Looking after kids. Working from home

It annoys me because it gives people working from home a bad name. I pay for childcare for my kids so I can give my job my all within my working hours. Perhaps when my eldest is old enough to walk home from school, get their own snack and stick the telly on then I wil do away with after school club but I can’t imagine having her home now and having to ignore her when she could be with her friends playing and having fun.

similarly I can barely work at all when my toddler is home unless they are so poorly they are basically just sleeping. I don’t know how people can handle that.

yea childcare is ridiculously expensive but it’s necessary.

Oh yes, absolutely! Good point

And make sure your DP( if you have one) takes equal sick days if not more as you have just been on maternity leave.

My sister is a manager she has 15 report into her, she allows it to happen during school holidays etc when there is no childcare, so 20 percent of time. She has kids herself and they are in childcare 80 per cent of the time, but like many people working childcare, wrap around, summer camps times do not aligne with working hours. She expects them to make up their time and she does herself too, this includes working at weekends and late in eve. She says that she understands the issues and constraints parents have. Her company doesn't have an official flexi policy however.

In my work however it is in the policy, but we have flexi working hours with core hours expected ( 10-3) and its up to the individual etc to work up their time. We can also build up TIL etc to use if need to finish early etc
You mention that its hard to get people etc after certain time, just to say that doesn't mean they are doing school pick u[s etc, could be their work schedule. We all know that we wont get an answer from them till at least the next day if we message after 3pm.There are teams here that are finished at 3 regardless of school run etc , they deal with China and other countries so they start very early in the morning, there are other teams that deal with America and further west so they start late and work late.
No one person works the same, i know based on my managers workload that if i sent a teams message this morning he might not get back to me to this eve, or even torontom, - Unless you know their exact workload then you cant really comment
If you are a manager, and this is not allowed then you need to speak to HR. Also aswell need to speak to your team of what is expected , how critical are these responses needed, if they are critical is teams the right format to be using to asking these items, do you have a dashboard that can be updated visually for everyone , do you need a check in meeting at a set time set days, they have to have information for this meeting then
As i said no one works the same, its up to the company to put structure place and use different tools to gather the information they require, as well as communicating regularly with the people who report into you whats expected of them. Work with them

I’ve got a couple of colleagues that do it, despite the fact we have a policy that says you should have childcare for working hours.

It’s rubbish parenting and it’s rubbish for work.

It doesn’t seem to be addressed by their managers (I’m guessing because they might do a better job of masking it to them) but it does very much feed into the perception that working from home = skiving. Which then threatens it’s for people who do actually work properly at home.

I agree. I wfh 3 times a week and have people calling me and messaging me expecting answers immediately. There’s no way I could just work as suits me. Today I’ve had about 4 unexpected meetings due to things that have needed urgent responses

I’ve noticed this too. I think it’s ok as a one off but not regularly. I book my DC into holiday clubs or take annual leave.

This. We are not allowed to WFH with any primary aged child at home (unless they have childcare in the home like a nanny). Of course, some of us have negotiated different hours, which is fine. And the odd emergency is fine.

In answer to the PP who works from home wondering about what to do if her child is sick, well you take the day off, just as you would if you worked in an office. You don't 'pretend' to work from home with a baby/toddler in the background. It's tough, sometimes impossible, if they get sick a lot, but it's not different from working in an office.

I'm in IT. Now in a senior role but worked like this for over 20 years in a few different organisations now. Once out of service desk/1st line I found most IT teams are flexible so long as there adequate staffing levels. In my experience when teams are short staffed and there has to be an official rota for covering hours, team morale takes a dive.

YANBU. This became such a widespread issue at my DH's company that they've massively cut down on WFH and only a handful of people in the organisation are allowed to WFH regularly now.

DBIL & his wife do this, they have a 2yo and will go away for weeks at a time both WFH hundreds of miles from the child's nursery, I think it is massively unfair on both the toddler and their employers. Junior age children between 3:30-5pm ? meh can't get too worked up tbh.

I find it so annoying. I have childcare because I can't guarantee I will be able to leave to do pick up - I could have am important meeting in my diary at that time - and I think my child is better off playing with others kids in after school care than sitting on a tablet with me shushing them for 1.5 hours. They get my full attention when I finish work.

If your child is sick and not being cared for by someone else then you need to take the day off work.

just cos you WFH it does not mean you should be taking care of a baby at the same time

Someone I used to work with was an exec pa to a CEO. She had a baby and would work when he was asleep. Eventually when he got older she put him in nursery. Then she got pregnant again so no idea what she’s doing now.

I worked in a government legal setting during Covid and it was so stressful for those who were parents having to homeschool their children whilst working. I don’t know how they did it.

You’re not being harsh on this. I’ve temped in central government and lots of staff do this and apparently make up the time outside work. I have no idea if they do do this but there are some definite skivers who’d log off at school pick up time then not log back on.

I hope this is monitored because those of us who don’t abuse wfh it gives us a bad name and means bosses trust wfh hybrid models less.

I agree. When we continued hybrid working after covid we were asked if we had caring responsibilities, how we would deal with this while wfh. I had learned enough in covid that you can't do both full time, at the same time. Covid was a nightmare and it was really difficult to draw hard lines around your work time and home time.

I find it hard to believe that it's as common and widespread as you say but hadn't been picked up at a higher level already. The only people who know what I have agreed within my work is my boss and her boss. It might looks like I work the standard 37 hours but I actually work less than that and work a proportion of the hours completely flexibly. You might think you're certain but there might be info you're not privy to.

Problem is the managers will all be at it too. I would say if you can't beat em, join em. Enjoy some slacking!

I think covid really muddied the waters

I worked from home for many years (2001 - 2010). There was a comprehensive WFH policy in place that included the requirement that childcare must be arranged to cover working hours.
It seems strange that companies are rolling out WFH & hybrid working, without such a comprehensive policy in place. I don’t think it’s appropriate to WFH & take care of children at the same time. One or other loses out.

I find it fascinating that people work in environments like this, where people just leave you be until it suits you. What sort of work do you do?

I do work a senior role in a fast paced environment but the idea of my stakeholders waiting around until I’m at my best is bonkers to me 😭

Having a primary aged child at home for 1.5 hours or less in the evening while working is fine for most people, children of that age are not toddlers and are perfectly able to get themselves a drink, a snack and entertain themselves for an hour.

It should be against policy, but I agree it can be hard to manage (for example, it would take most managers a while to notice the 3.15 pattern)

although I have another adult in the home, my children are here when I wfh. They’re of an age (11/13) where I expect them to look after themselves and not interrupt me. That’s where I think a blanket “you can’t be-the main carer for children in the house” policy falls apart a bit.

that said if it has no impact it’s unlikely to ever be noticed.

if it were my team I would remind people in 121s that caring for children in work time isn’t allowed and they are expected to use childcare if their children are young.

that said, they obviously don’t have enough work or a big enough remit to be able to manage this?!