WFH and childcare

[MoominGang]

We had a new employee joining the team recently in a role that’s fully WFH. It’s now became apparent that childcare is an issue and the plan has always been to work with a small child around. I’m the manager in this scenario and completely exhausted with people who think this is appropriate and fair for both child and employer. It’s not the first case like this either. We’re not allowed to ask about personal situation and childcare situation at interview stage but I feel this needs to change.
Only here to vent…

It's one thing to offer a bit of flexibility in exceptional circumstances but quite another for people to be doing this continuously. It's unfair on the child too, there's no way you can be doing a decent job as well as giving a small child the attention and stimulation they need; heck you can't even necessarily be on the ball enough to keep them safe.

If the baby has been seen in meetings then I'd escalate this, pull out the company policy on this and get advice from HR.

You need to make sure you have all the facts. How do you know baby isn't being cared for by a nanny or a family member? The baby lives at home too, so it isn't beyond the realm of possibility that childcare might sometimes be present.

@Temporaryanonymity it’s not professional though. I worked with a baby at home with childcare and my baby was never seen or heard on meetings (noise cancelling head phones).

OP even pre-covid people had contracts that told them that they could only WFH if they have childcare. Can you make that clear in interviews (that contract will say this) and if this is an issue then role is not for them.

Noise cancelling headphones are an equipment issue. The baby is perfectly entitled to be cared for in her own home.

This is my issue with companies mandating WFH/hybrid. They don't provide the right equipment and think they can control everything.

Just have a conversation with her. Lots of companies are fine with cats appearing on screen....

How much childcare does a cat need though?
So far today I've seen my cat twice and she's slept most of the day. Find me a toddler that's so easy to look after...

having a baby on during meetings is unprofessional, whatever you say about equipment or not.

a cat doesn’t need the same amount of care you know! I would think having a cat at home makes no difference to your performance. What a silly comparison

This really grinds my gears. I've been self employed for a long time and have very strict boundaries with my work time (ie time someone else is paying me for). I would never, ever presume that it's ok for me to have my child around during work time, it's entirely inappropriate imo. I think since Covid when people had no choice but to work with children at home when schools shut etc people seem to think this is acceptable, but it makes it very hard for people for whom remote working has always worked!

Those that say their performance hasn’t suffered must have low performance.

It’s not fair on your child to work from home and “care” for them at the same time. You can’t give either your full attention.

My son’s nursery called at 9:15 today to collect him. I’m wfh but luckily was able to arrange for my mom to collect him and care for him otherwise it would have been unpaid dependent leave or get no work done.

It isn't clear who is doing the childcare. If it is the worker, then yes, she needs childcare.

But if the child is being cared for at home I just don't accept that the company can mandate that the child is cared for elsewhere. That's ridiculous.

OP said it has become clear that childcare is an isssue. So if child is looked after at home
by nanny or a relative it would no be an issue obviously.

The person in question openly admitted that she has no childcare and sees this as being acceptable. When asked if she is planning to resolve this, responded that childcare is so expensive.
We employ lots of young mums and they all have childcare. It’s just not fair on anyone.
And yes we have people with dogs and cats too. As much as they can be a bit of a nuisance appearance on calls, they don’t need constant attention.

OP I am sorry but you need to have clear contracts/policies on this. As someone with young children I think it’s impossible to do both well and I don’t think it will work out. So I would point her to the policies that you hopefully have in place and give her a deadline to sort childcare. Or start a performance review.

Agree with Sonora and I'd do this ASAP. The sooner you highlight it officially, the sooner they realise how serious it is

This is infuriating, I’m irritated enough that I’m a mug paying for after school club when some colleagues no longer bother and block out their work diaries for the school run!

But for really little kids and babies, this just can’t be safe, where does the employer stand if something terrible were to happen to a child whilst their parent was working/distracted??

The only time we’re allowed to work from home is for childcare emergencies.

Does your employer not have to approve the WFH ie the employee states where they work, are there other people around, secure environment etc? I have to sign off WFH assessment annually at least, and always for new employees. Also, our handbook states WFH is not a substitute for child care and employees must ensure suitable child care is in place so that they can work uninterrupted at home.

The problem with policies and handbooks is that you are not issued with them before Day 1 in the job. That's why it needs to be discussed at interview (not asked, you can provide an outline of the policy to the interviewee as an FYI) or explicitly written in contracts.

I know people lack commonsense these days but you'd hope someone who is intelligent enough to secure a job would know this isn't a suitable arrangement.

Here's the thing, it's perfectly reasonable not to mention having children or planning to have children or being pregnant at interview. Infact, it's illegal to ask. What isn't OK is people not arranging suitable childcare, and I say that as a fully remote WFH single mother of a young child.

Similar in my work however I'm not the manager.
My colleague returned from maternity leave so no probation. Openly tells everyone she against out of home childcare. Her mom is around at times to help out.
Apologised few times during team meetings that baby was napping so could not show him to everyone!!
Not aware of management doing anything about it.
Very frustrating
Feeling nothing will be done as she can stay oh my mom or husband are flexible.

Pets are bad enough, childcare a total pisstake. By the pets I mainly mean digs who seem to be a constant in meetings these days. I'm sure I'll get flamed.

Why would a pet appearing on a work call bother you?

I am sick of these threads stating that they get more done, am more productive etc wfh. Yeah right - that’s why the big bad employer wants you in the office . A lot of people cannot be trusted and honestly spotting a baby at a meeting!!

There is no way that you can work and do childcare and I truthfully do not believe people who say they log on afterwards after doing the ironing, having a run and doing the school pick up.

Its honestly spoilt it for the people who do things properly and get formal childcare in place.

Does this employee have wfh in her contract or HQ? Some people do in fact justify the wfh with kids for all sorts of personal reasons I.e saving up for holiday, if they paid for childcare they wouldn’t have money for other things etc etc.

I have grown up children but many years ago I did work from home with client meetings at various locations in the UK a few times a month. I had wrap around childcare all the time. Why some women seem to think it’s their right to try and looks after children AND work has always been beyond me but it’s rife.

Nope! I've had many an employee query an informal warning for being constantly late because "we expect you to be in work on time" wasn't explicit enough. No common sense needed it was right there but they wanted to be spoon-fed what the consequences might be 🙄