Bringing your infant to work

[537]

Does anybody have co-workers that do this from time to time? Maybe to show off their child to their co-workers?

I don't understand it. Especially in a professional environment. People have freakin work to do. If I have an important meeting with a vendor or other professional contact, how unprofessional does it appear to have a freakin baby crying in the background?

What if I'm on a conference call with the director? Vice President of the company?

Just to give you a point of reference, there are TWO babies fucking crying at the top of their little lungs not 10 feet away from me. I feel like smacking the mother upside her head.

WTF?

[nonamerasian]

I don’t see the harm so long as it isn’t affecting conductivity, as crying while you are on the phone is.

Otherwise, yeah. Sure it’s unprofessional, but, yeah.

[kasia]

yeh, my friend/coworker does that. but she has extenuating circumstances.

[teaz0r]

i fucking hate it. the worst time is during
after office hours. a lot of people have to
stay late for work, and it's so fucking
inconsiderate to bring fucking poop machines
into the office.

it used to be worse when i was still sitting
in one of those fucking cubicles. because
you can't really block out the sound. now
that i have seniority i yell at anybody who
brings their babies to the office during work
hours.

fucking toddlers are the worse. running around
like monsters. i want to staple them to the board
so they can stay still.

[Craig]

I haven't run into this situation. Only the bring your son/daughter to work day, and I haven't seen any unprofessional behaviour. A co-worker introduced his 9 year old son to me a few years back (age estimate); The son was well behaved and stood by quitely while his dad talked to me for 5 minutes or so.

My environments have mainly been programmers, engineers or consultants. (Plus a short past life where I worked with lawyers)

On second thought, I have had to deal with too many co-workers who had the maturity level of infants; Wait, that doesn't count. Darn.

[teaz0r]

Only the bring your son/daughter to work day, and I haven't seen any unprofessional behaviour. A co-worker introduced his 9 year old son to me a few years back (age estimate); The son was well behaved and stood by quitely while his dad talked to me for 5 minutes or so.

are those programs good? i've never been employed at a company that has that. maybe because i've only worked in asia? and like those career days when parents go in to speak in front of a bunch of school kids? are those effective? i've only seen it on tv.

[Craig]

are those programs good? i've never been employed at a company that has that. maybe because i've only worked in asia? and like those career days when parents go in to speak in front of a bunch of school kids? are those effective? i've only seen it on tv.I don't know how effective it is, but I can't really see how much it can hurt. Most people don't partake in it and it is only (at worst) 2 days out of the year. I personally think it's noble to provide a good example for the next generation. However, perhaps they should target a slightly older audience of children.

[kasia]

Just to give you a point of reference, there are TWO babies fucking crying at the top of their little lungs not 10 feet away from me. I feel like smacking the mother upside her head.

WTF?

i understand your frustration and agree that it is unprofessional. however, i'm inclined to ask whether these mothers are single mothers who cannot afford childcare. if that were the case, would that change your perspective of the situation?

[nonamerasian]

i understand your frustration and agree that it is unprofessional. however, i'm inclined to ask whether these mothers are single mothers who cannot afford childcare. if that were the case, would that change your perspective of the situation?

It isn't solely a question of whether it was unprofessional. Liability has to be considered, too.

What if the child gets hurt on the premises? The boss has to wonder whether the mother will in turn try to take him/her to court for allowing the child there.

[kasia]

It isn't solely a question of whether it was unprofessional. Liability has to be considered, too.

What if the child gets hurt on the premises? The boss has to wonder whether the mother will in turn try to take him/her to court for allowing the child there.

never thought of it that way. do most offices have a formal policy against this?

even if this were the case, though, i'd still sympathize with the mother. you'd actually have to know someone in this situation to understand how difficult it can be for her.

[nonamerasian]

My mom would to take me to work since I was an infant.

Other parents would scream double-standard, but that was the excuse that her employer made. Liability.

My mother was one of the only exceptions. However, it was made clear, in a way, that no children were "officially" allowed.

[etcj]

Yes, some workplaces do prohibit employers from bringing their children to the office. Typically, they would also offer some referral to daycare services for employer to utilize.

However, I like seeing children in the workplace...except when they poop in their diapers. Stinky.

