Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

Does it bother you if co-workers bring their kids to work for the day?

There's this person at my job who has been bringing her pre-teen son in a lot lately when school gets cancelled because of the weather.

He is super annoying and gets in everyone's way. He will run into peoples offices when they are on the phone with clients talking loudly, mess with the copier, etc.

I understand he's a kid but IMO, I don't think certain work environments are the place.

She doesn't work for my dept though and I am not her supervisor either.

Discuss!!!

Re: Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

Is they are well behaved-not at all, although I don't children in an office is an ideal scenario. It is unfair to the people on the office and the child.

My former co-worker used to bring in her 3 year old son who was incredibly annoying and loud. It didn;t help that the adults sitting around her kept on egging him on, asking him to sing songs and talk non-stop. We finally had to go to the management and put a stop to the whole thing. Basically, we couldn't work at all when he was around...

However, I think it is perfectly fine when people bring in their well behaved children in to the office on a short day when work is slow. In that case, it is kind of nice to have the little ones in the office

Re: Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

Posted by WhatNow

However, I think it is perfectly fine when people bring in their well behaved children in to the office on a short day when work is slow. In that case, it is kind of nice to have the little ones in the office

Re: Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

Posted by timanda

Posted by WhatNow

However, I think it is perfectly fine when people bring in their well behaved children in to the office on a short day when work is slow. In that case, it is kind of nice to have the little ones in the office

I feel the same way. However, in this case, the kid is more than old enough to be able to behave himself!! Why can't this kids parent discipline him and have him sit quietly and work on his homework or read. There is no excuse for a child this old to be so disruptive. And its really their parents fault.

Re: Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

Are you allowed to bring your son?
OMG...no joke...I think its great! and thats for my own selfish reasons...LOL
I HATE not having childcare from time to time. I envy the idea of being able to bring her if I were in a bind. I am sure the 1 day that this happens it totally sux for you but look how it helped her out in her bind. I am so jealous of you

Re: Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

I honestly don't think we "are allowed" but think she just did it anyways.

I know on the one occasion I brought my son in to see everyone for about 30 minutes, I was getting "looks" for it from the administration.

He's a baby.

Re: Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

I dont mind if someone is in a jam and needs to bring their child in to work, from time to time, when something comes up and they dont have a sitter. Its always nice to see their kids and how much they have grown.

There are a few who always bring their kids in, even on scheduled days off, where it would be hard to say that their babysitter fell through. Most of the kids are pretty good but sometimes, I think their parents are taking advantage of my boss, who is pretty accommodating.

Re: Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

Alot of people at my job bring their kiddies to work- and a majority of them are under the age of 3. They usually get passed around from person to person- and most of the times, are not annoying. My boss doesn't seem to mind.

I would feel bad to bring DD- even though she is well behaved. I don't have an office, so I couldn't close the door if she was having a meltdown.

Re: Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

I work in a corporate environment and have a co-worker who would bring her son in to work fairly frequently. It was quite disruptive when he was a toddler, and I usually had to pick up the slack when she had to tend to her son. Some times it was ok, and once he got older we put him to work to 'earn' his lunch money.
He's 18 now, and she has a newborn daughter. Waiting to see when she starts bringing the baby to work on a regular basis.

Re: Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

I had a co-worker at an old job who brought her son in pretty often and he would sleep under her desk

And another one who brought her daughter in and sat on a free computer all day.

Neither was "disruptive" but I think it's unprofessional (even now that I have a child).

Re: Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

My boss used to bring in his pre-teen kids in the summers, but he'd put them to work!

They filed things & shelved books, straightened the storage room--sometimes they would do their own summer reading & when they were old enough, he let them go to the movie theater around the corner. He was the boos though, so he coudl do that & his office was big, so they mostly stayed in
there when they weren't working.

A pre-teen or older I would be fine with if they were just goign to do homework or play computer games, but it isn't very professionalif it happens all the time & it isn't fair to the people with babaies & toddlers who can't do the same, b/c the kids need more supervision/entertainment.

Re: Spin-off: Bringing your kids to work

I guess I wouldn't mind unless they interefered with my work. On a snow day a couple weeks ago my coworker brought her 2 small sons in until her DH could pick them up. My boss had them in his office and he kept them busy with crayons, etc. It was totally fine.

But if it became a regular thing due to childcare issues, I can see that it might become a problem in some work environments.