How unprofessional was this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two years into this thing you should have a few last-minute sitters on speed-dial, a neighbor/friend nearby who might be able to pitch-in, and a safe space for the baby. Absolutely unprofessional - you're not the only one with kids - we've all made adaptations with difficult kids - you just chose to not plan for the worst case scenario for whatever bizarre reason. The defensiveness and snowflake attitude is also off-putting. People like you need to be put back into the office because you're just abusing the flexibilities at this point and ruining it for those of us with real back up plans.

It's amazing to me that two years in some people aren't reflexively offering others some grace.

"Hi Babysitter. Larla had a COVID exposure and I need to work. Would you mind coming over and risking it for $16/ hour?"

WHAT babysitter? You assume a lot. Some of us dont have babyistters to begin with much less ones that are available at the drop of a hat and arent in school or have other FT positions- like who are these people just sitting around waiting for you to call? College students- they have classes. HS students- they are in school. Teachers who do it on the weekends- they are teaching.

Exactly. I have a babysitter who is great, but she also has a 2nd job as an EMT, so she has shifts she has to show up for and she's not going to risk getting COVID from my kid because then she can't go to her other job. All the other people I know who would be available are elderly or they are so burned out with their own kids and work that no amount of money is worth hanging out with COVID kid.

It's not a COVID kid. It's a kid kept home for a school exposure, the vast majority of whom turn out to be negative.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Two years into this thing you should have a few last-minute sitters on speed-dial, a neighbor/friend nearby who might be able to pitch-in, and a safe space for the baby. Absolutely unprofessional - you're not the only one with kids - we've all made adaptations with difficult kids - you just chose to not plan for the worst case scenario for whatever bizarre reason. The defensiveness and snowflake attitude is also off-putting. People like you need to be put back into the office because you're just abusing the flexibilities at this point and ruining it for those of us with real back up plans.

I love how this person never once asked why your husband didn’t find childcare. Or why he wasn’t frantically texting a babysitter.

There are no “emergency babysitters” available for kids with Covid. If you know of one, hold on to them and pay them well. The reality is that your workplace needs to make adjustments for the new normal. This isn’t surprising- it’s a global pandemic. We all have to adjust. And if businesses aren’t willing to adjust- there is extremely low employment. People will quit. The age of the draconian boss is over. Moms don’t have to hide their kids because it’s “unprofessional”. It’s unprofessional to pretend a working mother in a pandemic won’t have to bring her baby to a meeting on occasion.

So many of you are showing your misogyny.

The
Kid
Did
Not
Have
COVID

If you really have no standing backup plan two years into this (highly inadvisable), then care.com and related sites are your friends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are completely ridiculous and give working moms a bad name. This feigned helplessness is gross.

+1,000. Crap like this is why companies push for work in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am so glad that I was a SAHM when my kids were little. This level of stress is ridiculous. OPs life is a circus. Now OP has another thing to worry about and stress about. It's nuts.

Being a parent is a job and when you have another job, that means you have TWO jobs. You are not supposed to enjoy working two jobs, it's hard. It sucks. Make a choice, quit one or the other.

Wait, I can just… quit being a parent? I’m giving my husband two weeks! Perhaps he can find my replacement in time for me to transition some tasks before my departure! And if he or the kids are cranky about it, well, two weeks is just a professional courtesy and I’ll walk. That’s how it works, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You did your best. This is a different world we are living in. This is not slacking off, this is being more than just a working drone. If they have a problem with what happened this is a good time to look for a new job.

Plus 1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are completely ridiculous and give working moms a bad name. This feigned helplessness is gross.

+1,000. Crap like this is why companies push for work in person.

And then they all wonder why the Great Resignation is happening, and scream about how no one wants to work, and blame millennials and stimulus payments. Well gosh, if I am going to have to deal with constant school closings and somehow be expected to always have back up care that requires no notice (ha) and is willing to potentially expose themselves to Covid, and still show up to the office in person every day, yeah, I am probably going to resign with nothing lined up. Someone with remote flexibility will hire me eventually, probably sooner rather than later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let me say this... I was on a hiring panel at my previous job and I always voted down women with more than 2 kids, and with really young kids. Of course I never said it out loud, but let's face it - situations like this one are to be expected...

This is exactly why I keep my social media completely scrubbed of the existence of my kids and even my husband (who has no social media). If you find my FB, you will see pics of me and my garden. I don’t mention them in interviews and if someone mentions their family in a friendly manner, I pretend I didn’t hear them. I know you can’t legally ask. I’ve even left my wedding ring off for interviews. I am also old enough that everyone else my age has middle or high schoolers.

And then I spring it on them once hired - toddlers! Two of them!

Same - FB is for professional contacts. If my family want to see my pictures, I use WhatsApp. But I do think zoom has been the great equalizer - at least for me. Nearly everyone in my company has kids of some age and we've all seen them have to urgently leave a meeting because the babysitter can't handle the meltdown or have meetings on the school run (we're based in Europe and USA so timings never work for everyone.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are completely ridiculous and give working moms a bad name. This feigned helplessness is gross.

Working mother here. Yeah I’m not going to drug my baby, put them in a dangerous situation, or abandon them in a toilet just so I can put a false front teeth to my supervisors. Those days are over. It is a pandemic, sometimes kids get sick, there isn’t readily available childcare anymore, and only a monster would find this situation remotely upsetting. Grow up.

