Baby briefcase: Is this really a good idea? Photo: Getty/Marc Carter
Trying to fire off emails while a toddler spews curdled milk across your keyboard is clearly not an ideal scenario for most workers, so can it ever be a good idea to bring your babies into work? Absolutely yes, according to the Parenting in the Workplace institute, a US-based group which claims wheeling your tots into the office is "a viable, inexpensive tool for helping employees return to work sooner, lowering turnover, improving morale, increasing overall productivity, enhancing teamwork and collaboration, recruiting new employees, attracting new customers, and making existing customers more loyal." Phew.
In today's G2 we asked three of our journalists with babies to put this theory to the test - you can read about their increasingly futile attempts to get any work done here.
Despite this, many people feel that companies could do more to accommodate new parents - and mothers in particular - in their workforces, and more firms are offering subsidised crèche facilities, either on site or in local nurseries, as the benefits of retaining skilled workers are realised. Equally though, there are plenty of workers without kids who resent being told when they can and can't book their holidays and are tired of picking up the slack for those colleagues who are parents.
Are our workplaces becoming too child-friendly, or are we making vital progress in better accommodating working parents? Later this month, both on the Money blog and in the pages of Work and Office Hours, we'll be bringing you a week of themed blogs, features and ideas relating to work-life balance, so let us know what you think.
