WFM and childcare

[Rainbowhairdontcare]

I worked for 7+ years at the largest travel .com For the most part it was all from home (apart from the odd meeting in London). They knew I had a baby when I started and nobody minded.. As long as I had my DD in childcare when I was in scheduled meetings nobody bat an eyelid.

If there was an unexpected meeting, it was not uncommon for children, pets, etc (of colleagues or mine) to interrupt meetings.

I'm thinking of going into a similar arrangement with my employer, but everybody seems to think it's a complete no-no and that I shouldn't even be allowed. My boss knows that I'm having a baby, but he knows my workload is flexible (can easily be done in the evenings / nap time) and hasn't said a thing about childcare provision.

The company is small and he's Australian so maybe it's a mix of inexperience in his part and my extra flexible previous experience.

Thank you Stanski what's your line of work?

Only just seen your reply sorry. I work in property so most of my colleagues are out on site visits during the day whilst I deal with everything from marketing to admin to credit control to bookings. To be honest when I started I was only meant to do the 3 office based days (it was a fairly new business back then and relatively quiet!), but gradually as it grew and became busier (we've gone from 3 to 8 staff in the last year alone), we had no one for the other two days so that's when I was asked if I would consider doing the extra days from home with child, if DS was ok with it. Luckily he took to the new routine quite quickly.

Ty! Yes I can see how that works for you. ..

I admit that for me it's two reasons, they're getting my work and experience for peanuts, so I might as well make that salary work for me ie childcare free. Obviously I'd also have the freedom to still go to baby groups and that's a bonus in itself.

I work for an incredibly flexible company, we have a vast array of arrangements throughout the company. But working from home without childcare is not allowed, it also wasn't allowed in my last place of work. Only time it was allowed was ad hoc if they were unwell. We are allowed to set our own hours too, we don't even have core hours, but meetings will inevitably be during the day. I don't care what anyone says you cannot work efficiently with a child around, it is also not fair on the child, something would be missing out whether it's your child or work load.

From my experience, yes one of the two misses out and overall it's incredibly exhausting that's why I'd never do it again FT.

I'm only trying to do it this time (and not FT) because of childcare costs and my low salary. I'm trying to compensate that way.

But if they're happy to pay me a lot closer to what I'm worth, I think my arrangements would be a tad different (possibly still 2 days from home but definitely with more hours of childcare in place).