People working from home without childcare

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I just wonder how common this is. Obviously during lockdown lots of people had to do it - no choice if there was no childcare. But it must be tempting for some people to do that now to try to do that to save money.

My DC is a bit older now but looking back there is no way I could have done that effectively until she was around 12 as even in year 7 she still needed some input from me after school.

@DicklessWonder

Most employers won’t allow it as a choice.

Just had a colleague sacked for not putting her 2 toddlers in nursery. Not only do they interrupt every meeting (usually with high pitched squealing) but she’s not delivered on crucial projects in 6 months because she can’t work for more than 2 minutes at a time during the day.

There are companies that are allowing more flexibility in this situation, because since Lockdown the number of childcare places for preschoolers has also decreased in some areas. I feel for your colleague - if she had a more understanding employer she might have been able to work nights / change hours to suit.

Bernadette, if his children had covid and no one else to look after them, he should not be working, this was last weekend not months ago.

For almost seven years I worked with my daughter being at home during certain times of the day. My company didn't have much of an issue and it was fairly common amongst all of us. She didn't like being at nursery all day, and when she started going to the nursery within her infant school there was no real wraparound care. It worked for us (and the company) I was able to take her to after school clubs, but I had to be on call.or on meetings pretty late at night. She was very well trained in watching TV for a couple of hours in the.late evenings. She's now in year 6 and very self-sufficient.

I don't pay for after school care for my yr 4 child but I do for my reception age child. The yr 4 child can entertain herself for the last hour while I work while the reception child constantly interrupts me.

I pop out and get her and it takes around 20 minutes. I don't take many breaks in the day so I consider that my break. My work is flexible and I've never asked them.

There's currently still no provision before school for my children's school so on WFH days I log on at 7Ish and work in between getting them ready, then properly start after they've been walked to school for 9. Non-WFH days I have a 45 minute commute so have to work later hours.

The flexibility is much appreciated at the moment, as many childcare providers around here are still citing covid as a reason not to provide their previous hours unfortunately.

DH started doing this pre-Covid when DS was 8 and I went back to work FT.
He had just started wfh FT, previously he had a one hour commute was out of the house 9am - 7pm - I worked PT and DH always did the school drop off and I picked up.
When I went back FT DH would drop DE at school at 8.50 am and be back home at his desk for 9. He would work through until 3pm and leave to pick DS up from school. I would be back by 5 (I did an early start and had a short commute) and DH would work until 7. His working day was the same hours, but instead of commuting for 2 hours, he had DS for those 2 hours.
It worked for us as we both have some flexibility in our core hours since could fit around each other.

There are companies that are allowing more flexibility in this situation, because since Lockdown the number of childcare places for preschoolers has also decreased in some areas. I feel for your colleague - if she had a more understanding employer she might have been able to work nights / change hours to suit.

Organisation couldn’t have been more flexible in terms of hours of work. They didn’t like paying £45k to someone who delivered fuck all in 6 whole months. (She had nursery places for them but decided not to send them to save money. Short sighted view.)

She’s not the only one actually. A former colleague said he was coming back to work after 3 months parental leave only to do no work (from home) because his 1 year old was too demanding (and he didn’t think to arrange childcare - his wife worked out of the home). He lost the company a multi million pound contract, tried to hide it and came a cropper.

I think that it depends on so much.

I've wfh ever since my child started school. So,from a young age was aware of the boundaries. Most of the time my child has been playing happily, though I have often set up activities, especially if in the summer holidays. And I always start early and finish earlier as have found any issues arise later in the day.

After school is quite simple tbh, bathing, homework etc and then I'm finished.

However, when I've had a second child around, trying to work as well was Hell on earth!

We have a great routine and my employer is well aware than majority of the (female predominantly) staff do the same.

The real issues for my colleagues are when their children are preschool age tbh.

I had to do this during covid numerous times. My child started nursery at 14 months (September 2020) after my maternity leave ended. We were either in broken bubbles or he had illnesses due to catching bugs at nursery. It was hell. I felt like a crap mum as I couldn't give him my attention (looking back now it was bordering on neglect) and felt a crap employee as it happened so regularly.

I don't feel like my employer suffered as I always met deadlines. Maybe my colleagues as I had to be more flexible regarding when I could take meetings so he was quiet. I mainly took a big hit in my mental health. I was basically a stay at home full time working mum and worked most early mornings/evenings and weekends to make sure my work stayed on track.

I still do have him home when his sick. But I make sure my employer has an option of me taking annual leave or now splitting my hours across the day so I also don't hit that low point again and they still get consistent work out of me.

I think an hour or two on some days in the week is alright, but full days is silly imo. I used to have a colleague who worked from home a lot over school holidays and she'd phone into the office and have a load of children with her, and most of them weren't hers! She was doing childcare for her friends while wfh. She definitely didn't get work done those days as the dcs were all really young.

