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What I wrote in response to a post a friend made about whether people bringing their kids to work was common:
It was extremely common at Kenyon, when I worked there. In fact, I used to take my coworker's son Chet (who was ten or so) with me when I went to do cabling work and we had a great time (I recently saw on the website that he's apparently now officially working the job I had there ten years ago). That was a small college campus, though, and we also had professors with their pets and kids at the office all the time. I really liked it -- not necessarily because I always liked the extra hassle, but because it felt right for the community, and reinforced that it was a community. Also, I like seeing the guys in the office get more time with their kids (Vance and Ernie each had five, Wayne had two). Work environments since then, it's been an infrequent thing, but not unheard of.
I never went to work with Mom, because it would've been inappropriate and dangerous to bring a kid to a hospital floor, but I certainly spent huge amounts of time with my dad while he was working, whether at the church, the diocesan office, or the military base, and I think it was an excellent thing for our relationship.
I think there are certain work situations where it's clearly a bad idea to have kids present, but when there isn't an overwhelming reason, I think it's a generally positive thing in moderation -- our society is too age-segregated as it is.
It was extremely common at Kenyon, when I worked there. In fact, I used to take my coworker's son Chet (who was ten or so) with me when I went to do cabling work and we had a great time (I recently saw on the website that he's apparently now officially working the job I had there ten years ago). That was a small college campus, though, and we also had professors with their pets and kids at the office all the time. I really liked it -- not necessarily because I always liked the extra hassle, but because it felt right for the community, and reinforced that it was a community. Also, I like seeing the guys in the office get more time with their kids (Vance and Ernie each had five, Wayne had two). Work environments since then, it's been an infrequent thing, but not unheard of.
I never went to work with Mom, because it would've been inappropriate and dangerous to bring a kid to a hospital floor, but I certainly spent huge amounts of time with my dad while he was working, whether at the church, the diocesan office, or the military base, and I think it was an excellent thing for our relationship.
I think there are certain work situations where it's clearly a bad idea to have kids present, but when there isn't an overwhelming reason, I think it's a generally positive thing in moderation -- our society is too age-segregated as it is.
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Date: 2006-12-21 01:43 am (UTC)The place I worked in Austin had a lot of kids and pets being brought in. It was hideous! It's not like it's a great deal of fun for kids to watch people do data entry, it is however really interruptive to have kids yelling and carrying on a foot behind you when you're trying to concentrate on something that really needs concentration.
I'm sure it wouldn't be inappropriate in some work situations but it really was there and there's no way to opt out when the majority feel it is a community building kind of a thing and all warm and fuzzy
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Date: 2006-12-21 01:44 am (UTC)