Family-Friendly Workplace

[ozbound]

I am curious about something. In our office, some people regularly bring their children to work when they cannot find daycare, the kids get out of school early, whatever.  On one hand, I think it's great they can do that--it has to be tough trying to find someone to watch the kids all the time, and it has to be a relief to have that flexibility (I can only imagine, since I don't have kids myself). On the other hand, it can be kind of distracting having small children running about, being rambunctious and asking lots of questions of everyone, as children are wont to do. I can't imagine that it's much fun for the kids, either--they don't have much of anything to do and they're supposed to keep quiet when they don't want to.  One fellow had his 6(?)-year old son in the office today and had to go to a meeting, so our office manager ended up "babysitting" (she let the child play a game on the computer in her office) - hardly in her job description, I'd say!  What can people do, though?



I'm not complaining, mind you--in spite of the occasional annoyance I'd rather work in a place that allowed people to bring their kids than not. I was just curious about whether any of your workplaces let people bring their kids to work, and how they deal with it.  It would be interesting to know!



(BTW We also have one lady here who frequently brings her 4-footed "kid" to the office--a light-golden lab--the dog is quiet, well-behaved, and is actually a delight to have around!   )

[Katie G]

I think it depends a great deal on the kind of office environment you have AS WELL AS the behavior of the kids and the frequency of the occurance.  We have a young woman here who occasionally (4-5 times a year) has to bring in her young daughter (1st grade).  The daughter will usually sit at a spare workstation in sight of Mom and is perfectly happy to read, draw, color, or play a CD game on the spare computer.  She is quiet and doesn't bother anybody.  In short, model behavior.  She and Mom go out to lunch and they will usually leave a little earlier than usual.  The kid thinks this is pretty cool and people in the office get a kick out of having her here.  Additionally, that section of the office is basically data entry with hardly any public exposure.



Now, what I've described above may be a very rare combination of variables.  If a child is easily bored and consequently disruptive, or if the office has a lot of "public" or high level exposure, then it's probably not going to work out well.  What got me from your post, Oz, was the expecting of another employee to watch the child while the parent attended a meeting. That's totally unacceptable.  Your kid=your responsibility.



I don't have kids either, neither can I imagine how difficult these situations can be.  But the office is a place of business first and whether that business will be compromised should be the deciding factor.

[spitfire78]

I don't have children either, but my sister is a single Mom who sometimes has to take hers to work and I often wonder what her coworkers think.  To be brutally honest, I always dread the "bring your daughter to work day".  I know the original premise was good, but I find that a lot of parents use it as an excuse to break the routine.  It makes it easier because the kid is going the same place they are - no dropping off at daycare.  The children I've seen at my place on that day are not sitting with their parent, learning about possible career choices.  Mostly, they are underfoot and in the way.  They consider it as a fun day where they get an opportunity to get out of school.  I sympathize with the parents and realize that occasionally they just simply don't have any other alternative.  However, for the most part I find it disruptive and non-productive.

[jahdra]

One of the scariest experiences I had as a temp was working for a small furniture import business. The owners had 2 small children who ran wild through the warehouse, through precariously stacked, fragile, very heavy, very expensive furniture. Their favorite "toy" was an enormous paper cutter, you know, the kind that looks like a guillotine next to a small neck. While the job was interesting, baby sitting them was too nerve wracking and I had to have the agency find me another assignment.



At my current job, generally only people with assigned office space, that is administrative staff, senior managers or partners, bring their children to work. Usually, the kids are fairly well-behaved and if they're not, well, we have enough people in the office that it can take all day to annoy everyone. Actually, the little ones are far more easy to entertain than the older ones. (You can tell that I don't have kids, can't you?)



Since our office is so incredibly crowded right now while we wait for our new building to be finished, bringing children to work *is* discouraged. People sitting 2 and 3 to a cube are not happy about babysitting, or screaming children, especially when they're trying to read financial statements...

[yankeestarbuck]

The last time I had a child foisted upon me on Daughter's Day, I yelled at her father infront of her.  I was an admin, why was she with me?  Shouldn't she be with her father, learning how to be a manager?  Not deaming us as professionals, but I would rather my child be office manager or, like he was, Operations Manager, than the Ops Manager's assistant.  If she was assistant, fine, great, I can teach you how to write a transmittal letter.  If she was the Ops Manager, TWICE the salary (the reason we're all here, right?)



Don't get me wrong, kids are great.  My cousin's baby was a little fussy (9 1/2 months) at Easter, which made her all the more adorable. I yelled at my cousin for having a broken modem because I wanted weekly baby updates with the digital camera.  But when I'm logging payroll, I don't need him little girl bugging my about the cool toys on my desk.  Then again, another coworker had a daughter, a very well behaved young lady of 10, who would sit with me, when her mother had to step out of the office for whatever reason, and she would quietly read or do her homework or draw.  This was a pleasure to me, a child who knows when to be out of the way, and when I had downtime, she would show me her drawings.



