AIBU to think working from home with chickenpox child is unfair?

I don't think you are necessarily being unreasonable. I would just say sorry my son is needing too much attention so I can't.

I think it depends on the situation, sort of illness and child's temperament - if my 3 year old was ill but still had a bit of energy I would need to take a day off and I think I would say that to my work. But I have managed to work from home okish when she's been ill but mostly sleeping it off.

I am currently working from home with an ill 6 year old but there is another adult here and he's much better at entertaining himself.

If you can't work while your child is there, you will need to either take annual leave (paid) or Parental Leave (unpaid).

So what was stopping you saying this ?

I think OP thinks that people WFH do very little and came here to vent about it.

Not everyone WFH starts threads on MN.

Yeah my work doesn't allow us to work from home with a child under 12. If child was unwell we'd get 1 day special leave where we are expected to make other arrangements. If there's no one else that can have them we'd be expected to take unpaid leave or annual leave.

‘Hello op, it’s your boss here. I’m sorry to hear you’ve been unproductive today. Can you let me know if you would prefer to take it unpaid or would prefer to make up the hours? I do apologise wholeheartedly for being kind enough to offer you the opportunity to wfh on the chance your ds doesn’t actually need any care today, and will ensure that going forward I won’t offer this, but will just go straight to unpaid.’

I think they do but if you couldn’t WFH you’d have to take annual or unpaid leave. You couldn’t just have an extra day off.

Presumably because he's poorly in bed, and apart from taking him a drink, giving him some calpol, and applying calamine lotion, you can work on-line.

I don’t really understand what you are asking. Are you expecting to be paid for not working? If you worked away from home you wouldn’t take your son into work with you and you would therefore be expected to take either annual leave or unpaid leave.

Well said, @YorksMa .

What exactly is the purpose of this thread, @Wfhsucks ?

Your alternate is unpaid emergency leave.

However chicken pox lasts a while. They are being pretty good by allowing you the grace of working from home and looking after a sick child rather than enforcing you to take unpaid leave. It’s a given that your productivity isn’t going to be as high with a sick child home but a lower level of productivity short term is better than none for an employer. In most cases, it also benefits the parent when they don’t lose money through unpaid time off unexpectedly

If you want that though, contact your employer again and let them know that whilst you appreciate their flexibility, your child’s needs are higher than anticipated and you want to take unpaid emergency leave

What did you actually ask for?
Also, you say you don't have time to work and care for your child, but you do have time to muck about on mumsnet. Ok.

Why don't you accept your employer's kind offer and get on with your work and looking after your child?

OP this thread is slightly unravelling on you! You are either available to work or you are not, if you are not available, tell them. You won't be paid.

It sounds like you wanted paid time off and are shocked you have to still work in order to get paid.

No, if you worked in an office you'd be expected to take a days annual leave or unpaid leave to look after your sick child - which you are entitled to do when WFH as well, so same rules apply here. What your employer is doing is offering you an additional benefit, of being allowed to continue working while your child is sick, because you WFH and can. Its entirely up to you whether you choose to do that, or prefer to lose pay/annual leave.

Take a week off unpaid then and stop moaning.

I was self employed when dc1 had it and lost a whole week of work/ earnings!

Also vaccinated the dc2!

Have you actually asked to take the annual leave or unpaid leave, op? I think you need to speak up if that's your preference.

If you want to be paid for the day, then wfh is a fair compromise. Pretty normal to set up a sick dc on the sofa watching movies while you get on with things I'd have said, I've done this many times.

I think they are doing you a favour rather than only allowing a day's unpaid leave, they probably assumed you'd prefer that!

So seeing as your employer’s flexibility is an issue for you, why don’t you take annual or unpaid leave?

I had a friend in the same position and it gave us the kick up the arse to get ours sorted!

How old is your son and how much care does he need? If a toddler or feverish and throwing up etc. then yes I think it’s unreasonable. But if a bit older and just watching TV all day then you might be a bit slower but it’s not much disruption

They probably think they are being helpful to you saying that! As in, not saying you have to take a day of annual leave (often referred to as “precious annual leave” on here) or a day of unpaid parental leave.

But those two options are open to you.

You can’t expect them to say, ok just have a free extra day off - it’s not fair to other employees.

It ought to be something more employers offer, I mean. Thankfully its part of the collective agreement in my sector so has to be offered.

Out of interest, what do they accept as proof? My in laws look after my DD for 2 days a week, but I can’t prove that. Or how do you prove your partner is a SAHP?

I am genuinely confused here - isn't the bonus of hybrid working that you are sometimes able to flex your personal life around your work life? If you cannot work and want to take it as leave then I'm sure you're employer has options - annual leave, parental leave, emergency leave... My workplace allows one day emergency leave and then additional days if really needed / unpaid leave if it's a longer-term thing. By the time my kids were both at school, it was super helpful that I could carry on working from home - I wouldn't do quite as much of course but I could keep up on emails and avoid having someone cover me. I'm grateful for this flexibility.

Your employer sounds great but if this plan doesn't work for you just take the time as whatever leave is most appropriate for you.