It’s horrendous. I manage it from about 3.30 - 5.30 but couldn’t do any longer….

I wfh and pay for full wraparound care for my 9 and 5yo as I cannot work as effectively if they're in the house. I've got more junior team members who I've allowed to flex their hours to do the school run / work around nursery hours (she lives in a village and there are no full time places available), and I can see that they're a) as productive as I'd expect them to be and b) not taking the piss. But for me it doesn't work and I don't think my employer would be keen on my productivity going down simply because I didn't want to pay for the childcare I'd have to have if we went back into the office 🤷🏼‍♀️

I think an hour or two on some days in the week is alright, but full days is silly imo.

But who are you to judge?

What if someone gets their work done just fine - would you still say it was 'silly'?

I think a lot of this discussion sounds very like the debates that happened when women were first 'allowed' into professional workplaces after marriage. Oh goodness, how will it work? Won't they need to be getting their husbands' tea? Will they be frittering away important work time on planning the menu?

I have to do it on the odd day - sickness etc when we're too busy at work for me to take the day off. My boss is aware and fine with it as he knows it's not what I want to do.

I find it impossible working with them here. Youngest is with family 2 days a week, nursery other three days. Eldest is at school, and I do pick up most days - I am not very productive once she's home. Use my 'lunch' to do the school run, and she's in breakfast club every day so I can start early and get some work done to make up for being rubbish after 3pm.

It works for us currently - and saves quite a bit of money. We use afterschool club on the days I have to commute in.

I'm thinking of increasing the after school club to 2-3 days a week and just finishing early the other days - my weekly hours would be covered this way, without and caring responsibilities during those hours.

Im still wfh only one day they come home from school watch tv have snacks
Yr r and yr 5

It's ok after school, if my childcare falls through, but not all day and not for the preschooler. Tried that in the first lockdown and I'm amazed we're all still here!

I could do it fine from when mine was 10ish after school and in the holidays for an odd day here and there.
We do save money on after school care now.

I do it if one of them are poorly but other than that nope. I am one of the few women with young children in my company and I go to great lengths to always be professional, available, efficient and flexible. I cannot be any of those things with three primary aged kids hanging about.

I also like WFH so make sure I don't take the piss.

Sometimes I let dp leave our youngest with me while he does the school run but our routines are specifically built around that and my work schedule generally lines up with that so I am quiet enough to do that, and it's only for about half hour.

Generally though, at least for my children they need to be at least 4 and again it's not feasible unless you have built the day around that time, e.g they need to be well fed (but not eating alone!!) and given something to occupy them.

I just wouldn't recommend relying on it at all. Sods law dictates that you will always get a last minute meeting or stressful phone call during that time. It's very stressful (I know from actual lockdown)

@SarahAndQuack

I think an hour or two on some days in the week is alright, but full days is silly imo.

But who are you to judge?

What if someone gets their work done just fine - would you still say it was 'silly'?

I think a lot of this discussion sounds very like the debates that happened when women were first 'allowed' into professional workplaces after marriage. Oh goodness, how will it work? Won't they need to be getting their husbands' tea? Will they be frittering away important work time on planning the menu?

I'm giving my opinion like everyone else tbh. I do think full days wfh with a small child is silly. I don't see how it's possible to parent effectively and work effectively at the same time all day. Some people have no choice and that's a little different. But where there is a level of choice, I would call it silly to choose to wfh all day with a small child there.

I'm single mum and wfh due to covid. Homeschooling and working was the worse thing ever!! My daughter is half days Friday so is home by 1 and I finish at 6. I work every 4th Saturday with her there. She is 8 and is used to me wfh but it can be tricky. I speak to people on the phone thankfully not customers, 100% of people I speak with are understanding if she's making noise. She usually goes out to play or is sitting drawing watching tv. I think the older the child gets it is easier ☺️

@Ozanj

I would imagine most people with school aged kids will have them home for at least part of the day now. It’s easier with preschoolers and babies because you can find reliable childcare from 8-5.

Categorically not allowed where I work unless they are off school ill.

No commute and bit more flexibility means less days of wrap-around for DS though so it’s still better for him.

We do it every single day after school. Pick up at 3pm takes one of us 20 mins total, then yr4 & yr6 come in, shower, snack & homework and watch tv until 5.30pm. Takes around 15 mins of coaxing/ reminding them then all quiet. So 20 mins out of each of our day to sort.

@JessicaJacket - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound as if I thought you couldn't give your opinion! I absolutely get that you might personally feel that it wouldn't work. I guess my issue was more that I don't think it is fair to judge other people, unless you've good reason. You might not see how people can work with small children present, but perhaps they parent differently or their children are different? Same with anything. There are loads of things I would say would be silly to do with my DD - yet other parents of children the same age manage just fine. I don't conclude my experience is universal.