I could go both ways.  I guess it's the child, not the whole situation.

[radaro]

I think kids are great (I have two of my own) but I don't bring them into work.  If they get out of school early, are sick, etc. I either find a babysitter or stay home.  Yes, I admit I have brought them into the office when I have had to run in and pick up something but I would never expect my kids to sit still for an hour or more with nothing to do(not a fair expectation of the kids) nor would I ever expect one of my co-workers to babysit for me (unless it was in my house and I was paying them).

[ozbound]

I agree, Did, it does depend on a number of factors...and some of the children coworkers bring in are quiet and well-behaved (the dog, ironically, is the most unobtrusive of the lot!), and we have a small office without too many "dangerous" situations for kids to get into, and fortunately we don't have high public exposure. However, the kid that came in yesterday was a bit disruptive, running around, trying to give away his "artwork" to everyone he saw, etc. I also agree that it was unacceptable to ask the OM to babysit. Sure, it was her perogative, she probably volunteered and I'm sure if the situation gets too disruptive for her, she'll say something.  But still...she already has enough to do, and to be honest I had to bite my tongue to keep from making some sort of sarcastic remark right in front of the child (like "gee, you don't get paid enough for THIS")!

I think my real take on the issue is (and I'm trying to neutralize my own feelings since I personally find kids a bit annoying)-- it's nice that employees can bring their kids in because hey, sometimes you just get in a jam, especially during school breaks, but they shouldn't take advantage of it, and they really need to prepare for it as much as possible--make sure the kid has something to do, knows the rules, stays in one place & doesn't run around,  try to leave early if they can, and make other arrangements if they're going to be in a meeting or whatever. In other words, try to make it as un-disruptive as possible.  

[breezyblnd]

I have always been fortunate to work places where it was ok to bring the kids in (I have 3 daughters who are now 27y, 23y and 19y).  I did not work in an office environment when the first two were little....I did home typing for a computer firm, sold Avon, sold Tupperware.  It was when the youngest was about 3yrs that I went back to an office job...and that was manager for a limo company and I frequently took her in with me, she had her toys and played under one of the desks, took naps there.  Later I went to work for a friend with a handyman service he ran out of his home and she went along with me, played quietly or watched tv, took her nap and had lunch with us.

From there I went on to be office manager for a counseling center and frequently took any one of the girls to work with me.....and they worked at a very early age.  My middle daughter used to do the monthly billing with me; she pulled files, I did billing, she copied stuff, addressed envelopes and stuffed and sealed (yes, some of this was before billing software).  They all learned how to file, make copies, answer the phones and generally handle themselves in an office from a very early age.  Today all three of them have great jobs working as Admin. Assistant (middle and youngest) and Customer Service Specialist (oldest manages an inhouse copy center for a large company).     Make a mother proud!!  

While at the counseling center there were a couple of the therapist who on occasion brought in children and they were all very well behaved and understood the need to be quiet and entertain themselves.

[winkiebear]

I'm with Radar on this one.  I've two kids (Michael, 7, & Emma, 3).  On occasion I've had to take the day off when daycare is unavailable for whatever reason, and sometimes I bring the kids in to work, just to say hi or to grab some paperwork.  If people are busy, I try to keep the kids away from them, but I've found that in our company most people love to chat with the kids, share candy or toys or whatever.  But I would never dream of taking them with me for a whole day!



I did have one occasion where I was taking 1/2 vaca day, and was called back into the office and had to bring them with - it was HORRIBLE!!  Bossy was beyond demanding and the reason I had to come back was to assemble presentations - as if his fingers were broken!  Anyway, the kids were 5 and 1, and the other managers I supported ended up playing with the kids while I was working.  The managers enjoyed it, the kids were ok with it, but I hated it.



 winkie

[radaro]

Winkiebear - We'll have to get together sometime because, not only do we think along the same lines, but our kids are the same ages!



Whenever I have had to drop into the office with my kids, my co-workers fawn all over them.  At every holiday, one of our German reps sends my kids some candy from Germany (either Goldbaren or "chewybears" as my little guy calls them or Kinder eggs).  



But I am of the philosophy "leave them wanting more".  Actually, I mean the co-workers not my kids wanting more candy.  My co-workers are happy to see my kids because the kids are in the office infrequently.  The kids have not had the opportunity to make a nuisance of themselves (which I am sure they wouldn't anyway but why take chances?) so when they do come to the office everyone thinks their great.