To insist my staff have childcare in place?

[willandgrace]

Several of the staff I manage have young kids, we've supported them all year to WFH with kids at home. We are still primarily working from home but as schools/childcare are now open I have said that people need to have appropriate childcare in place while working from home, the same as they would have if they were office based (as they all were previously) - some of the staff are not happy about this but AIBU?

Have you got a home-working policy in place? If not, YABU.

YABU because childcare is not as available as it was pre pandemic. For example, you can still only have one childcare bubble, so if they used to use both sets of grandparents and a nursery, as my neighbour did, then they'd be screwed still.

Why aren’t they happy? Do they have partners at home or if this after school care or holiday care?

Yanbu. Unless the children are largely self-sufficient teenagers (13/14 and up) for most people it's not possible to work and do childcare.
Leniency was required when schools were shut, but it's reasonable now to say staff should be working in a distraction free environment.

YANBU.

Depends how old the children are

No I don't think you are being unreasonable. During the working week, your staff are at work, whether it be at home or in the office.
Things were different during the lockdowns - 'we're all muddling along in this together'.
We're moving out of lockdown, schools & childcare are open so the parents should be using them.
Can you recall them to the office?

Yanbu

The wiss as Lott of work must be dropping. Assume they will all want to be fully paid?

I'm quite torn about this. On the face of it YANBU because it is hard working with dc around. However we are still not fully back to normal and as such I think you have to allow some flexibility.

I think wraparound care and holiday club provision is still a bit patchy for school aged kids. People who previously used grandparents may not want to or be able to at the moment. My two are in after school club in term time but this week we don't have any childcare.

Nursery age kids absolutely should be in childcare, not least because it's impossible to work with them around!

*quality of work

Lots of childcare options aren’t as available as normal.

And for as long as covid is still out there and I’m not vaccinated, I don’t want my children mixing with more people than they really need to be.

Normally at Easter, my DC would be in a sports camp, with 100 children from all over the city. No way I’m sending them there this year.

We’ll muddle on a few more days til they’re back in their small school bubbles.

I have my kids at home (4&6) they play beautifully and don't interrupt me much. It is very different having them in the house to needing to home school.

Different kids are different, and many older ones will cause no inconvenience to parents, you will just create resentment. Also, I'd usually use my parents for a chunk of it, but that's not really possible yet. Personally, I'd let it go for now, and address it where you think people aren't getting the job done. To be honest, unless the kids interrupt zoom calls you'll never know what they've actually done. If you have to do it, I'd flag it far off and say from September.

YANBU. Nurseries and other childcare options are open. I don’t understand how people can work and look after children at the same time (assuming they are young children not teenagers). This is why so many working parents had the most stressful time when nurseries and schools were closed!

Generally I'd say YANBU but things are still not normal. You need to speak to the staff who are not happy to find out what problems they are facing. If they are simply saving money on purpose, they absolutely need to sort their shit out. If their childcare has been pulled for reasons outside their control, and no viable alternatives are available, YABVU, because honestly, other than quitting what can they do?

So what would you suggest if one of your employees children had to self isolate due to school bubble bursting?

None of us want to WFH with the kids hanging about (WFH without them is an absolute pleasure though!) but things are still really uncertain.

If one of mine had to S.I for the full 10 days, I'd either have to manage them or my self employed DP would have to lose 2 weeks wages?

I think it is unreasonable yes. Its not to say that your staff should have nothing in place but on several levels it's an unreasonable request.

1: Childcare is very expensive and usually set hours. We have cut our nursery hours down to a school day because Wfh we don't have an hour commute so don't need as long. It saves considerable amount of money to families.

2: Many alternative childcare options aren't available at the moment still

3: Many nurseries and childminders have gone bust as a result of the pandemic it's extremely hard to find spaces

4: Help from families is limited due to the rules

If your staff are getting their work done and still wfh be a good employer who is flexible and understands the issues not demands that your staff magically fix a very difficult situation right now!

I've wfh two days a week for years and have always had to prove I have childcare in place.

Given the current circumstances maybe you could give people a grace period but say that you need to childcare in place by xxx date?

I know that in some areas childcare isn't as freely available and some after school clubs/holiday clubs aren't running so you may need to be mindful of that. What's the situation like in your area?

This approach does have the potential to disproportionately impact women but I agree that working and caring for children at the same time isn't sustainable.

I don’t think you’re being unreasonable. DS is in nursery, as he would be if I was in the office. I wouldn’t get any work done otherwise.

My work are flexible when he has to isolate if he’s in contact with a positive case and ends up being at home. as in they don’t really expect much of me and allow me to work flexible hours, and I’m grateful for that.

I don’t know how anyone could do their job properly with a young child permanently in the house. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to ask people to make childcare arrangements.

YANBU you've been accommodating for long enough.

You can't take your kids to work if you work in an office, you shouldn't be able to have your kids at home if you work from home. They're distracting, they require some element of time, attention, supervision. Obviously people with children at home will work less efficiently than those without, be uass they're not only working, they're they're looking after kids. Why should those without children work more to cover that?

We do have a home working policy but it doesn't cover this scenario - the quality of work has definitely dropped, even though most staff are adamant they are more productive than ever
I think they aren't happy because they don't want to pay for childcare when they are at home and may have concerns about mixing with others but should I really be expected to support that?
Not helped by the fact my kids are older teenagers so the ruling doesn't impact me

Dh works from home and when I work we pay for childcare. It's unprofessional not to.

Lots of childcare isn’t open yet. Normally in the Easter holidays I’d be running a holiday club with 60 different kids each week. We’re not running as we can’t use the building we use yet.

DH’s work have a policy now where if your work is negatively affected by wfh (which is basically mostly going to be child or partner related) then discussions are had about how to increase work rate. Rather than a blanket ban or rule.

YABU. Manage your staff by their output and not by putting rules in place that try to get more out of the lazy fuckers (who will still be lazy) but penalise those that will still deliver (who will get demoralised that their hard work isn’t getting recognised).

So you need to update your policy.

YANBU. Give them two options: sort childcare (and proof, so you know they’re not just keeping them at home), or stop supporting their WFH and tell them they have to come into the office.

It really is that simple. They cannot work while caring for children.