WFH with children

[Annie232]

On many threads I hear women pop up and mention how they WFH x number of days and so don't need childcare on x number of days. Incidentally, within my NCT group on discussions on return to work a few of the women have said similar and that they plan to WFH 1/2 days a week and therefore save on childcare. Is this a thing now?

I think with rising costs everywhere people may choose to try to save eg nursery/childminder fees.

DB and his DW have a 4 year old, she works a demanding role. DB works in film but on and off, so minds his son and does school drop/pickup etc. when he’s picked up his son no way can he leave him in a flat to do his own thing. Screen time or too much is bad for him!

SIL’s DB and her SIL have 2 DC’s one is 5 and other is 2, he’s in nursery. The husband is at work but can wfh a lot and the wife I think wfh 1-2 days a week but still has the 2 year old in nursery. I think the husband does school pick up and drop off.

it is hard combining work and childcare but unless you’re very well off or on benefits most parents have to work these days!

@Teder we both do 35 hours per week ish so I do 8:30-4:30 with an unpaid lunch break. DH does 7-3.
We don't often log back in later as no need to. In busy spells we may but not often much of a need.

DS has never known any different so he is very used to it. Also before anyone says he's met all his milestones, is happy and healthy and able to cope in social situations

Personally I don't give a shit about my job. It isn't highly skilled, there isn't a lot of responsibility, I don't have people under me. The pay reflects all this. If I were in a more demanding role I wouldn't dream of trying to juggle my dd at home while I worked. As it is I can probably manage to coast by doing very little for one day providing I get the rest of my work done earlier in the week while she's at nursery. I know for a fact that other colleagues do things in work time - gardening, school runs, shopping, one even decorated her living room! So I don't feel bad about it to be honest.

This, basically. You can’t work properly and look after a baby or young child. Many of us muddled through in lockdown or when someone’s ill, but it’s rubbish and tiring and can’t be done long term.

Clearly some people who own their autonomy at work / high in the management role / have their own company and flexibility can WFH with their kids. I did on my maternity because I had to / wanted to do some hours as the business is mine.

The question here is... How many people ( women) are in these super fortunate, niche sector or higher up in management role that absence from work doesn't reflect poorly upon them?
Interestingly enough I haven't seen many male colleagues / employees of mine who wanted to WFH and also look after their kids?

@Yerroblemom1923

Agree, depends entirely on what you do.
My DH has a good city based job and now WFH 3 days a week. He couldn't do his job and look after the kids.

I left my toddler at home with him to do the school run last week as it was chucking it down. Was gone all of 25 mins and it was mayhem when I returned!

I'm lucky to be flexible but I orchestrated this situation myself. Wanted to be at home with my children and make a living so I made it happen.

It has its downsides of course but mostly positive.

They made record profits despite losing 8 figures??

Ive worked in many roles and any SVP or CEO would get the almightiest of bollockings and probably the sack for taking a month off and not using AL. Sounds like you work for one of those companies where people on the ground work like dogs and shit rolls downhill from people at the top who say “Well I am a SVP so you can’t tell me what to do”.

Honestly, I’m not buying any of it - a company where no one does a day’s work but they make a squillion pounds in profit?

The problem is no one on this thread will have the same situation. What works for one family e.g WFH and childcare has worked really really well for us won't work for others.

It's possible to do if you are in the fortunate position to do so.

It's not lost on us how lucky we are to be able to do it but at the same time I'd only end up with £300 a month if DS was in nursery which wasn't plausible for us

Yep, a few business units hemorrhage money but profits are up, as the brands owned are big ones.

How do you think companies like HSBC can get massive fines and still make money YOY?

People do a days work, just in their own time.

So you do work your contracted hours?? Sorry it’s just really not clear!

Nope, I’m questioning your view of ‘a days work’

I have worked a day today, but I’ve been online for about 2 hours of it.

I have a feeling there are a lot of areas that leave you confused.

It's a long time ago that I worked in an office but I'm absolutely astounded by the attitudes of some employees (both on here and in real life as DH works in an office). Some people seem to think that every little difficulty they have in their personal life should be sorted out by/accommodated by their employer.

I learned very early on in my working life that MY problems/difficulties outside of work were just that - MY problem. Now some seem to think that they should take a salary for caring for their children - or whatever other little issue crops up in their private life - rather than working 100% of the hours they are paid to work. I agree a little bit of give and take between employer/employee goes a long way but the 'little bit' seems to be stretching itself into employers having to bear the brunt of employee's life decisions.

We get told to work 35 hours per week we don't have a contract with set times

I wasn’t going to criticise. I was genuinely curious about how it works. 🙂 I really don’t have the skills to manage it but fair play to those who do!
I work with other people a lot - even remotely - in an emotionally tough line of work so I recognise it wouldn’t work for me. I can see how it works for others, depending on the nature of the work.

