When it comes to open, flexible work options such as those MomsRising.org is working to achieve, the term "family-friendly" could more accurately be labeled "human-friendly." People in every conceivable living arrangement desire work that takes into account their individuality, their dreams, and their responsibilities outside of their jobs. Unfortunately, employers struggling with tight budgets hesitate to invest money in employee benefits and "family-friendly" programs without a guarantee of business benefits that will come from that investment.
So how do we help more businesses to understand the positive transformation that occurs when we respect employees' humanity and take into account their individual situations? One answer may be a low-cost, high-return program already implemented in over seventy organizations around the country--allowing babies in the workplace. From law firms to credit unions to government agencies to retail stores, managers and coworkers have been amazed to discover how the workplace changes when parents are allowed to work with their babies at the office on a regular basis, generally until around the time the babies start crawling or walking.
The impact on the work environment has been profound in these companies with structured baby programs. Babies improved morale--not just for the parents, who were obviously deeply grateful for the opportunity to keep their children with them--but for the office in general. Higher morale meant happier, more loyal, and often more productive employees. People started talking about their personal lives more and developed closer relationships with their coworkers, which led to increased cooperation and teamwork. In many companies, managers noticed that people were actually nicer to each other as a result of the babies being around. People--including many who really didn't want the baby program in the first place--discovered that a smile or hug from a baby was deeply rejuvenating if they were having a bad day, and they talked about needing their daily "baby fix."
For the growing number of businesses that have experienced the increased retention, loyalty, and morale (as well as the lowered stress levels) that occur when an employer is sensitive to employees' needs as people, being human-friendly isn't even open for discussion--it's clear that all, including the business, benefit from this philosophy. But for far too many in our society, when they walk onto the job, they have to forget the rules of life that were obvious when they were children--that play and down time are critical to maintaining creativity, productivity, and motivation; that social support gives us the strength and resources to overcome obstacles; and that laughter and human contact can defuse stress like nothing else.
Babies-at-work programs obviously have many benefits for parents and babies, including easier breastfeeding, deeper bonding, lower day care costs, better financial stability, and increased social and intellectual stimulation for new mothers and babies. A "side effect" of babies in the workplace that could truly transform our society, though, is how regular interaction with babies (which was actually the "norm" in human history prior to the Industrial Revolution) rekindles awareness of our humanity in the workplace. It is likely that many more organizations will adopt baby programs, given the proven success of these programs in a wide range of companies, the extensive benefits of these programs, and the nominal financial costs for a business.
As companies see firsthand how retention and productivity go up, collaboration and recruitment improve, customer loyalty increases, and health costs go down when businesses see workers--and help workers see each other--as individuals with complex interests and lives that don't disappear when they come to work, more human-friendly programs are sure to follow.
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*A Peaceful Revolution is a weekly blog about work/life satisfaction done in collaboration with the Huffington Post. Read a post by a leading thinker in the field every week. Carla Moquin is the President of the Parenting in the Workplace Institute (http://www.parentingatwork.org), a non-profit based in Massachusetts that is devoted to providing resources and education related to parenting at work.
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babies at the work place
l have enjoyed the whole discussion on the topic. as a mother am definately for having a child center allowed at the office. l believe evrymother would cherish the priviledge of having their baby next door and would work even harder to maintain this environment. l have not had of were this has been done in my country but how l which it would be on my employer's agenda. it would make life more manageable and give thousands of mothers peace as they perform their duties in the work place.
however my view is that this ervice should be paid for and attendants hired so that much as the mother can have an opportunity to bread feed the baby, they are not sitted at a computer with a crying baby on their laps but the knowledge that l will see my little one every two hours during the day is very comforting. this is a proposal l would like to introduce to my own work place.
MORE WORKPLACES SHOULD HAVE ONSITE DAYCARE
Since so many mothers these days are forced to leave their children to provide for them, large companies should be required to have a daycare facility onsite. This would reduce absenteeism and turnover, children would be safer, and happier because their parents could visit them at lunch and during breaks.
It has been done by some companies and hospitals and it is just short-sighted of other businesses, schools, and government agencies not to provide this humane service for working mothers. The benefits to our children -our future- would be well worth the cost and probably prove cost-effective in the long term.
