Feds: OPM policy on childcare and dependent care during work hours

[Anonymous]

Covid is over, childcare is available. USE IT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now we see who the people that are cheating the system are. Ladies, we can hear your babies crying and kids whining in the background. I get that it's summer and I had my kids home for a week earlier this summer, but during the school year you have NO excuses. Nope, we know your kid is home full time and not "home sick". You can only get away with that excuse so many times before someone figures it out.

What a weird way to think. You were obviously raised wrong.

Really? it's weird for me to think t hat your babies and toddlers should not be distracting you all day? I think it's weird of you to think I am going to pick up the work that you are not doing while taking care of your children instead of working. We know you're doing it. We know you won't get fired. It sucks. You suck you entitled little twat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now we see who the people that are cheating the system are. Ladies, we can hear your babies crying and kids whining in the background. I get that it's summer and I had my kids home for a week earlier this summer, but during the school year you have NO excuses. Nope, we know your kid is home full time and not "home sick". You can only get away with that excuse so many times before someone figures it out.

Even though I worked from home, I had a nanny from 8 weeks until preschool. Was she supposed to smother my baby when he cried in the distance during a conference call? Not all of us are scamming the system.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now we see who the people that are cheating the system are. Ladies, we can hear your babies crying and kids whining in the background. I get that it's summer and I had my kids home for a week earlier this summer, but during the school year you have NO excuses. Nope, we know your kid is home full time and not "home sick". You can only get away with that excuse so many times before someone figures it out.

You must be a troll and a bad one at that.

No, I'm not a troll. I do the right thing and I PAY FOR CHILDCARE. It's total bullshit the number of people I work with who are working full time but I can hear or see their toddlers and babies on calls every single day. I KNOW they don't have childcare and I KNOW it's distracting them and affecting the quality of their work. It's not fair to the rest of us who have to pick up their slack.

Oh, do you review their work?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now we see who the people that are cheating the system are. Ladies, we can hear your babies crying and kids whining in the background. I get that it's summer and I had my kids home for a week earlier this summer, but during the school year you have NO excuses. Nope, we know your kid is home full time and not "home sick". You can only get away with that excuse so many times before someone figures it out.

Even though I worked from home, I had a nanny from 8 weeks until preschool. Was she supposed to smother my baby when he cried in the distance during a conference call? Not all of us are scamming the system.

Same, I had a nanny until my youngest went to kindergarten. I would regularly be interrupted because the kids would run up into my room, crying or yelling, or just wanting to tell me a story. Especially after school let out. There's a recent similar thread asking for advice on how to make the nanny keep the kids out, and that person was told that it's not the nanny's job to keep the kids away. Basically that it's an unrealistic expectation for a nanny to keep the kids away from the parent working. There's really just no winning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now we see who the people that are cheating the system are. Ladies, we can hear your babies crying and kids whining in the background. I get that it's summer and I had my kids home for a week earlier this summer, but during the school year you have NO excuses. Nope, we know your kid is home full time and not "home sick". You can only get away with that excuse so many times before someone figures it out.

You must be a troll and a bad one at that.

No, I'm not a troll. I do the right thing and I PAY FOR CHILDCARE. It's total bullshit the number of people I work with who are working full time but I can hear or see their toddlers and babies on calls every single day. I KNOW they don't have childcare and I KNOW it's distracting them and affecting the quality of their work. It's not fair to the rest of us who have to pick up their slack.

You’re a troll because you’re not a manager.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hi! OP here. For what it's worth, I have four kids under the age of 10. They go to full time summer camp and they go to after care in the school year. Our telework forms used to say the language about childcare and dependent care. Unlike other agencies, we are required to be in the office 3x a week. I have an employee who does not have childcare. I told her she had six weeks to get a childcare for the days she is in the office. We do not offer remote or telework because of childcare. This is not a case of someone who doesn't have childcare in a one off situation, like a center that is closed or someone's kid is sick. This is someone who didn't get childcare because she didn't want to incur the cost and doesn't want to send her child to day care or hire a nanny or sitter. I tried to be flexible with the employee and I have addressed it with her re: her performance. Whose smart idea was it to not require childcare? This is a liability to the agency. All summer we've had people bringing in their school aged kids or preschoolers as a substitute for child care.

