To ask what employers will think when people refuse to send their kids back to school?

[ArgumentativeAardvaark]

Quite a lot of people on MN are business owners or senior managers. The general mood seems to be shifting towards parents deciding not to send their kids back to school when they re-open.

Many employers have, rightly, been happy to make allowances for employees working at less than full ability/hours while they have had children at home needing care. Do you think that tolerance is likely to change if an employee has school or nursery available but chooses not to use it?

I'm not suggesting anything so simply as that. I'm just suggesting that those people are not taking advantage of the furlough.

The two people I know who are not returning their children to school have pre-existing conditions. My sister has diabetes. She isn't planning on returning her DC for the foreseeable future, and might give notice for her job if need be. They have savings and her husband has an income that would cover the bills.

We plan to return our DC as no pre existing conditions.

You know, and at the risk of sounding defensive, I had no part in the making of the survey or even answering it

Does anyone else have any information to suggest that most parents will send their y6 children to school beyond their own social circle? Because I'd like to read that too.

Stop the cash and the Percentage who want schools closed will drop drastically.

Very unlikely.
Many will be able to wfh FT with no detriment
Many will be able to continue to or start to work PT with no detriment
Many already work outside home when DC are at home and other parent is home (evenings/weekends)
Many have one SAHP
Some would rather quit work than send their DC back to school when they think it isn't safe.

But do you have evidence that the survey is actually real parents whose children are in the eligible age groups? 🤷🏻‍♀️

It also sounds like some schools are being obstructive/ saying children can’t stay for lunch/ opening for 2 hours when parents have time consuming journeys to get children there. That will also skew results.

In reality no one will know until the schools reopen and the fewer children there the easier social distancing will be.

Dd would be furious if I stopped her going back, she understands school will be different but she’s desperate to get her life back. Presumably some idiot will tell me I need to ‘parent’ but it seems to me it’s the type of thing that will come up on stately homes threads in a few years.

There's a break down of the age groups of the children all those fake parents have imagined if you follow the link.

Many will be able to wfh FT with no detriment

Only if their kids are older than 14.

Many will be able to wfh FT with no detriment

If they could do this then the employer would probably have asked them to do this at first.

You can only be furloughed if you have no work to do. You have no right to be furloughed automatically if you have childcare issues. You can ask, and the employer can use it as a reason to furlough you IF they need to furlough a proportion of staff due to lack of business.

There's a break down of the age groups of the children all those fake parents have imagined if you follow the link.

Or so they say. The idea that only 19% of children will return is absolute fantasy.

Are the fake parents actually intending to send their fake children to school in June?

I don’t believe the survey will match what happens @fourteafallout. Not for a second, but if I’m wrong we’ll find out when schools reopen won’t we?

@ArgumentativeAardvaark

You seem completely unwilling to believe that anyone could possibly be able to wfh with their child present and do a good job.

I assure you that my employer is getting at minimum 40 hours of my time a week and that I am delivering high quality to a quick turnaround.

My role does not require me to clock in and out at specific times so if I need to work evenings that's fine, in fact it's often preferred as we do lots of business with the US so meetings need to take place in the evening.

I am not the only person who can work flexibly, lots of other roles can too. It just requires a little lateral thinking on the employers part.

All this talk on here about sacking and replacing people, what about the time required to train a new hire and support them to the point where they are at full productivity? You're looking at 3-6 months depending on the role, if you could keep existing, competent, trained staff by giving them the ability to work evenings or split shifts from home why wouldn't you?

I actually suspect the 80% will be unlikely but I also think it is too cavalier to say most children will return to school as Xenia confidently asserted. There is precious little research out there to say what will happen with any degree of confidence. I suspect, and this is a pure guess, that there will be huge differences between schools.

I think most will as in more than 50% in the end. But time will tell....

Perhaps I missed it, but I saw no reputable research firm putting their name to that survey.

Looks like some shit done on Survey Monkey and not worth the time of day.

Yes, I agree. Can you find any better research on the matter?

@TorysSuckRevokeArticle50 I think that you are misunderstanding my perspective here. I already said above, I think, that the set up that you described sounded like it was working and might even encourage your employer to offer that sort of flexibility permanently? Every case is different and I have no doubt that some work.

However, given that childcare and teaching are both full time jobs it is hardly controversial to suggest that it is rarely going to be possible for most individuals to do two full time jobs every day.

My concern is that since everyone has been forced to wfh and simultaneously care for their kids some employers have got used to making allowances for their employees and have, rightly, not really made much of a fuss about the various ways in which they are doing that- there has been a lot of general “we’re in this together, do what you can” type stuff that is not really being properly quantified in many some cases. Those employees may feel that they have the right for those allowances to continue to be made as long as the risk of contracting Covid is out there, and this is being factored into their decision making process as the consider whether or not to send their kids back to school.

Or even another shit survey monkey poll that points the other way?

@ArgumentativeAardvaark just 31 minutes ago you responded to someone saying that many parents could work from home without detriment by saying:

*Only if their kids are older than 14.

How am I misinterpreting that?

TBH from the perspective of my business up to now it has been an emergency type of situation
So eg we have allowed WFH without childcare which is normally a complete no

Going forward we won't be able to allow that sort of thing

Apart from anything else it is unfair on employees who are working normally

So eg we have allowed WFH without childcare which is normally a complete no

Gosh, how big of you.

I’m not sure how much ‘allowing’ that involved, given that childcare didn’t exist for non key workers. WTF else would anyone have done?

Yes agreed,the point is going forward we won't be doing this

Right, well try not to paint yourself as lady bountiful for doing what every business was required to do.

Whatever
I was actually just trying to show how things have been and how things will be changing
But if if makes you feel better to be so rude carry on