Thoughts on working parents caring whilst wfh

[Tiggermad]

What are your thoughts on staff members caring for their toddlers/children whilst wfh.
I have a number in my team and I have noticed one of them in particular outputs drop considerably on wfh days.
There have been a few occasions where I’ve held meetings and they’ve had said toddlers sitting on their laps and it’s been hard to hold a decent conversation.
Unfortunately where I work there is no policy in place to prevent this.
I have raised performance issues with the one main one and she shouted at me that I didn’t understand how hard it is caring for a toddler whilst wfh !
I intend to start performance management if this continues however interested to see if any Managers experience similar.

I’m happy for my team to pop out and do the school run for example and set kids up with a snack or whatever - I see no real impact on work output from this. Most of mine work beyond hours to compensate for this to be fair.
I would have a significant issue with caring for a pre-school aged child though! You can’t keep them safe and do your work at the same time. I’d be asking for HR advice.

There would be immediate disciplinary process. It doesn’t matter that there’s no “policy”. If someone isn’t putting in the required hours or delivering the required output, questions would be asked. Having children to care for is not a disability requiring reasonable adjustments.

Yes I allow the same in terms of picking up school run etc.

Im not a manager but i work from home with my toddler a lot. She is at nursery two full days a week and two half days. I will do as much as i can, then make up time and work when my husband gets home. So everything urgent is dealt with. I join all the meetings. Then get all the other non urgent/ important tasks i do in the evening or on the weekend. Hope that helps abit?

It shouldn’t be allowed, the children should be in childcare or cared for by another adult.

I'm surprised your company doesn't have a policy on this. I think you need one! Are you the boss?

Yes I manage the team.
My line Manager is raising this higher up it and I intend to seek HR advice.

That would be banned where I work. We need to work the required hours at the required times. It’s a time-critical environment. But I appreciate other workplaces are different.

Completely unacceptable.

I have a toddler and I can’t work with them at home, it’s not realistic.

I suggest you get a policy and speak to your team about your expectations and the noticeable dip in productivity on WFH days. Otherwise they’ll be required in the office 5 days

I agree.

It must be horrible for young children to be constantly shushed because their parent is working, especially if they're too young to really understand why they can't have any/much attention during working hours.

I think its endangering the child as you aren't supervising them adequately (under school age)

Definitely should not be allowed.

I think it must also be very difficult to even have a child in the house with another parent/grandparent/nanny looking after them.

In an emergency I’m ok with it (child sick and no other options etc) but it should not be a regular thing. If you are working, then you should have childcare in place

id just address the lower productivity I wouldn’t mention them looking after kids

I would of ended the call when the toddler was on there knee and told them you need there full attention and will call back in an hour

It isn’t allowed , shouldn’t be allowed and I have no time for people who think it’s acceptable. I’m paying you to work. Pop out for 10 minutes to pick up older kids, fine. No babies no toddlers, really no one under about 10 I’d say no kids on laps in meetings, how incredibly unprofessional!

How can your workplace not have a policy on this??

Public sector.

I’m a senior manager in the public sector and this is absolutely not acceptable!!

I worry this sort of thing will eventually spell the end of wfh for many people. It will be easier for companies to order everyone back to the office full time than monitor employees and have to worry about disciplinaries etc

As a full time WFH employee and manager, I find this completely unacceptable with kids under about 10. It is taking the piss.
Once they are at the age where holiday clubs become less available and kids are more able to self entertain then an occasional child at home becomes more manageable. With toddlers, absolutely not. Toddlers and young kids need supervision.
Doing a quick school run or whatever is not the same, but if they cannot self entertain once collected, same as above, should not be happening.

I think it's awful. At best you have to constantly shush or ignore your small child and at worst its flat out dangerous because you arent fully supervising them.

Its a lose/lose situation for everyone including you, your employer and your child

Absolute piss take and it’s why a lot of people have a problem with the ‘wfh brigade’, spoiling it for the majority. You can’t work and look after young children simultaneously.

I've been on both sides of this, trying to manage a team and also being a parent and juggling workload myself.

If it's a one off - ie. Child sick at short notice parent needs to wfh to juggle their day I personally have zero issue with. Have done this myself and ended up spreading my workload into the evening to make sure I still got what I needed to do done. Have been in plenty of meetings where a sick baby has played quietly on the knee of a parent during an internal meeting they are doing their best to show up for - no issue there whatsoever (less cool about it externally though).

If its a regular occurrence and this is how they've set up their childcare arrangements then I think this is an issue unless they're planning to do split shift and work when child is in bed. I think it's totally unrealistic to expect yourself to be productive during your working hours and be fully responsive to your child at the same time, particularly if they are young - an older child who can entertain themselves a bit easier is a different matter. This essentially ruins it for all the other parents who quietly do this juggle the very odd time and managers can let it slide and as a lone parent it makes me so cross to think I could end up losing flexibility because someone else is taking the piss.

I think it's fair to have a conversation to explain that while you want to be flexible and you understand the juggle, there is a clear performance issue and if they are identifying childcare as the reason for that issue then they need to source some appropriate help with childcare or adjust their working hours to suit.

It's impossible to do two jobs properly at once.

On a Friday, I use my lunch break to collect my junior school aged child, get snacks and drinks, put the TV on and get back online for the last hour. Things are usually tailing off by mid afternoon, but if it's unusually busy then someone else's does pick or or it's after school club. Many of my colleagues do the same and that's fine but good judgement is needed.

I cant imagine doing much more than that, I certainly don't do it any other day of the week that I WFH, its just too busy. It's also not fair on a child to be at home and be ignored or silenced because you're working. If you're not ignoring them, then you're neglecting work - you cant do both.