@Teder we are very lucky it works for us and that we have the kind of job this is possible in.

Lots of our colleagues do the same

This person will find it impossible to wfh effectively with a baby/toddler around. I can guarantee it won’t last long. You’re really not missing a trick!

You've only worked a day if you've worked a day. You seem to be being purposefully obtuse in some of your posts. You are either doing your contracted hours or uou aren't. Some of your posts make it sound like you are and some like your only doing a couple of hours but as long as the overall task is done it's fine. I totally get that employers can not care about hours worked as long as the output is there and may not be concerned about when you do tasks. And yes, you can work without being online. I do. Sometimes I am reading documents and can do that with kids around. Sometimes I'm on calls. Sometimes I'm just thinking a problem through. None of those things require me to be online. But if I'm doing any of those things I'm working and would include those as working hours. It would be very rare to be able to actually only do a couple of hours every day for an employer and them be content that this is worth paying for you full time, even if you're super productive as having you super productive for all your contracted hours would be even better for them output wise and if you could genuinely do your job in so few hours they could just employ someone part time and get the same output.

@mn29 worked for over 2 1/2 years for us. Got bonus every year due to performance. DS met all milestones etc

When I worked in an office - different offices over 15 years - there's no way anyone was 'working' 100% of their hours - tea breaks, long loo breaks, fag breaks, chatting about last night's TV to their desk mate, some people seem to take forever to get their computer to be ready to work. In addition to that, there is how different people can take different amounts of time to accomplish the same task.

For that reason, in many industries and roles while you may be in the office between a set number of hours managers often judge your work performance on achieving certain goals or milestones. Good managers know that if they want say project x accomplished by the end of the day - if they have a reliable employee who gets x accomplished to the required standard by the deadline that it's micromanaging to complain if their lunch break is ten minutes longer than normal etc.

Some people have jobs were the outcome of the project is the most important thing so if an employee takes 20 hours or 2 hours it's up to them.

Of course, if you want to be promoted or get noticed by senior management then if you can do it in 2 hours and ask for more work that can help your career, but if you want to spend the other 8 hours planning your wedding or reading a book that's fine too. You've been given a goal and met it. You are allowed to manage your own time.

@elephantmarchingin If the hours you work don't matter and you can work in the evening when the child is asleep/other parent is available for childcare then that's fine. But if your role requires contact with others who work 9-5 then that's not going to work is it?
It very much depends on the job.
DH occasionally has meetings with public sector workers. These used to be scheduled late afternoon and suddenly became early evening ( on zoom). He finishes work at 5pm so wasn't impressed with meetings being scheduled from 5-7pm all of a sudden. He drove home early so he could do the meeting from home (otherwise he wouldn't have got home until 8pm). As it was he left the meeting at 7pm (it over ran) as he was already 2 hours over his working day. I explained to him that in all liklihood the change of meeting time was due to WFH public sector workers clocking off to do school runs/after school activities and then clocking back on later. In other words working hours to suit their own private lives - not necessarily that of the employer. DH no longer attends these meetings. If they want to meet with him it's 9-5 or not at all.

Jesus christ, not really sure how it’s confusing for anyone to understand people might be contracted for set hours but not require to work an entire day 9-5.

Its still a ‘days work’

And as I’ve said many times, they couldn’t hire someone part time to do the same. As otherwise they’d have not had the role empty for over a year. Some jobs require a certain skillset and experience, not everyone has them. I’m sent messages from headhunters every other day, I could set my price (and did)

Im sorry you and others can’t get that this isn’t that uncommon.

This.

Those in our business that pulled this after Covid very nearly lost us our flexibility. Luckily it was understood that it was only a very small number of people who thought it was acceptable and for obvious reasons they are no longer with us.

Whatever you may think it quickly becomes very apparent when a person’s attention isn’t on their job whether they are in the office or at home and it’s unfair on your colleagues who end up having to pick up the slack.

And lots of industries have roles where there are loosely 'contracted hours' but the jobs are all project-based so how long you take to deliver something as long as it comes in on deadline is up to you.

Jesus christ, not really sure how it’s confusing for anyone to understand people might be contracted for set hours but not require to work an entire day 9-5.

As an aside, some of your comments are rather abrasive. I see where the confusion arose, you referred to logging online for 2 hours but working for the day. The PP was therefore clarifying whether you were working for the rest of the day, but offline so to speak.

I could return to my former employer on a work from home basis;it's almost an attractive prospect but due to GDPR I wouldn't be able to have anyone at all in the room with me not even to open the door to pass something through whilst I had the computer screen open;I'd also have to be 100% available to take customer calls and can't have the symphony of barking dogs,my neighbours screaming kids and my other neighbours love of his power tools,strimmer and mower in the background.

I honestly don't know how people care for their children and wfh in some rolls