Eh, 25 years ago I had an interview in Philly. I was nervous about getting off at right station etc. My mom came into town with me and went shopping while I did the interview. Then she came back and we went and had lunch.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had several early-career hires ask if their parents could listen in on the benefits orientation. The answer is always no. No parents at work.

That's actually strikes me as less crazy. Benefits are complicated, and wanting someone with more experience to help you figure them out the first time isn't the same as having a parent come on a job interview.

DH has me listen to his firm's annual benefits presentations (done over Zoom) and make all the selections (his firm changes something every year and usually screws up the transition).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had several early-career hires ask if their parents could listen in on the benefits orientation. The answer is always no. No parents at work.

That's actually strikes me as less crazy. Benefits are complicated, and wanting someone with more experience to help you figure them out the first time isn't the same as having a parent come on a job interview.

35 years ago I showed the benefits info to my dad who helped me make choices. I don't think it's weird to ask for help but they shouldn't attend anything. But I don't think it's strange to ask for help if your parents or someone else you trust has more experience and can help you. In turn, I've advised my kids on this stuff.

+1 to that. I regularly help my wife by looking over benefit options, but if we weren't married, I imagine she'd ask one of her parents. Sitting in would be weird, but it's complicated.

As a spouse I'm always surprised I'm not allowed to see or access anything. Dh is a scatterbrained engineer and I handle all our finances. I'm frequently unable to get him to make changes to things like our dental insurance during open season, which drives me crazy. I'd also love to increase his 401k contributions myself instead of nagging him to do it. I don't get why he needs my signature to withdraw 401k loans/money (since we're married), but otherwise I have zero visibility into it. Sigh. We'd never accompany each other to interview though.

Anonymous wrote:I have had several early-career hires ask if their parents could listen in on the benefits orientation. The answer is always no. No parents at work.

Yeah this is far less crazy. I work for a big company and they actually have an external site you can point family members to in order to understand the benefits. It’s geared towards spouses but no reason a parent couldn’t take a look too.

Anonymous wrote:Depends what kind of job. If you are hired as a management consultant or lawyer you better not confess you don't understand your benefit package. You can't bring a sibling or parent to client meetings.

Ha. i read the previous post and was about to respond in agreement, because as a fairly senior partner in biglaw, I just forward all my benefits docs to my financial planner and let him tell me whether i should sign up. I don't understand any of those programs. I mostly opt out because eligibility, contributions, how to access programs after you enroll etc is so confusing that i often lose out of benefits i've paid for, and i don't have the time or inclination to figure it out. I've often railed against the utter stupidity of the US benefits situation. I mean, just let us pay taxes and the government provide a single program for everyone - health care, education, retirement savings. Instead of my current work which easily has 25 different "middle man" benefits, like "Carrot" and "hinge" and a million other things where some private company thinks they can make money from it, so they pitched it to our law firm.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had several early-career hires ask if their parents could listen in on the benefits orientation. The answer is always no. No parents at work.

That's actually strikes me as less crazy. Benefits are complicated, and wanting someone with more experience to help you figure them out the first time isn't the same as having a parent come on a job interview.

35 years ago I showed the benefits info to my dad who helped me make choices. I don't think it's weird to ask for help but they shouldn't attend anything. But I don't think it's strange to ask for help if your parents or someone else you trust has more experience and can help you. In turn, I've advised my kids on this stuff.

+1 to that. I regularly help my wife by looking over benefit options, but if we weren't married, I imagine she'd ask one of her parents. Sitting in would be weird, but it's complicated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have had several early-career hires ask if their parents could listen in on the benefits orientation. The answer is always no. No parents at work.

That's actually strikes me as less crazy. Benefits are complicated, and wanting someone with more experience to help you figure them out the first time isn't the same as having a parent come on a job interview.

35 years ago I showed the benefits info to my dad who helped me make choices. I don't think it's weird to ask for help but they shouldn't attend anything. But I don't think it's strange to ask for help if your parents or someone else you trust has more experience and can help you. In turn, I've advised my kids on this stuff.

Anonymous wrote:I feel like this was generally an issue with millennials as well. ie their parents butting into their work environments in various ways. Definitely was not a baby boomer or gen x thing.

I'm a millennial and I've never seen someone's parent at work. Also, the parents allegedly butting into our jobs would be boomers and older Gen X. So even if your scenario were true, it would be boomers and Gen X acting weird, not millennials.

Depends what kind of job. If you are hired as a management consultant or lawyer you better not confess you don't understand your benefit package. You can't bring a sibling or parent to client meetings.

Anonymous wrote:I have had several early-career hires ask if their parents could listen in on the benefits orientation. The answer is always no. No parents at work.

That's actually strikes me as less crazy. Benefits are complicated, and wanting someone with more experience to help you figure them out the first time isn't the same as having a parent come on a job interview.

This sounds like some weird generational warfare type thinkpiece specifically written to incite rage.

I have had several early-career hires ask if their parents could listen in on the benefits orientation. The answer is always no. No parents at work.

I feel like this was generally an issue with millennials as well. ie their parents butting into their work environments in various ways. Definitely was not a baby boomer or gen x thing.

My parent didn't come but an older sibling. Got hired and I'm grateful to have had the support.

We recruit a lot of people fresh out of college and it has never happened in my 20 years here.

There is a mother of an employee who has a bakery ship a regional item to us every year (not a king cake, but something similar from another region). It's unusual, but everyone loves it.