[Chris]

I have a different spin on things on my end. My firm is about 60% female and in the last oh 4 years the majority of them have been pregaent and having kids. So our firm has been very baby friendly. It doesn't bother anyone at work at all. If it does, we close our door.

But knowing how emergency day care works. It is first come first served so sometimes, they can't just leave their baby home.

[Faithless]

In a family oriented work environment, nobody seems to mind.

And if the coworkers are close, and we've done the baby shower thing for their expectent wives or for the coworkers who were expecting, then of course we want to see their infants.

I consider it a nice break from the hard work that we do to take a quick break and see the latest addition to the world. It's also nice to see that a coworker will share a personal aspect like that.

And thankfully the director and our vendors are family oriented as well.

[537]

i understand your frustration and agree that it is unprofessional. however, i'm inclined to ask whether these mothers are single mothers who cannot afford childcare. if that were the case, would that change your perspective of the situation?


It would change my perspective of the situation. However, the situation I was referring to involved a married mother, who brought her infants to work to show them to her co-workers. Accounts Payable in every company I've worked for consists of mostly women, and here at work these women are the most obnoxious loud lot I've ever seen. Now introduce them to a couple crying babies, and please try to imagine what you get.

I was on a conference call trying to maintain professionalism all for naught:

[baby crying]
Me: Any network maintenance windows must either be approved by my manager or myself outside of the monthly window available to us. Be advised that includes any project with the potential to cause an outage.
Vendor: Understood. Where is that baby crying coming from?

[Faithless]

<* baby crying *>
Me: Any network maintenance windows must either be approved by my manager or myself outside of the monthly window available to us. Be advised that includes any project with the potential to cause an outage.
Vendor: Understood. Where is that baby crying coming from?
So, your vendor dictates your company policies?

Out of curiosity, does anything about these women, in particular, bother you?

Like you indicate their loud obnoxiousness. If they weren't that way, would you tolerate them more?

[537]

How could the vendor dictate the policies if I'm telling them what can and can't be done?

To give a little background, the vendor I speak of is merely hosting a website for a credit application through a B2C link on the site I manage. I impose the same uptime requirement as I am held to, and was explaining when any outage causing maintenance could be performed.

As for the loud obnoxious women in the same vicinity, if they weren't that way I would not have a problem with them. It is part of their obnoxiousness that lets them act unprofessional at times.

[Faithless]

How could the vendor dictate the policies if I'm telling them what can and can't be done?
From this: Vendor: Understood. Where is that baby crying coming from?
Sounds like the vendor is more concerned about your work's extra stuff. My boss says that the vendor should mind its own business.

To give a little background, the vendor I speak of is merely hosting a website for a credit application through a B2C link on the site I manage. I impose the same uptime requirement as I am held to, and was explaining when any outage causing maintenance could be performed.

As for the loud obnoxious women in the same vicinity, if they weren't that way I would not have a problem with them. It is part of their obnoxiousness that lets them act unprofessional at times.
So, what you're saying is that you're taking on some important work, and you think they are distracting you from that. Check with other coworkers to see if they feel the same way. If you get a bit of consensus, talk to the director.

[teaz0r]

So, what you're saying is that you're taking on some important work, and you think they are distracting you from that. Check with other coworkers to see if they feel the same way. If you get a bit of consensus, talk to the director.
i don't get why he has to check with other
coworkers before he goes talk to the director.
the workplace isn't a daycare centre. why
should his work suffer just because of some
baby bawling in the background. the mother
should at least have the courtesy to take
the baby out to the other room while he
was on the phone anyway.

[537]

From this: Vendor: Understood. Where is that baby crying coming from?
Sounds like the vendor is more concerned about your work's extra stuff. My boss says that the vendor should mind its own business.


The vendor in question said this in a joking manner. My point was that the vendor felt comfortable enough to bring this up to throw in a little humor in the call. After all, if their client had a baby crying in the background and the sound of laughing women in the background, they are most likely set in a laid back and easy-going atmosphere right? If there was no baby crying in the background, and no loud women fawning over the baby as if they're in the middle of a DayCare center, the vendor would not have felt as laid back.