Babies at work
Babies visting work is morale lifting and wonderful. Having a staffed daycare program is also wonderful and I think every major company should invest in one. I think it can be very cost effective and allow mothers the ability to be effective workers while still being able to go care for their babies on breaks. But to actually have babies IN the OFFICE on a daily basis is not a really good idea in my opinion. If the baby cries it is disruptive to everyone especially the parent. Also I do not think it is healthy to expose a baby to the electromagnetic units of all the computer equipment, not to mention the office tensions and noise; not to mention any cold or viruses that can run around an office. I think that allowing mothers to work some days from home is one solution that can work. That combined with a day care center would in my opinion be an ideal solution.
Carole
I am happy to hear of
I am happy to hear of others' successes. For a while, my supervisor was OK with me bringing my daughter to work. However, the female office manager was, unbeknownst to me, complaining about her presence in the office. She never spoke with me directly, nor did I hear anything specific about her concerns. Eventually, my supervisor began asking me when I would be putting my daughter in child care.
I also had an difficult experience with both a male and female client. I was defending a deposition. While doing so, my 4-month old daughter was in another room nearby, with someone else caring for her, so I could nurse at breaks and at lunch. The male client later told my supervisor he thought it was totally inappropriate for me to nurse in front of him and the female client questioned whether I was being "tough enough." It seemed to me that the appearance of a woman with her child, while working, was enough to have everyone acting out of stereotype.
I love this cause
I was able to bring my daughter to work everyday, until she was about 8 1/2 months old. At that point, we moved out of the city, and she was attempting to crawl, so we stopped doing that. But it was a wonderful experience - for her, for me, and for everyone in my office.
And the whole thing was suggested by my boss - an older, single (straight) man - because it's long been the tradition that when female ballet dancers stop dancing and start teaching, they bring the babies to the studio and park them under the piano. (I'm not a dancer, but I am an administrator in a ballet school/company.)
I know that I'm lucky - but I wish it weren't such an aberration.
I posted on my own blog about this:
1. http://magpiemusing.blogspot.com/2007/01/potatoes.html
2. http://magpiemusing.blogspot.com/2007/04/gramercy-park.html
UCLA story
I am a theater electrician for UCLA's theater department. I had a baby last summer and brought her to work until she was 4 months old since this is what my mother had done with me as a professor in the 1970s. I definitely found the experience exhausting but had no choice because my baby refused to take breast milk from a bottle and I had no sick time left after my 6-week maternity leave. My boss and most of my co-workers were fine with the arrangement and I would tie her to my back and walk around the theater doing my duties-- much like women do in non-industrialized countries. But then somebody anonymously turned me into the authorities and my boss had to ask me to find another arrangement because of fears over liability. Ironically, employees regularly bring their dogs to work but 3 month old babies are against school policy! Unfortunately since UCLA is in Beverly Hills, childcare near work is astronomical and campus childcare is $1400/month or 3/5 my take-home pay-- not to mention the 1-3 year waiting list! I have since heard of numerous women who have had to quit UCLA when they had babies because of the costs of childcare. I still bring my baby to work one or 2 times a week (now 9 months) and have students watch her, but I have to keep her hidden and am always afraid-- wondering who it was who'd turned me in. I reflect the view that the mother or father is the best caretaker of a baby while they're under a year old and the government should pay for one parent to stay home with their kids like they do in nearly every other western country in the world. I lived in Berlin for 2 years and knew many mothers who had become entrepreneurs during their "baby sabbatical" and had joined with other mothers to start a dance school or other business that ultimately created jobs and enriched the society. I also saw an enormous amount of love and dedication to children there because children are not such a source of economic strain. Furthermore, the "kindergartens" start at 18 months and cost about $250 per month, so not only are mothers helped to stay home after the baby is born but they are helped to return to work as well with state-supported early childcare. Part of why I returned from Germany to have my children here is so that I can spread the word and fight for more support in this country. We need to look to other countries to realize that paying maternal leave does not create welfare moms as many here would have you believe. Becoming a mom in the United States is itself an act of civil disobedience because there are so many factors set against you. I believe that the responsibility for relieving this burden should not lie with the companies who are already under strain to keep up with the weakening economy and globalization. The responsibility lies with the US government.
Take Charge Of Your Own Responsibilities!
