Facebook's new bereavement policy announced today at a conference in southern California.
"Amid the nightmare of Dave's death when my kids needed me more than ever, I was grateful every day to work for a company that provides bereavement leave and flexibility," wrote Sandberg in an accompanying Facebook post. "I needed both to start my recovery."
Goldberg died while on vacation in Mexico in 2015 at the age of 47.
Facebook is expanding bereavement leave — from 10 to 20 days — to give employees more time to grieve and recover. The company is also expanding family leave to enable employees to care for sick family members, up to six weeks, she wrote.
Sandberg ended the post with a call to action for other companies to follow suit:
"At a time when nearly nine of ten working women in the United States have no parental or family leave, women make 80 cents on the dollar compared to men, and there's no system of national paid leave, companies need to step-up and lead," she wrote. "I hope more companies will join us and others making similar moves, because America's families deserve support."