Looking after kids. Working from home

You'll need to report them to management if you want anything to change 🤷‍♂️

Weird, I was just about to post about this when I saw this post. As a mum of a young baby who is about to go back to work (WFH), she is picking up so many sick bugs at nursery, and I'm getting sick with it too. Really worried about how to juggle looking after a constantly sick baby with work.

Just to give you an insight into my position, I really really want to pull my weight at work and to do a great job, but it's so scary to think of letting baby down too when she's sick. Sadly most companies don't seem to factor in real life situations of their staff - most mums need to work in order to pay for life, and I really think it should be down to companies or local laws to make some flexibility for this, since this is a societal reality

This doesn't really bother me at all, unless there is something demanding happening and they also don't help out then. Showing clearly that they dodging work.
I do not have kids, but I fully enjoy flexibility in my working hours and fully encourage everyone to do the same.
I know I'm most productive in 2-3hr stints, and much more productive after 11am than before. My colleagues know this and rarely will look for me, unless super urgent, before then. However they know if there is something going on that needs attention from 5pm onwards, I'll be around to take care of it.
Similarly I know I can count on my colleagues to take care of the morning stuff that crops up.
It's all about give-and-take.
I am so glad many more work places are recognising we are not all little worker drones who work 9-5 like clockwork. People being visible doesn't necessarily mean work, or productive work, is getting done.

I’m not sure it’s financially viable for a lot of people having before / after school child care every day of the week… I also don’t get how parents can feel right letting young kids watch tv / play computer games all day every day during school holidays. We’re parents with a young child and both work, but I purposefully chose a job where I don’t work school holidays. I don’t think it’s fair on young kids if neither parent around.
Being a parent of a young child and knowing their needs and demands, I believe ‘wfh full time’ with young kids is one of the loosest definitions of ‘working full time’ out there!
IMO, working parents need to be more realistically accommodated for by employers. The system needs to change.

YANBU no one can do their job probably while juggling childcare at the same time. I would imagine company wfh policy would say that you cannot have any carers responsibilities during working hours.

I think this is very common.

The after school club at my DD school has only a fraction of the number of kids it had pre-covid. In families where there are two parents WFH it's easily possible to manage kids and work for an hour or so after school and it saves a fortune.

I think the occasional once off is fine - childcare falls through, other parent isn’t around for pick up, sickness etc but I agree - not on a regular basis. I’ve booked half days off this week so the kids only had to do 9-3 in holiday club. I personally have a nightmare on Fridays wfh as my OH is off with our youngest but naturally my son will gravitate towards me and when my eldest is home from school he wants to see me - I do try to hide though and this is definitely where my partner needs to step up more!

It’s not allowed where I work. I do know though that some colleagues have their own arrangements with their managers that they basically do 9:30-3 and then do their extra hours either early morning or later in the evening.

This would not be acceptable in any place I’ve worked, at least on a regular basis. I think most people understand it as a one-off (eg after school childcare has fallen through) but it would certainly be a disciplinary offence to keep doing it on a regular basis, as per our contracts.

Do you know this for sure though? I guess if colleagues are always unavailable and you need to have contact during that time you need to raise it as a concern.

YANBU, I have a friend who doesn't arrange childcare for her 7 year old during the school holidays, the child just gets left to it to play computer games and watch tv while their WFH parent works. Its such a shame for the kid, they must be so bored!!

I don’t think it really is acceptable is it? I think most companies have policies against this. It wouldn’t be allowed where I work. Obviously I’m sure some people do it, just in the same way some people take long lunches or whatever other work-avoiding behaviour might not be acceptable.

Surely this depends on company policy and what is agreed. Perhaps they have discussed it with a line manager who accepts their core hours in terms of availability are 9.30-2.30.
If you have children then maybe you should ask for the same considerations.