True, the vendor should definitely mind their own business and act in a professional manner. But how would I expect the vendor to act accordingly while there's a virtual maternity ward behind me? Hearing those things over the phone does set a certain impression on what the environment looks like, does it not? If you feel the person you speak with over the phone is not in a very professional environment, wouldn't you be more comfortable with throwing a little humor in your conversation? Wouldn't you feel as if you're not required to act professionally as much? Just a thought....

[Chris]

In a family oriented work environment, nobody seems to mind.

And if the coworkers are close, and we've done the baby shower thing for their expectent wives or for the coworkers who were expecting, then of course we want to see their infants.




We just threw 2 last month. My boss just had a baby boy!!!

[Faithless]

i don't get why he has to check with other
coworkers before he goes talk to the director.
the workplace isn't a daycare centre. why
should his work suffer just because of some
baby bawling in the background. the mother
should at least have the courtesy to take
the baby out to the other room while he
was on the phone anyway.
Because it is always better to talk as a group about an issue than by oneself, if possible.

If the director knows that a few or a bunch of folks have a problem with this, he/she would be more apt to respond.

Else, if it comes from one person, the director might think, "here we go again with this person, bitching about those two (or what have you)."

Sometimes a legitimate bitch from an imfamous bitcher will just sound like another tireless bitch to a director who might in reality be fed up with all that bitching. (I know my boss is with another coworker.)

[Faithless]

Hearing those things over the phone does set a certain impression on what the environment looks like, does it not? If you feel the person you speak with over the phone is not in a very professional environment, wouldn't you be more comfortable with throwing a little humor in your conversation? Wouldn't you feel as if you're not required to act professionally as much? Just a thought....
At the risk of being double-post wacked, I would say that if it were me, the stuff that I hear in the background would lead me to believe you all had a lively working environment. That's it. It would still come down to you and me (hypothetically as you vendor) dealing with the business at hand.

Now, if you told me that the commotion behind you was really people not doing their job, I'd say, "whoa!" But think little of it. :wink:

[kasia]

How could the vendor dictate the policies if I'm telling them what can and can't be done?

To give a little background, the vendor I speak of is merely hosting a website for a credit application through a B2C link on the site I manage. I impose the same uptime requirement as I am held to, and was explaining when any outage causing maintenance could be performed.

As for the loud obnoxious women in the same vicinity, if they weren't that way I would not have a problem with them. It is part of their obnoxiousness that lets them act unprofessional at times.

i can understand that. where i volunteer, i speak on the phone with clients regularly, and i can imagine it would be insulting to them to have a baby crying in the background while they're telling me about their eviction notice - like our firm isn't professional enough to take their problems seriously. if you aren't in a position where you can just close the door to block out the noise, i don't see a problem with you telling the women to "shut up."

[teaz0r]

Because it is always better to talk as a group about an issue than by oneself, if possible.

If the director knows that a few or a bunch of folks have a problem with this, he/she would be more apt to respond.

if the director was apt, the director would
know that a bawling baby doesn't belong in
the workplace during work hours, and doesn't
have to wait for an underling to complain.

Else, if it comes from one person, the director might think, "here we go again with this person, bitching about those two (or what have you)."

Sometimes a legitimate bitch from an imfamous bitcher will just sound like another tireless bitch to a director who might in reality be fed up with all that bitching. (I know my boss is with another coworker.)

talking smack about people and complaining about
the noise pollution is totally different.

this isn't really about bitching etiquette, it's about
a baby bawling and the rudeness of the stupid
mothers bringing in the baby just to show off their
cuteness and then have their babies start crying,
thus causing problems for other people.

[thaite]

I hate hate hate when people bring their kids to work.

You know how some people who don't want kids say things like "Sure, I like kids, just as long as they're other people's kids."

Not me. I hate other people's kids, too.

[537]

Again with the damn infant.

This time, however, the infant is not crying. But the women are still being loud because there's a baby here. I'm not on an important call nor do I have any important meetings today.....but if I did, this place would look like a damn circus.

[Faithless]

I'll tell you the thing that gets me:

The older kids that coworkers bring to work. The kids that --
* Run around the place.
* Play on the company computer, when the computers are supposed to be locked down.
* Ask, "whatcha doin'?"