Being a working mum myself, I know only too well how challenging combining parenthood and working is. I have started working again when my son Alex was only about 2 months old, so naturally when I saw someone tweet about the new show on BBC2 called Babies in the Office, I just had to check it out.
Well here are my thoughts.
At first, I actually found it quite difficult to watch. Being a crazily empathetic person that I am, I felt for babies being brought into a strange place with lots of big people they don’t know, and left in a baby walker with a toy to entertain them, while mum or dad attempted to do some sort of work. Naturally, they were upset. I almost had to force myself watch it to the end. That said, I’m glad I did, as the creators of the show cared to present another approach to bringing children into the workplace – the one that actually works – in America.
There is a big difference between trying to work with babies in a busy and high-pressure environment of a huge call centre (which I think is doomed to fail, unless a special nursery is created on site, the type that Third Door offers in South West London) and a calm environment of a separate office, or a small, creative and family-run business that was shown to us as an American example of the successful scheme. Babies do need their own space, and what good does it do them to be on their parent’s lap in front of the computer all day?
When I was pregnant, I had this idealistic view of what life with a baby would be like. I thought Alex would just play quietly next to me in my office, will stay in the sling when I needed to go out (and maybe even on the shoots!), sleep on schedule and won’t demand my attention every 5 minutes. Well, I guess there are chilled-out babies like that somewhere out there, but it’s most definitely not my son.
I know for a fact that I found it much much easier work when Alex was just born and spent a lot of time sleeping, and then spending some time in his baby gym. I was able to edit images, reply to emails or have telephone conversations. My productivity was limited by a mounting sleep deprivation, but at least I could concentrate on the task at hand and do 30 minute chunks of work throughout the day.
However, since he became more aware of his environment, and even before his was mobile, getting any work done has become a major challenge. I started scheduling things around his morning nap, which is about 2 hours, scheduling telephone consultations for the evening just after his bed time, and getting the bulk of non-client facing work done in the evenings, between 9 and 11pm. A total of 4 usable hours per day. Luckily, I do have childcare now 2-3 days a week, and it means I can concentrate on getting my work done. But working with Alex always with me? No chance.
These days, I can’t even answer emails when he is around. He sees my iPhone or the laptop, and naturally he wants to get involved. Pressing the buttons, grabbing the mouse, demanding to put the Giggle Gang on…
My conclusion? Well there’s certainly no harm in occasionally bringing babies into the office when needs be, but I believe that work and children needs to be separate – to a degree at least. What is needed is greater flexibility for parents, like being able to work from home and collect their children from nursery at 5pm instead of 7pm, being able to work full-time hours in a 4 day week, or having a nursery on site at work, so they can come and visit their kids during the day. Things like that will make a difference.
What are your thoughts on this? Where you able to successfully combine work and children? And how did you do that?
For now I will leave you with his picture of my working baby. No moment is wasted. On the potty with his laptop.
(taken with my iPhone, obviously!)