I would have to disagree with your post. I would never expect the government to pay me during the first year of my children's lives! Who's to say they wouldn't ever decide to collect on that nice deed that I'm in debt to them for and have a mandatory service program or something? Look at North Korea. Their government gives them all their "needs", and they have no freedom for it. It is not the United States government or any other form of government's responsibility to provide anything for my children. That is my and my husband's job, and ours alone. Becoming a mom in the United States was the biggest blessing God could ever have given me, not 'an act of civil disobedience' as you say, and I don't intend to take it lightly. My children are citizens of the greatest country in the world, with limitless possibilities ahead of them. And we are not 'upper class' by any means. We are somewhere in the 'middle class' in the midwest. The plan you have listed above is socialism, pure and simple, and it will be a dark day in the U.S. if we ever are required to live that way!
And for the topic itself, I think it would not be a good idea to have children in the workplace, but it would be very convienent to have on-site daycare if that company could afford it and chose to do so. Depending on the workplace, it could be a bad idea to expose the baby to different customers, thus exposing the baby to germs, etc. And what if a baby were kidnapped from the workplace? You'd really have to know your customers. Would you depend on the whole office to watch the child? I think it would also be really hard for a woman (coworker) who is having fertility problems to see babies at the workplace all day.
Baby at work: yes yes yes
This is a great post and a great bunch of comments! I am also lucky and grateful to have an employer who welcomes my baby in the office. I work for a small non-profit that organizes experiential education for sustainability in ecovillages around the world (Living Routes). In keeping with the mission of our organization, which focuses on sustainable human environments, we aim to make our workplace sustainable for humans (workers) as well, and part of that is honoring each worker for the complete human that they are.
Currently I work 2 days a week in the office, bringing my 10-month-old daughter with me as well as my husband who is in a tenuous job situation at the moment-- in previous months I would just bring the baby, but we are now playing it by ear as my husband transitions out of his current job. We are stressed out about work, but it is a source of great comfort to me that my employer has made a commitment to be supportive and flexible. I also work some hours from home as well. There have also been times when I worked more days in the office with the baby, training new employees. When my daughter was smaller I would mostly pop her in the wrap on my body and she would nap on and off. I have often found myself breastfeeding while typing at my computer, breastfeeding during meetings, breastfeeding on the floor, etc.
Positive aspects of having the baby in the office: everyone loves her! She spreads joy and happiness to all. Everyone is still productive. Students who come into the office get all excited to see her, and I am excited to show them that this is possible. We are living our communitarian values, breaking down some of the barriers between work life and "private" life, while still functioning happily and efficiently. It feels very family-like. We have personal check-ins at least a few times a week where we talk about what's happening in our lives that's not work-related; we are open about the challenges we face as well as the fun aspects of our lives.
I must acknowledge that at times it has been very challenging as well. My daughter doesn't nap well in the office and I worry about her getting enough rest sometimes. Before my husband started coming with me regularly, I often felt quite overwhelmed and couldn't focus. The divided focus issue has been the biggest hurdle, I think, and I have been pretty hard on myself about it, wanting everyone to feel completely taken care of and having to settle with being "good enough." But the reality is, my daughter is doing well, my organization is doing well, so I can't be screwing up too badly, I guess.
If I couldn't bring my daughter to work, I think we would be in much worse straits financially as well as emotionally. I wish all moms had the option to bring their children to work. I know it wouldn't work in every setting, but it could probably work in many settings.
Blessed to be in one...
I work for Sun Microsystems, who launched an aggressive telecommuting program a few years back. It has been incredible to watch how it has changed people for the better. I have been able to work fulltime and parent my children as well (their father is a stay at home dad, so they're still getting dedicated parenting), but instead of having to head to the office and miss everything, I am here, in the middle of what's happening. We eat meals together, I can still on-demand nurse, I can take breaks for stories or playdough or legos.
People schedule meetings, saying things like "well, we could meet then, but I've got the kids, so you'll hear them..." and then everyone talks about family obligations, and works meetings around them. Men and women alike, which I think allows men a greater expression of parenting than ever before.
The very idea that work and family must be separate is pathological, and I salute the companies that recognize the myriad benefits of finding another way. And I also wonder when the other ones are going to catch up. =)
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