People looking after children while wfh

[paws732]

My company operates mainly remotely, so we mostly work from home with occasional office days. We have a lot of Teams meetings for connectivity.

With the summer holidays, I have had meeting with a lot of colleagues who have their children sitting on their laps during the meetings. These children range from 5-8, and they are not behaving themselves either. One child kept putting things on their mum's head, and another was having a tantrum about being bored.

AIBU to think they shouldn't be looking after children while wfh, even if it's the school holidays? I feel it will eventually spoil wfh arrangements for everyone, as employers will not tolerate this is many companies.

As a mum and a manager I find this unacceptable. I have someone on my team who is trying to look after children at home and it’s impacting on her work and causing issues on the team as she’s never available when needed. The impact of this will ruin wfh for people who are not abusing it or using it for free childcare,

Surely it is the concern of anyone picking up the slack left by colleagues looking after their children when they are supposed to be working?

I totally agree. You can't do two things at once. When I had little kids around I hardly got anything done.

I have seen people claiming to work with a baby around! It's an absolute no from me as an employee, and I can't understand why some people seem to think it's okay.

I had one woman like and pretend then whenever I called her she wasn't there. She also delivered no work. After two weeks we had to let her go - but I stil get cross at the CF of it all.

These people should organise childcare as though they were actually going to an office

I WFH with children during lockdown. It was honestly one of the worst experiences, neither got full attention and I just felt nothing but stress and guilt. It was horrible. I can't imagine anyone choosing to do it unless it's in an emergency.

Our work policy states you need to have suitable child care. Flexible for sick days, staff training days and the recent strike days.

my daughter is now 13 so is fine to be around and she knows not to just wander in etc During covid obviously it was allowed but she was very bored I think 9/10 age is the cut off. It must be boring if a child under 10 is just expected to entertain themselves for nearly 6 weeks! My daughter would have much preferred going to a club - yes it was an added expense but I made sure I spread the cost using vouchers etc

As others have said I do worry that WFH/hybrid will go back the other way :( if people take advantage of it in the wrong way. We expected to come into the office 2-3 days a week - I won’t always know what days. Our team find it easy (though expensive) just to have the right childcare in place.

I agree - I cracked for the final month and took unpaid leave. I hate doing things shoddily.

This is the first summer I’ve had to juggle childcare as my husband used to be able to look after the children during holidays but now he has changed his hours.

As a result I’m wfh with the kids (9 and 6) in the house. My productivity is fine and professionalism is unaffected. They have been absolutely good as gold and don’t interrupt my work at all, as long as I pre-empt snack requests. They are very happy to play together all day.

I can hear them all the time and have a quick chat with them whenever I am making a cup of tea and spend an hour with them at lunch.

When I was growing up my parents both had their own businesses which they ran from home so naturally during holidays I just entertained myself. I can’t say it’s too different really.

Since covid our policy has been clarified to say children must be in childcare.
The new grey area is older children who don't need childcare but still want feeding etc - but they can at least be put off.

Childcare was a nightmare when mine were young. Sure it’s a lot trickier now. If you can juggle job at home with kids there, why not? maybe don’t have an 8-year-old sitting on your knee in a video call, though 😳

Well before Covid, I used to work with two women (both had babies) who job-shared, one worked M-Tu-W and the other worked W-Th-F, and they would alternate “working” from home on Wednesdays. Whichever one home on Wednesdays was NEVER available for meetings, never responded to emails or phone calls, etc. In our office, most internal meetings/trainings were scheduled for Wednesdays, and the one at home would always miss. It came to a head when one was confronted about missing a very important training (without which she would miss a qualification required for her to do her job) and she wailed that she couldn’t attend because she had to care for her twins. It turned out that the two of them made a pact that the one in office on Wednesday would cover for the other, so that at-home person wouldn’t do any work on that day, and the next week would cover for her partner. We were hourly employees, so they both ended up getting sacked for wage theft and ended up unhireable in our niche industry because word got out pretty quickly.

It’s one thing to put in a load of laundry, pop your head in to make sure your children haven’t murdered each other, etc., but full time childcare when you’re supposed to be working? These people will ruin it for us all.

Not acceptable to have a child sitting on your lap during a meeting.

In my opinion totally acceptable to have a 9 or 12 year old in the house entertaining themselves. Mine are young though so I can’t do that. I will occasionally when they are older though.

YANBU - I have a similar situation. I pay for childcare or make arrangements whenever I wfh for my children, in particular the youngest as she is 1. The older children are old enough to understand when I wfh they stay away from my workspace and be quiet when passing. There's always another adult around if they need anything, unless in an emergency/sick off school.
My colleague however wfh with her young child which I've noticed prevents her from answering client calls and doing similar targets.
Why am I paying childcare when someone else isn't and gets away with it?!

Our manager WFH one day per week (us worker bees unable to work from home due to the type of work) - she has two under fives. Says to call if necessary but never answers - we all know she is using it to study for her professional exams and catching up on chores while the children are away.

Not sitting on lap during team’s meetings. No.

we do some days, but im self employed so nobody can say otherwise. The other day, i had a phone chat with a client and I could hear her baby in the background

I totally agree. My 5 and 7 dds are at holiday camp the days I’m working, I honestly find it really stressful trying to look after kids and work, nearly had a breakdown in covid trying to. There is no way you can work effectively with young kids.

I dont think its ideal for anyone especially the parents or the kids.
The occasional day , especially in emergencies may be fine but when mine were young they were a handful and sitting quietly amusing themselves for 7.5 hours wouldnt have worked at all.
I ran my own business when DC were small and often felt stressed and torn in two ( and that was just trying to fit in the odd task or phone call whilst they were awake- most work i did in the evenings)
When i worked in the office i used annual leave/ flexi during school holidays or if they were off sick,me and DH tag teamed. So most of our leave was used separately not together and for childcare not "holidays".
Now they are teens childcare isnt an issue but as we live rurally they still want dropping off places at awkward times.
I dont think its fair on anyone to have to care for children whikst working.

i wfh once a week during summer hols and have my DCs home with me then. my area of work is very quiet in July and August so it doesn’t really cause any issues. I will sometimes get up early and get some work done before they get up, just to make sure I’ve made a good start. I’ve never fallen behind so far, but I do only work 9–3 so it’s a bit easier to accommodate. Also, DP is usually home around 3:30/4 so if I feel like I need to do a bit more I can hide away for an hour or so before tea if necessary.

I absolutely would not allow them to interrupt a zoom call though. So unprofessional. I’d make alternative arrangements if I knew i had meetings.

Yanbu and it should not be allowed.

YABU REALLY!?!? How do you expect parents to pay for everything, get a life and mind your own business.

I had to go to work with my dad on a farm all day and it was boring I can tell ya no iPads or anything, but it made me learn to occupy myself and keep myself busy, and use my imagination you can keep kids busy with things and still give them attention and work at the same time u just need to have a routine going on and things to do for them, it’s a bit harsh how you’re judging these parents I’m not saying they should have them on camera but in the current climate with prices rising constantly like give people a break man

None of this is the employer’s problem or the other employees’ to fix.

It is people’s business when their colleagues take the piss and it impacts their job or deadlines

It is not the employer’s responsibility to accommodate your childcare, it’s yours. Yes some jobs may be flexible but that’s a privilege not a right