Bring your dogs AND kids to work

Call me old and cranky, but I really don't want to work in an environment with screaming kids.  A recent Boston Globe article, "Child care bridges two worlds," written by Kathleen Burge, reports on a trend to allow parents to bring their children to work.  Some companies are going so far as to allow parents, mostly mothers, to bring their children to work as a regular thing.

Babies cry; children run around and make noise; children need attention.  This isn't good and it isn't bad; it's just life.  Children are distractions.  The workplace is not child proof either, with many sharp objects, multiple electric outlets, etc.  Workplaces are also filled with germs.

I whole-heartedly support companies having family-friendly policies that include back-up child care, subsidized day care and the like.  But I wouldn't want to work at a company that has infants crying and children running around.  I should also mention here that I don't agree with policies allowing people to bring their dogs to work.  I'm deathly afraid of dogs, having been viciously bitten by a supposedly gentle dog.

I think work should be a place of work; it's not your home.  Work and home life have blended, but what's next?  Being able to bring one's elderly parents to work?  Bringing one's pet ferret to work?  Where to companies draw the line?  And why is a parent's "right" to not miss a day of work or a dog owner's "right" to bring their dog to work more important than everyone else's "right" to work without outside distractions?

Kathleen Burge also reports that some companies are exploring other, less invasive and distracting alternatives.  Companies such as EMC feel that the workplace is too dangerous for children, between the germs and the lack of play areas.  EMC provides back-up child care and private rooms for nursing mothers.

Companies should have more flexible work policies, allowing parents to work from home if their child care falls through.  These same policies should also apply for those caregivers who are caring for elderly parents.

Nancy Loderick