“Most employers won’t let you WFH and look after children”

[choochoowah]

Is this actually the case? I know some must have this policy but my husbands certainly doesn’t: they don’t know or care what he does in the day as long as the work gets done (he works from home twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays.)

WFH isn’t an option in my job so I don’t know. I’m just wondering how common this is as an actual policy.

Absolutely part of our policy. I only ever do it when one is sick, and then we juggle meetings between us and catch up in the evening.

I only allow my team to wfh with kids there if at senior school.

I think there’s a fine line. A lot of my colleagues do the school run with older children on WFH days and will be working with older children at home for the latter part of the day. Or in certain circumstances where I would previously have had to take an emergency carers leave day like child sickness I will now say as long as my daughter is ok on the sofa snuggled up I can continue to work from home as much as I can and just log emergency leave in hours rather than the whole day if I don’t quite make a full days hours due to caring for her. Which is convenient. But there is a line of tolerance, one of my colleagues was found out to be looking after an 18 month old and basically just having the computer open all day so they were visible on teams but didn’t lift a finger, they were disciplined and told they had to work from the office permanently for the foreseeable. So I think there’s an implicit agreement not to take the piss.

contracted hours are completely different. You have agreed working hours

it's getting ridiculous trying to get meeting in with people who are booked out 8.30 to 9.30 and 2.30 till 3.30 on the school run. Makes getting people together increasingly impossible

2 hours a week mid-afternoon? So around 5% of his hours?

As a regular thing that would be picked up at my place. He’s being paid for those hours but not properly working them (especially if he’s picking DS up from school). We’d be expected to find childcare for that slot.

Totally fine here. I work at a US tech company. As long as the work gets done they’re not bothered. I can block time out or have the kids in the background. No one cares. I don’t do this but if I had to no one would mind.

If you’re open to working late nights and weekends as required, most people won’t mind the infrequent appearance of a flu-ridden 10 year old.

Our policy is strictly no babies or nursery aged children but ok with reasonable levels with older children, so they are fine when it’s a few hours after school or if a school age child is off sick. Regardless people do work with sick toddlers home from nursery because the work needs done and they are committed to doing it, we also are 100% flexible on hours so people can pick up time in the evening, there are no phones to cover etc it’s just everyone with their own workload.

No one would be mad enough to try and WFH all the time with a baby or toddler though it would be obvious within a day what was going on.

Anyone remember this clip about the unforeseen challenges of working from home? 🤣🤣

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IKxqy9SJ-0I&pp=ygU4TWFuIHdob3NlIGtpZHMgYXBwZWFyZWQgb24gdGhlIG5ld3Mgd2hpbGUgaGUgd2FzIHdvcmtpbmfSBwkJwQkBhyohjO8%3D

I work for a US company - they always work, which means that they are a lot more accepting of you fitting your life in during the working day. One hour twice a week looking after a toddler would not be a problem at all.

Not allowed with my work. Must have childcare in place for primary age and under. People try it on sometimes.

Not at all standard in my office. People have work to do and deadlines to meet and as long as they do that, who cares what else they are doing? I rarely work constantly between 9&5, but overall I do more than my 37.5 hours in a week.

Yes, also depends on the job. Does the worker need to answer calls-possibly confidential ones, with ill/vulnerable people who would be very upset to hear a toddler babbling in the background? Do they need to attend meetings where everyone needs to be listening/planning/responding at the same time? If, say, your job involves designing/sewing clothes, or you have a specific list of things to do which will take you 36 hours, I wouldn't mind when/how you did it if I was the boss, as long as it got done by the deadline, so I would be flexible about my worker doing childcare the odd morning instead of working, as long as she made up the work, say in the evening when the child was in the care of someone else.

Im pretty liberal, but nobody with a toddler or baby is getting a days work done.

So for 2 hours out of 8 you can’t schedule meetings. What’s wrong with the other 6?

Everyone I know, even those without kids, do not thank you for an 8.30am meeting.

Doesn’t his school have an after school club?

At my job it's tolerated eg if a child is ill. Or an older child in holidays

But we time record and it's really down to us how we manage our days

I know people who lost their job when it was found out they were working at home with young (pre school age) children. And others who were made to come into the office full time.

I’ve not had any childcare for my children for the last 3 years. They’re now 11 and 8. I do the school run for the youngest at 3pm (take my 30 min lunch) and they’re fine until I finish between 5-6. Get themselves a snack and drink, do homework, watch TV. They don’t bother me unless it’s important. They’re often at home while I wfh in the holidays. Entirely depends on how well behaved your children are! 4 is probably a bit young but if it’s for an hour and your DH can manage and his company are ok with it, then it’s fine. I work in IT in a project management role and am permanently home based as I live nowhere near an office (was headhunted). If I have a client call I tell them not to disturb me unless it’s an emergency.

Not when people are contracted for 8 hours during the working day that most people have in their contracts. Add to that an hour for lunch and they are down to 5 hours

agree 8.30 calls should not be the norm but can be needed sometimes. 9 o'clock call should absolutely be required

As should a call between 3 and 4 unless in your contracted hours. I respect these times then

This. Probs more so with more senior roles and people who keep their own diaries.

Works both ways….WFH and looking after DC is ok because there’ll be a time when you need to be available for an important meeting outwith your scheduled work hours.

Not everyone does have contracted hours, I don't. I just have to be available for core meetings and get my job done/hit targets.

I clocked out and read my book for 30mins the other day just because I felt like it

In my old job there used to be core hours of 10-12 and 2-4 but I negotiated to do work around the school run so always took my lunch break 2.30-3.30, then worked for a bit and then did the rest of my hours in the evening. I was promoted twice while working that pattern so clearly my employer was happy

Role dependent- not everyone works in an office lol.

In my line of work (health care) there are 730am meetings where part of the daily workload is communicated/discussed. Also meetings at 7pm etc