To think more people WFH with DC than let on

[Thorts]

NC. Will preface this: I’m pregnant, and I’ve worked in the early years sector for lots of years. I cannot imagine working from home with a young child, even one who sleeps a lot, unless it is an absolute emergency and even then I can imagine work suffers or you end up making the hours back up late at night. Despite this I can totally understand why people do and would never judge anyone for it, you do what you have to do. The cost of childcare being the main reason and then the availability of it. Some providers didn’t have space until my DC would be nearly two and I was enquiring less than a week after finding out I was pregnant.

Reading some older threads on here, people seem to share my view or have stronger opinions about why it’s wrong to WFH with a young child.

However, my experience of what people do IRL (might just be among those I know) is vastly different. I know a handful of people in various professions who admit to either them WFH or their partner working from home with the child there, for at least one day a week, to help cut costs down. Even my DM who always worked a hybrid position used to work from home whilst me and my sister were very young and said she just managed it and enjoyed the flexibility!!!

AIBU to think it actually happens a LOT more in real life than people are happy to admit?

Yeah absolutely so many friends have had it written into their contracts that they have to actually go to work!

The problem is the knock on effects on the country. I'm a social worker. A huge percentage of social workers are women. Lots are doing this. Now we have a two year wait in our local authority for a carers assessment.
TWO YEARS
You imagine the impact of all the work people are not doing across the land. You might be doing some but are you doing enough? What is the impact of this on your team, your customers. We moan about everything going down hill but this must have an impact.
The receptionist in our office has to pay for childcare. So does the cleaner. The lady in McDonalds, the lady in the petrol station, the lady in Greggs. It is not fair that the middle classes can make these huge savings on childcare.
I have a child with additional needs. I pay for good childcare. It's a massive part of my salary. I'm a single mum with no entitlement to UC. It's just part of my outgoings which I know I have to budget for. To not do that would be a disservice to all the people who pay their council tax to pay for social care workers.

Also it makes me wonder whether half of these jobs need to exist in the first place of people can quite easily do them whilst looking after a toddler at the same time.
I bet a lot are quite well paid too...

How can a social worker work from home? Surely they are constantly out and about on visits?

@nappyvalley2024 depends on the sector but not really, visits are only part of the workload. The rest is the paperwork (vast).

Hmm, I would have thought that paperwork would be quite sensitive, probably not appropriate to be working from home.

I had to do it over the first lockdown when nurseries were shut and we were in ‘bubbles’ and it was a total nightmare. DS was two and it was just us two, and my job requires a lot of thinking and brainstorming and concentration and picking up small details.

no way could I wfh with my kids - my work requires me to focus 100%. And they also need attention. (Especially because I’m a single parent so I can’t hand off to anyone - and even if I weren’t, their dad works too)

I do have a friend who is a lawyer and wfh with her toddler without childcare. She’s up working through the night while he’s asleep. Not sustainable. But then some people have no choice, and it enables some to work when they can’t afford childcare.

@nappyvalley2024 well here lies the problem. You cannot make working from home only for those in the private sector with jobs which don't really mean anything. We are having a recruitment crisis and if working from home is the one carrot that can be offered then local authorities/ NHS/ civil service will have to offer that or we will lose even more employees. Especially as we can't compete salary wise.
All the things that people moan about on MN, five year waiting lists for autism, lack of care home spaces, DLA waiting lists. Yet they continue to WFH with children, doing half a job. Do they not consider that maybe this is all linked? Covid happened, WFH was suddenly a thing and now we cannot put that back in the box. Yes it absolutely is the government's fault too, for underfunding. But the reality is that we are heading towards a two tier society where one half saves on childcare, saves on petrol, saves on office clothes, saves on food, saves on commuting costs, saves on cleaners/ gardeners/ gym memberships and gets the cushty life of WFH. The other has to work outside the home, pay all the extras listed above and are often in essential jobs (teaching, nursing, retail, care homes, early years) so what can we do? What can we offer the out of the home workers to make amends?

