Snow day, telework, and kids at home - why no policy yet?

[Anonymous]

Sadly you guys are the reason people don’t want to hire people with young kids.

[Anonymous]

Our department had rhe same policy for years. No telework if you had kids who required active care unless you had other childcare arrangements, which could include another adult in the house who was responsible for the kid. I took leave when my kid was little, or took half a day and my spouse took half a day. If your kid is basically independent and you just need to make lunch and be available for an emergency, you can telework. If rhe government is actually closed and you can't telework, you get admin leave.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh hush about inequity. Parents with young kids are struggling enough. Jesus.

I have a teen I don’t need to watch and would not begrudge a colleague with young kids the day off. I needed that when I was younger and was in the hole with leave.

Brava.

We need some sort of childcare leave that applies to parents of children in elementary school or younger in cases where schools or childcare facilities are closed in their location.

Parent here. No, we don’t. At least not for those who are salaried and have leave. If payout are taking about hourly workers who do not have paid leave, I am all for paying a tax to pay for leave for parents in those positions. But not a white collar, professional worker, which covers most of the federal workforce.

How the heck do you all think parents handled this pre-pandemic and pre-telework. We took leave. It wasn’t even a question. This is why paid leave exists; it’s not just for your vacation time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am so damn sick of federal workers expecting to have everything handed to them along with being paid a shit ton of money that they don’t deserve so they can stay home with their kids. Do you realize your privilege? It’s disgusting. You’re all a bunch of lazy idiots.

It’s not a federal worker thing, it’s an entitled parent thing. It got much worse since the pandemic where businesses allowed leniency when daycares and schools closed for the pandemic. Parents of certain kids want that leniency to continue, and that is not a reasonable expectation.

Interestingly it’s primarily white collar professionals who seem to want this leniency. I don’t think many would support means (through higher taxes or higher costs on good and services) for the same type of policy to exist for lower income, hourly wage employees. They would instead probably complain that the grocery store or Starbucks is short staffed on a snow day.

I know it’s not fun to burn leave on these things. I did it for years and years pre-pandemic when telework wasn’t an option and school closures meant you were actually choosing between taking leave and leaving kids at home for several hours.