Is your office/ boss family friendly?

[Anonymous]

I'm currently on maternity leave and going back to work in a few weeks and am starting to get really worried about how NOT family/ child friendly my boss and office is. I've never paid much attention to it before but now that I will be directly affected, I'm worried. If my son is sick or I have to leave on time to pick him up, etc, I'm worried my boss just won't understand and I will be indirectly penalized. My boss has no kids and is a workaholic and only cares about money. What do others do in these situations? I'm seriously thinking about finding a new job to somewhere more family friendly/ flexible but I dont even know how you would find out how family friendly a company is before working there. Would love any insight.

[Anonymous]

ask during the interview.

my fiancee had this explained during the interview since the company advised that to perform the job the way they wanted he would ideally be single/no kids.

[Anonymous]

I think it depends on the boss. I work for a large defense contractor, lots of workaholics and structure. I, however, have all the flexibility I want and desire because my direct supervisor doesn't want to lose me. Our site is not at the corporate office, and my office is very laid back (jeans!) On the downside, I'm getting a little bored with my job but know I won't look for another job because of my flexibility.

Don't be afraid of having a talk with your boss. You'll know where he/she stands and whether to look elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

I know that my office is very friendly about running out the door as long as I log back on from home.

Talk with your boss about ways to make sure the work product doesn't suffer while you are more flexible about your comings and goings. Sometimes this works. Sometimes it doesn't.

[Anonymous]

HA! I work for a well known ENT practice in town- my director is so NOT family friendly!! She hates kids admittedly and is so annoyed when any of us with kids calls in sick or has to leave. It sucks.

[Anonymous]

if you know this about your job, start looking now.

What you can do is, go back and try to work on it with your boss with suggestions like, "I may have to leave early if I'm ever called because baby is sick, but I can log back in from home and make up the hours" or whatever. That's all you really want to be able to do, right?

I would say the things that make it easy for me to be a mom are:
1) we have a pumping room and I can schedule it on my calendar/work around meetings to pump, and almost none of my coworkers know I do it.
2) I can leave at 5pm everyday. I'm not going to get promoted any time soon, but I won't lose my job.
3) If I have to leave early occasionally because daycare calls and my kid is sick, or I have to take a day off to care for sick kids, my boss understands.

Ways my company is NOT friendy.
1)I generally can't take a whole day to work from home--for some reason this is true in my dept but not others, which makes it even more aggravating. I've been working on this trust me but it's stinks.
2) There's no hope for promotion or anything for me because I'm "only" working 40 hrs a week.
3) We don't have a separate sick days and vacation days, we only have Paid Time off, and I've used a ton more than other coworkers just caring for sick kids.
4) in some groups, you can "work from home" and care for a sick kid, but that would not work for my group.

[Anonymous]

I also have more flexibility because they don't want to lose me. I'm bored, and won't get promoted any time soon, but balance is so hard to find that I figure its worth it to suck it up for a few years.

[Anonymous]

PP-I'm in the same place. I like my job, very much, but am getting bored. A promotion would end my part-time status, curtail my flexibility, but I figure it's worth it. I have it too good to leave, plus my contract just got extended for another 2 years.

If my boredom becomes unbearable, I might ask for more responsibility.

[Anonymous]

I chose to work for the federak govt for less pay than I would get as a contractor, but the flexibility is so worth it. I work a strict 9 hr day with every other Fri off and no one questions when you leave on time because everyone does. Our department has been approved to telework 1 day/week and the Friday that we are not off so essentially I am only in the office 3days/wk. This cuts down my commute time/costs. I work very hard and really love the work I do, so I have had no problems with promotions and actually are ahead of most of my peers. I am pg with baby #2, so I've already been through the maternity leave, returning to work, pumping issues and all have been great in the past. My boss is really great about everything because he has 2 kids and seems to really like kids and understand the home/work balancing act. With a DH that works f/t also, I would be really stressed if I didn't have it so easy in the kid-friendly work environment area.

OP - I would try it out with your current job, but I would start looking for something better in case it just doesn't work out.

[zumbamama]

I am lucky to have finally found a family-friendly job. It helps when the boss is a parent, too! Child sick days are not frowned upon here, even though I am only 1 of 2 workers that have kids, aside from the boss. From the start, the boss made a point that he was family-friendly, as one of the perks. My previous bosses were not so understanding.

I recall the Washingtonian ran an article on the best places to work for working parents...you might want to check out their website for that article.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ask during the interview.

my fiancee had this explained during the interview since the company advised that to perform the job the way they wanted he would ideally be single/no kids.

As a former recruiter, my advice is not to do this. Wait until you get a job offer to ask. There's nothing wrong with asking at that point.

[Anonymous]

I worked at a very family unfriendly law firm when I got pregnant. I was going to make a go of it and return there after the baby, but I ended up getting a great family friendly job during my maternity leave. So glad I did. I learned about the job from someone who knew I had just had a baby and would want regular hours, so they knew up front what sort of arrangement I was looking for. I also just didn't like the law firm job that much so I wasn't sad to leave it. How much do you like your current job? If you're not really happy there, may as well look for somewhere else to be marginally happy that does not interfere as much with your family life, IMHO. Even if you're able to work out an arrangement that allows you some flexibility with respect to hours and child-related emergencies, if it is seen as something highly irregular in your workplace, it might not be worth the added stress, etc. I really think it depends on how happy you are with your job and what your other options would be.