Plus you know when I say paperwork I don't mean actual papers? I mean the admin which goes with social care. I don't see that working from home

@jengachampion the lawyer can't afford childcare... how do they think the teaching assistants are doing it?

She’s a human rights lawyer. And I don’t know how teaching assistants are doing it? The teachers in my family all took time off until their children were in school. Such a weirdly accusatory comment!

I’m paid an annual salary to do a specific role, not an hourly rate, as are many people in office based roles

are you her manager?

'I am a project manager, delivering complex multimillion pound projects. I manage a team of five. I am part of management.'

Are there any management aspects to your job @FilthyforFirth ?

(Also, it's 'adamant').

exactly

i can’t fathom social worker being mainly WFH @Beetlejuiceismydad

and the vast paperwork you refer to… sprawled out on the dining room table

really

thats concerning

Yes, I understand that, I’m now wondering what proportion of those wfh are in that position though. Many are referring to completing a set number of hours. DH, in a salaried role, could work at home when his commitments allowed, he didn’t have to be in his office. However, he rarely took a break as it just didn’t work like that.

‘Paperwork’ is probably on the computer, I imagine.

highly confidential and personal

it is concerning the idea of
a) a social worker mainly wfh and not visiting
b) doing said paperwork at home

Depends how old the child is and how good at playing and self entertaining.
Toddlers are impossible but over the age of 3 it's definitely possible to get a few good hours in. I wrote a full dissertation with a baby, 3 and 4 year old and no childcare or family help. Just fitted it in around naps of the baby and when the big ones were playing. It was tough but doable.
My job is task based so as long as I get all done my managers don't care when I work. It's irrelevant now as they are teens so are either asleep, at the gym or with their mates!

I wfh most of the time and although DS9 now walks home once a week, the rest of the time he and DD7 are in wrap around care. I pay around £250 a month for this. They're at an age where they don't disturb me when I work but it's a line I have where I don't feel comfortable working with children around. However I'm starting to feel in the minority. A woman I work with who does the same compressed hours arrangement as me also does all the school runs, no wrap around care for her (younger) kids and blocks the diary time out. I'm not her manager, she's the same level as me. Maybe I'm the mug, who knows.

We have 1 guy who has a 4 and 6yr old at home outside of school hrs. They often appear on meetings. He's the company owner so unlikely to lose his job for it.

I missed out a word, I am part of senior management.

How would I be a line manager without management aspects to my job? I hold my team meetings and 1-1s in the office, but I am available to speak to team members whenever they need me. What a weird comment.

Congrats on your 'gotcha' moment! I didnt spell that word correctly so of course, you got me. I'm not a project manager, I dont manage anyone. I made this all up for fun as I was bored one day.

These comments are batshit. It isn't a race to the bottom. 'I cant work from home in my chosen industry so no one should be able to'.

Maybe my job is pointless. It is public sector (where I have worked my whole life) though and provides a service to frontline staff. So doesnt feel pointless to me.

The personal attacks here, from presumably, majority female posters, is pretty depressing. I have been accused of having a non complex job, being superior, failing my son, being rubbish at my job, the list goes on.

My crime? Was to respond to a thread asking if people work from home with a child, to say on one day a week, in partnership with my DH I do.

I WFH but do have DC about after school so one of us will do pick up and the DC will be in the house. I work flexibly around it though, so I work 5-7am, 9-3 and then 8-11pm every day and a bit more most weekends.

I sometimes have meetings put in 3--7 in which case DH takes DC and keeps them entertained downstairs or I have to just tell them not to come into my office.

Yes my friend does this, her employer doesn't know. It's necessity, she has to work and has no childcare or money for it!

I do now but my youngest is 9. They are all totally capable of grabbing breakfast but normally I’d set out table with breakfast stuff in advance. They get dressed brush teeth then play in garden/ trampoline, bike rides, screen time.

Honestly it’s fine but I think there’s a point around 8/9 when kids are relatively independent.

I agree. A lot of social workers in my LA are working from home. Most are women. I've had to tell them that I cannot work with them if I am aware that children are present during their appointments with me.