Facebook was one of the tech companies that helped kick off an arms race in corporate America for better parental leave. 
 
 Now it's hoping to do the same for bereavement leave. 
 
 Facebook (FB, Tech30) employees now receive up to 20 days paid leave to grieve the loss of an immediate family member and up to 10 days after the death of an extended family member. 
 
 The policy doubles the amount of time employees used to receive for bereavement. It went into effect at the beginning of the year, but was announced publicly on Tuesday. 
 
 Employees will also get up to six weeks paid time off to care for a sick relative and three days to care for a family member facing a short-term illness. 
 
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 "I hope more companies will join us and others making similar moves, because America's families deserve support," Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO, wrote in a Facebook post. 
 
 Sandberg framed the new employee perk with her own experience. Sandberg's husband, Dave Goldberg, died suddenly in 2015 leaving her to balance grief and raising two young children with her role as a powerful technology executive. 
 
 "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. I needed both to start my recovery," Sandberg wrote. 
 
 "I know how rare that is, and I believe strongly that it shouldn't be," she added. "People should be able both to work and be there for their families. No one should face this tradeoff." 
 
 U.S. companies are not required by federal law to offer bereavement leave. Paid time off varies widely for those that do offer it. 

 A sign outside Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Photo: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg News 
 
 Facebook Inc. FB 1.06% is giving employees more paid time to grieve after the death of family members. 
 
 The company is extending its bereavement leave, offering employees who have lost immediate family members up to 20 days off and those who have lost members of their extended family up to 10 days off. 
 
 The move, which went into effect on Jan. 1, was announced Tuesday in a Facebook post by chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, whose husband, technology executive Dave Goldberg, died suddenly in 2015. 
 
 Ms. Sandberg wrote that, “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. I needed both to start my recovery.” 
 
 She stressed the need for public policies that ease the burden of caring for children and aging parents, as well as recovering from loss. 
 
 “People should be able both to work and be there for their families. No one should face this trade-off,” she said. 
 
 Previously, Facebook’s employees had 10 days of leave for the loss of an immediate family member and five days for extended family. 
 
 Write to Rachel Feintzeig at rachel.feintzeig@wsj.com
– When Sheryl Sandberg's husband, Dave Goldberg, died unexpectedly nearly two years ago, the Facebook executive's life was completely upended. During her time away from work as she mourned, she realized how important it was for her to be spending that time with her children. "Amid the nightmare … I was grateful every day to work for a company that provides bereavement leave and flexibility," she wrote in a Tuesday Facebook post. "I needed both to start my recovery." Toward that end, per the Wall Street Journal, the tech company has extended bereavement policy for employees, allowing for 20 paid days of leave in the event of an immediate family member's death, and 10 days of paid leave for extended family. The policy, which took effect on Jan. 1, effectively doubles what Facebook offered previously (10 days and five days, respectively). CNNMoney reports that the company is also allowing workers to take up to six paid weeks off to tend to a family member who's seriously ill or needs care, with a three-day paid offering in cases of minor illness. "We need public policies that make it easier for people to care for their children and aging parents and for families to mourn and heal after loss," Sandberg notes in her post. (Sandberg described what she learned after a month of mourning.)