I don't make the rules and I would approve people for a fully remote position, but our leadership will not allow it so a lot of people are leaving. I had talked to this employee months ago about child care, but now it is just defying not coming in the office and/or bringing in her child and distracting other colleagues (child is an infant). I have other team members who live where there is a child care shortage in staffing but we have onsite, subsidized child care with available spots.

Which agency is this? Curious. Anyway, we are required to be in twice a week and we would expect staff to arrange childcare for their kids who can't be independent on their own. I have a teen and a tween. The tween is pretty independent but she might need me to hang with her or accompany her someplace, so in those case I'll take leave, but otherwise, my kids are off at camps in the summer and if not, they're hanging around the house, but I don't have to watch them. Younger kids, yes you should have them covered both when teleworking and obviously when you're in the office. This should be a no brainer. Your employee probably just needs to find a more family friendly place to work.

[Anonymous]

OP hasn’t answered what agency allows people to bring infants and toddlers to the office.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now we see who the people that are cheating the system are. Ladies, we can hear your babies crying and kids whining in the background. I get that it's summer and I had my kids home for a week earlier this summer, but during the school year you have NO excuses. Nope, we know your kid is home full time and not "home sick". You can only get away with that excuse so many times before someone figures it out.

You must be a troll and a bad one at that.

No, I'm not a troll. I do the right thing and I PAY FOR CHILDCARE. It's total bullshit the number of people I work with who are working full time but I can hear or see their toddlers and babies on calls every single day. I KNOW they don't have childcare and I KNOW it's distracting them and affecting the quality of their work. It's not fair to the rest of us who have to pick up their slack.

I don’t understand why you arent talking to HR about the policy at your agency?

[Anonymous]

Are you saying you have swarms of kids in your office this summer? What agency? I have a really hard time believing that.
I can think of two times in my 20 years at a federal agency when I've seen a kid at work (other than bring your kid to work day and stuff like that)
Both times were pre-COVID with very specific extenuating circumstance.
I can't imagine anyone bringing their kid into work as childcare.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you saying you have swarms of kids in your office this summer? What agency? I have a really hard time believing that.
I can think of two times in my 20 years at a federal agency when I've seen a kid at work (other than bring your kid to work day and stuff like that)
Both times were pre-COVID with very specific extenuating circumstance.
I can't imagine anyone bringing their kid into work as childcare.

OP is a troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wait you have people bringing their kids to work in a federal building on a regular basis?

This is legit crazy and would not happen in the private sector.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So now we see who the people that are cheating the system are. Ladies, we can hear your babies crying and kids whining in the background. I get that it's summer and I had my kids home for a week earlier this summer, but during the school year you have NO excuses. Nope, we know your kid is home full time and not "home sick". You can only get away with that excuse so many times before someone figures it out.

The biggest offenders in my office are 40 something white men. They don’t think the rules apply to them! None of the women are stupid enough to let their kids be heard on meetings they run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Subsidized child care is a farce for the feds.

I want to know what federal agency has on-site child care with multiple available spaces. Because every single one we looked at had long wait lists.

Exactly this

Whole thing feels like a troll with this fed agency office that's full of young kids coming into the workplace?!

+1

How does that even work with badging and security? This definitely seems like a troll trying to make Feds look bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now we see who the people that are cheating the system are. Ladies, we can hear your babies crying and kids whining in the background. I get that it's summer and I had my kids home for a week earlier this summer, but during the school year you have NO excuses. Nope, we know your kid is home full time and not "home sick". You can only get away with that excuse so many times before someone figures it out.

You must be a troll and a bad one at that.

No, I'm not a troll. I do the right thing and I PAY FOR CHILDCARE. It's total bullshit the number of people I work with who are working full time but I can hear or see their toddlers and babies on calls every single day. I KNOW they don't have childcare and I KNOW it's distracting them and affecting the quality of their work. It's not fair to the rest of us who have to pick up their slack.

How do you know? I hosted a nanny share at my house during the pandemic. I’m sure my colleagues heard babies crying. Didn’t mean I didn’t have childcare.