Imagine walking into the office of your work building and being greeted by little smiling faces. Well for Samie Swinton and her group of employees working for Girl Scouts of Greater Iowa, that is exactly the case. Swinton took advantage of the new Infants in the Workplace program that allows new parents to bring their babies to their office until they are 6 months old. This organization was orginially brought about in December when a pregnant exployee had proclaimed the idea to CEO Beth Shelton. At first this seemed like a terrible idea. Everyone was picturing crying babies all over the place that would affect the work flow of the business. However, after pondering the thought for a while, the more realistic it began to seem. They learned that having babies in the work force make workers more happier and less overly stressed about their work. Passing this program caused some other new changes/rules to the work space as well. Dedicated quiet spaces for parents to feed, change and comfort the babies had to be put into place; as well as a rule for how long the babies could cry before they needed to be quietly removed from the working space. Over all, the idea of emloyees bringing their babies to work seems to have a positive effect on the work environment. Will it stay this way though? Let's hope so.
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Questions:
1. In your opinion, what are some negative affects this could have on the working environment?
2. What do you think is the purpose of parents bringing their babies to work rather than taking them to daycare?
My opinion:
1. In my opinion, some of the negative affects could be due to the distraction of the baby. It might make the employees not be as productive since they wouldn't have the idea of "I need to get this done so I can go home and see my child" motivating them. Another negative effect would be all the germs that the office could infect the baby with. A baby at that young of age could get very sick from being exposed to all of that.
2. Taking their baby to work rather than daycare, would one save them lots of money, and two help them be able to bond better with their child. If they are working many hours in the office, that's many hours they would have to be away from their child.
Replies
Great story choice and well done! Be sure to capitalize all key words in your title.
Having a baby in the office would be a major distraction to everyone and not alot of work would be getting done. Also, the baby would have to be cared for constintly so the person who borught the baby wouldn't get work done. Taking the babies to work allows the parent to spend time with their child, instead of trusting someone else.
I agree with you. Putting trust in someone else when your baby is 6 months or older is very hard for many parents to do. Also, this could be a big distraction for some, but for others it could allow them some time to relax and get their minds off of all the work they are trying to get done.
I think that even though there are positives, there are also some negative that goes along with this. It could cause your attention to focus more on your baby and not get your work done. This would not include changing or feeding. I think that the purpose is that parents are doing this to spend more time with their baby rather than just seeing them half the day when they would pick them up from daycare.
I agree. This allows them to spend more time with their child while still getting work done. It could be a distraction but honestly a distraction that some people might need throughout the day. I feel like the employees would work until they got all their work done even if it took a little bit longer to do.
some negatives could be that the baby could distract the employees or other people around your work area, the baby could also be loud or smelly when babies are hungry they cry its how the communicate, I understand that but some other people might be more upset by it. Also when a baby poops, every healthy baby poops it could smell really really bad.
I think some negative affects this could have is distracted emplyees. Babies have an affect on everyone and it could cause some people to lose their focus on their work and completeing their job. Taking your baby to a public work space can also be very dangerous because of germs and viruses that are exposed to the baby.
"The baby could cry or "talk" alot and make the employess mad which would effect how they act to eachother and customers. They could save money on daycare and they would be making money so they could afford other stuff. They also wouldnt have to trust a stranger with their child.
I agree with you. The babies could make a lot of noise which would in return distract the employees. It does make sense that it is harder to trust "strangers" with your baby at that young of age. So by bringing them to work, they are growing bonds with their child as well as saving lots of money on daycare.
I think some negative affects could be distraction. Baby's are cute and funny so people could not be getting as much work done. I think a lot of parents want to spend time with their young kids and so they want to see them all day and take care of them.
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