The irony is enough to choke on.

So many unhinged people on this thread. If you really can't find a middle ground between these two extremes:

Putting your child in a dungeon or drugging them.............................holding a screaming toddler on your lap while engaging in an important work meeting for 30 minutes


....then I don't know what to tell you. This is not as hard as you are making it out to be. Learn to parent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of you are completely ridiculous and give working moms a bad name. This feigned helplessness is gross.

Working mother here. Yeah I’m not going to drug my baby, put them in a dangerous situation, or abandon them in a toilet just so I can put a false front teeth to my supervisors. Those days are over. It is a pandemic, sometimes kids get sick, there isn’t readily available childcare anymore, and only a monster would find this situation remotely upsetting. Grow up.

Drama much? NO ONE made any of those asinine recommendations. You get 5 stars though for being a lunatic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Op, I would end this thread. It happened, your supervisor was fine with it. Some people agree it was fine, some people don't. You're torturing yourself by responding to everyone.

Agreed, this is simply a pile-on of Mean Girls at this point.

Seriously.

OP - why haven't you ended the pandemic and figured out Ukraine!?!? You are just a slacker.

Op here - hahah thanks this helped. Jeez this thread has gone off the rails. I guess I should either quit my job or endanger the life of my child by giving him Benadryl and putting him in his crib with toys he could choke on or strapping him to a high chair while he screams so I can take a work call. Great options. Glad everyone is so understanding.

No, dear. You should learn to be a better parent.

Why on earth would you have toys in the house that he can choke on that you would give them to him? That was not anyone's recommendation here on this thread. That came from your head.

Do I need to call CPS on you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Clearly you just want to complain and make excuses.

This is very cringe behavior. This pandemic has been going on this child's entire life - surely you have had time to come up with backup plans? If you have truly no child-safe space to put your kid in this type of situation, you only have yourself to blame.

Not the OP, but this comment is just cringe behavior.

But, seriously, if you haven't invested in a soundproof child dungeon at this point, can you even call yourself a professional?

But, seriously, if you haven’t yet invested sleeping pills for kids at this point, can you even call yourself a professional?

I wouldn't advise it, but some people would have fed DC some Benedryl and saved their job.

Literally someone said the above - “some people would have fed DC some Benadryl and saved their job” like that is a a good and right thing to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, I would end this thread. It happened, your supervisor was fine with it. Some people agree it was fine, some people don't. You're torturing yourself by responding to everyone.

Agreed, this is simply a pile-on of Mean Girls at this point.

Seriously.

OP - why haven't you ended the pandemic and figured out Ukraine!?!? You are just a slacker.

Op here - hahah thanks this helped. Jeez this thread has gone off the rails. I guess I should either quit my job or endanger the life of my child by giving him Benadryl and putting him in his crib with toys he could choke on or strapping him to a high chair while he screams so I can take a work call. Great options. Glad everyone is so understanding.

No, dear. You should learn to be a better parent.

Why on earth would you have toys in the house that he can choke on that you would give them to him? That was not anyone's recommendation here on this thread. That came from your head.

Do I need to call CPS on you?

What the hell? You think that people who have older kids don’t have toys that younger kids can choke on? Have you seen LOL dolls?

[Anonymous]

Is this from 2019?! I don’t think anyone notices this anymore. I had a call with a father who did this. My company has expressed gratitude for all employees struggling with daycare/school Covid protocols. Covid sucks! If people have issues with this, they completely lack empathy. I have teens but feel nothing but compassion for my coworkers with babies and toddlers.

[Anonymous]

OP, if it makes you feel better, a guy came to do some repairs 2 hours early yesterday. I was on a call with my boss' boss, and my husband put the cats in our basement where I work so that they wouldn't get out while the guy went in and out to his truck while I was on the call.

Cue the loudest yowling and meowing fits I have ever heard, and I have a two year old with a good set of lungs. Then a huge fight (as it turns out over a very specific blanket on the couch with 8 other blankets). Then I had to take a break from my call to make sure that no one was actually injured and in need of immediate attention because it sounded so bad.

So you are officially not the most unprofessional person on this thread...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, if it makes you feel better, a guy came to do some repairs 2 hours early yesterday. I was on a call with my boss' boss, and my husband put the cats in our basement where I work so that they wouldn't get out while the guy went in and out to his truck while I was on the call.

Cue the loudest yowling and meowing fits I have ever heard, and I have a two year old with a good set of lungs. Then a huge fight (as it turns out over a very specific blanket on the couch with 8 other blankets). Then I had to take a break from my call to make sure that no one was actually injured and in need of immediate attention because it sounded so bad.

So you are officially not the most unprofessional person on this thread...

PP here. But to offer some actual advice, I'd have given your boss' boss a heads up and asked to reschedule the call. Mine was an impromptu discussion where I was taking on a extra project as a favor to someone else in the group, and unanticipated, but I still felt pretty much like it looked like my cats are insane and out of control to the extent I can't WFH.

Don't beat yourself up but definitely communicate on these issues going forward. And unless your kid is forbidden from attending school (i.e., known exposure or actually has COVID), you never keep them home.