MIT Sloan Management Review Article on It's Time to Make Paternity Leave Work

Imagine that you’ll live to 100 years — perhaps a little less, perhaps a little more. This isn’t unthinkable: My research over the past 10 years shows that for many people, this will be a reality. Those extra years will be a gift, offering more purposeful hours and more time to enjoy your life.

So if you’re a parent, you’re left with the question: Why not spend some of that extra time with your kids when they’re young?

This would mean undoing the models we learned from our parents and grandparents. Their life spans probably followed the three stages tradition: full-time education followed by full-time work and completed by a period of full-time retirement. “Extra time” was allocated to the last stage of life — traveling, kicking back, enjoying family and grandchildren.

About the Author

Lynda Gratton is a professor of management practice at London Business School and director of the school’s Human Resource Strategy in Transforming Companies program. She is coauthor of The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity (Bloomsbury, 2016). She tweets @lyndagratton.

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