The working world has become ridiculous

[Rothschild]

Recently a manager at my company attended an online meeting in tears because of a minor issue regarding her child's school. She excused herself from the meeting and took a mental health day.

I can barely get hold of anyone at 3pm in my (large) organisation because everyone is doing school pick up. I don't believe they're getting much work done once they've picked up because they become hard to contact, don't respond to messages and won't attend meetings, despite it being their normal working hours.

It's ridiculous. When our children were small we paid for wrap around childcare or for someone to collect. We were available to work between 3 and 4pm and afterwards.

I'm not talking about anyone who has negotiated flexibility or finishes at 3pm, I'm talking about others who are, frankly, taking the piss.

And if I had taken a mental health day every time I'd had some difficulty in my life I'd have hardly worked.

I agree. I’ve worked in both the public and private sectors and the sickness rates of where I worked was far higher in the public sector where we had full pay whilst off sick.

I’m raising 2 children.

1 is a teen so I parented her before covid. 1 is nearly 2 so post Covid and I can see the difference.

Yes, it is better that parents have flexibility, but it should really be scheduled in and expected. I think when my DD was young, I would only take days off when she was very very sick. I’d get wrap around childcare in the holidays and make it work. And I would take a half day if I needed to see an important play so that colleges knew I wasn’t contactable.

But now, although my baby is young, and I do appreciate that childcare is so so much more expensive so parents really need to tag team. I have made sure that my baby is being cared for whilst I am at work. Even though I can work from home, I’ve made the choice to go into work so that I can do my job and not get distracted. Although my work now is flexible and I freelance so I can work on my own terms, but I have friends in office environments who would be on the school run, laughing at the fact that they are meant to be working from home, but it doesn’t matter as there isn’t much to do.

Honestly it is no wonder productivity is low and we have constant backlogs because our culture around work ethic is kind of destroyed.

Im sure not all parents are taking the p, but there is definitely a big difference:

I had an amazing work ethic at my last firm of 10 years. After 4 years in a row of no increase in salary, no appraisals despite asking, barely any support with issues when I needed escalation for customers, the last few months of my employment, work ethic genuinely went out the window. I was late 30's, no progression in a decade - how ever much integrity or work ethic you have, a poor employer can get rid of it over time.

I'm now with a firm who are the exact opposite and genuinely would do anything they asked of me, go above and beyond and feel constantly supported. Going to work is a pleasure rather than a total drain and feeling of dread for limited reward.

Middle aged people have school age kids (and younger).

How does your work glean this info? What happens if someone becomes a parent while working there?

Social media + age range = we can make a pretty well educated guess.

Employers really need to crack down on abuse of sick leave.

Who is blaming sally from accounts?

Stay at home parents claim money from the state to look after their kids, so people who work think that they should be able to claim hours from work to look after their kids

I'm 47 and I don't really use socials. I could have a 30 year old or a 5 year old - I'm not sure how you would know!?

I agree with the spirit of the OP but on this point - you aren't restricted by what you can do on parental leave. It's a legal right and it's unpaid so you can do whatever you want frankly as long as your child is under 18.

Let’s just say our methods are working.
We haven’t hired any pisstakers since we had an off-site meeting several years ago and as a group determined we’d been taken for a ride for the last time.

But that's actually illegal @CheeseIsMyIdol

What if someone becomes a parent while they're working for you - do you find a way to get rid of them?

I’d definitely prefer to work with colleagues who slack off than employers who discriminate

OMG, you just lost me right there (and you had my sympathies on a lot of it before this)

I'm middle aged, and haven't used social media for over a decade. Would you employ me? Willing to take that risk?

I suspect, if your statement is true at all, what you really mean is you don't employ women unless they're "middle aged".

We don’t select anyone likely to become a parent. It’s that simple. Things at our workplace are a lot more fair to everyone now.

I'm unlikely to become a parent now. I'm 45. So already your bullshit logic is failing

Why did you have to give the dog person time off work? I wouldn't have dreamt of even asking for it in those circumstances, and I would certainly be laughed out of the office if I did. I would simply suggest to the man that he might well find that working helped in taking his mind off it and say the answer is no.

?? I mean, sometimes shit comes up and you need a quick decision from someone to get something done? Do you really lack the imagination to understand that in some organisations things can change in a day?
Im not wedded to work, but I know I have found the “ flexibility” some of my colleagues practice to be a massive blocker to progress.
And people wonder why government projects take so long…

So I assume you don’t employ men at any age, as men can become parents well past retirement age.

i also assume you don’t employ women under 50 for the same reason - but then a woman could have a child at 45, so still be doing the school run in her 50s, so better make that 60 to be on the safe side…

I mean, employing 60+ women only seems niche and as though you’re missing out on a lot of potential talent, but I guess if it works for you…

Quite right!

companies are clearly learning, through experience , who those are that are more likely to be more reliable
and
do exactly the job they are employed to do

Which is very sad for those that actually want to do the job but are considered an expensive risk just because of others

@CheeseIsMyIdol we have a form that asks if people do extreme sports. This is relevant as we need people to be able to climb scaffolding and navigate sites
One guy said no

Six months into employment he has an accident doing an extreme sport and we were stuffed for ages
He was employed as a project Architect and couldn’t do his job so another had to be employed to do the parts he couldn’t.

We had every sympathy but he lied and we wish we’d checked somehow. ( We weren’t insured against the loss because he lied )

So watch out and add that to
your questionnaire and investigations

Haven’t read all the responses but what industry are you in, OP?

I am freelance, but my DH works for a large media corporation. He’s in Monday to Thursday 9-5/6ish. Works at home Fridays but definitely at work - a team zoom is always Friday 3pm.

This is less relaxed than it was just post Covid. It seems like things are ‘getting back to normal’ finally, but DH says there is a bit of an issue with junior people taking masses of time off and wanting to ‘work from home’ a lot.

Did you read my post? The kid is FOURTEEN. Not 4!!

Oh no, people are starting to prioritise real life while still managing to get their work done, and the boomers can't cope!

There needs to be a massive crackdown on slackers. They are holding this country back.