Marcus Munyon and his husband wanted to adopt a child and Marcus, a Senior Business Architect Consultant, knew it would mean he may need to leave work on short notice.
He started doing research to find out what he would need to do when he got that call every adoptive parent waits for, and what benefits, if any, MetLife offered for adoption.
The support he experienced on his adoption journey – employee adoption benefits, parental leave policies, and flexible workplace – is an example of why for the 15th year in a row, MetLife has earned a spot on the Dave Thomas Foundation’s annual list of America’s Best Adoption-Friendly Workplaces.
Although he had prepared his supervisor for the possibility of leaving at a moment’s notice, he was still apprehensive about it when they received word that they needed to get from Georgia to South Carolina right away.
“I called to tell him, and he wanted to know what I was doing on the phone,” Marcus laughs. “I didn’t want to leave my team without sewing up a few projects I was working on. But he told me they would figure out how to get it done – that I needed to focus on being with my family.”
“I didn’t want to leave my team without sewing up a few projects I was working on. But he told me they would figure out how to get it done – that I needed to focus on being with my family.”
Marcus shared that he was also excited and pleased about how quickly his paternity leave was approved.
“I thought it would take a few weeks to get it set up, and that would give me time to try and help out my team with a few things, but it was right away,” Marcus said. “My husband couldn’t get paternity leave at his company. MetLife was just so accommodating.”
Along with leave and a flexible work schedule, MetLife provides reimbursement for eligible adoption expenses, back-up childcare for up to 15 days per child, and a collection of resources for parents and caregivers including tutoring, test prep discounts, a college advising program, elder care guidance, and child behavior expert consultations.
Marcus said he hopes more companies will follow MetLife’s lead and offer more assistance to employees who want to grow their family.
“I think you will see a change,” he said. “As companies realize that families are a lot more diverse. It isn’t always the mom staying home to care for a child.”
Today, his daughter Kennedy Armani-Win Munyon is a beautiful one-year old who has no idea the journey her parents had to travel to become her forever family. Marcus said that even though the journey was sometimes a difficult one, he was thankful to MetLife for making it a little easier.
"Adoption assistance and paternity leave were such a gift to me,” he said. “Thinking about how easy the process was, it really made me feel like MetLife puts employees’ needs first. My needs were put first.”
“Thinking about how easy the process was, it really made me feel like MetLife puts employees’ needs first. My needs were put first.”