May 03, 2008

Long Update on the Institute and Babies at Work

Things have been moving very quickly on the babies-at-work front, which unfortunately has completely overwhelmed me time-wise.  I’m hoping for a bit of stability soon that will allow for more regular blogging about what’s happening.

1.    USA Today published a front-page article about babies in the workplace.  That led to a live interview on Fox Business Network in which they had a young baby on set; that piece seemed to be really well-received.  It also led to several radio interviews across the country, in Britain, and in Ireland.  Nearly every radio and television interviewer started out being very skeptical (frequently, the piece is introduced with the recorded sound of a screaming baby).  In nearly every case, however, once we explained how and why these programs work in practice, the interviewer’s view shifted dramatically.  For example, in an interview with BBC radio, the male host was initially very negative about the idea but ended up saying, “I agree with my guest . . . I think given just a few moments I would probably be cooing across the studio,” to which the female host remarked, “That doesn’t actually square with the kind of comments you’ve been making all afternoon!”  Several callers to various radio shows talked about their own (positive) experiences with bringing their children to work, as well.  It was encouraging to see how quickly people became open to the idea once they understood the details--such as that babies at work are highly content (and in the rare case that they do cry for more than a few seconds, parents are expected to remove them from the work environment temporarily), and that policy rules solved the other problems people were concerned about in theory (like coworkers playing with the babies instead of getting their own work done).

2.    The USA Today piece was reprinted in many other newspapers, and three British newspapers printed related articles.  One, in the Guardian, inadvertently makes clear just how critical it is to have clear guidelines in place when starting a baby program.  The Guardian had three of their reporters bring their babies to work with apparently one day’s notice.  There was no pre-planning, and the article appeared to basically describe everything that could possibly go wrong with allowing babies in the workplace.  This is exactly the sort of thing that we believe the Institute can help organizations with by providing detailed policies and helping to educate parents about ways to keep babies happy while simultaneously being productive at work.

3. Just after its founding in December, 2007, the Institute had received $6,000 in initial funding from two baby-friendly companies, UNCLE Credit Union and Roxanne Conlin Law Offices.  That (and the media coverage that really took off after the Time Magazine article in January) enabled me in February to drop my hours at my law firm (where I work as a floater legal secretary) to focus on the Institute three days a week (along with working on things at night and during spare moments on weekends).  I quickly realized that, given the major skepticism of the public and businesses to these programs, we needed to “prove” the concept before this can really take off on a large scale.  So I’ve spent much of my time in the last two months coordinating a “pilot” program, in which we plan to provide extensive information and documentation to several Massachusetts-based businesses, as well as (potentially) one multinational company, who are willing to try out a baby program.  I elicited the support of two Harvard professors, Dr. Michael Commons and Dr. Patrice Marie Miller, for our work.  They have agreed to design and implement formal studies in conjunction with this pilot.  I have also been talking with a Boston-based producer for Nova who has worked with National Geographic TV, The Discovery Channel, and The Learning Channel.  She is interested in helping us to put together a short documentary during the pilot, to give people a visual framework for understanding how these baby programs work in practice.  Several prominent child development researchers have provided materials to help us develop informational documents for participating parents for the pilot (and on an ongoing basis), and we now have contacts at dozens of supportive organizations who will help to promote awareness of the pilot.

The only catch is that we need funding for me to be able to take the time to design materials and coordinate the pilot, as well as to support the studies and documentary (which we think are critical to utilizing the pilot to maximum effect), so I’ve been spending a lot of my time in the last few weeks looking for foundations, businesses, or other groups interested in supporting our work.  The Massachusetts Breastfeeding Coalition has agreed to be our fiscal sponsor until we have 501(c)(3) status, which opens up a lot of options for grants.  The Institute’s Board approved my using much of the initial funding as salary so that I could cut my hours and be able to focus on Institute work, but $6,000 doesn’t last that long in the Massachusetts economy, and last week it became clear that I’m going to need to return to my law firm full-time if something big doesn’t happen in the next few days.  I’ll still do Institute work as much as I possibly can (in between work and raising Alpha and Echo), but I’m really hoping we can find a way to get funding soon to get this pilot off the ground.  We have a tremendous opportunity to influence major societal change and potentially help millions of families and thousands of businesses, so we’re excited to find a way to move things as quickly as possible.

I spoke at a Women's Studies class at the University of Massachusetts--Boston on April 29, which went extremely well.  The 80 or so students seemed to be very intrigued with the potential of babies in the workplace, and it was very fulfilling to be influencing the next generation's perspective on the viability of integrating family and work in this way.

A friend shared information with me on Friday (yesterday) about a few Massachusetts-based foundations that I had not previously located. I am working full-time this week and next week at my law firm (they needed extra help these two weeks, and I can use the income).  I was planning on using my lunch break yesterday to finalize inquiry letters to these foundations, but I ended up being swamped by another major media inquiry triggered by a long public radio piece that aired Friday about babies in the workplace.  I’m fortunate that my law firm is supportive of my babies-at-work efforts, so I was able to juggle the research and coordination for the media person with getting work done for the attorneys I was helping yesterday.  I’m hoping to find time this weekend to get the applications done for the foundations and to get those out on Monday.  We’ll see where things lead...

March 04, 2008

Fact Sheet and Looking for Companies

A few weeks ago, we (the Parenting in the Workplace Institute) put up a template babies-at-work policy (including detailed guidelines, a legal waiver form for parents, and an alternate care provider form) that anyone can download from our main website.  Today we added a Fact Sheet about baby programs to our Files page.

On another note, we are currently looking for organizations (particularly in the New England area, or large companies based anywhere in the country) that we can help to implement a babies-at-work program.  We are offering assistance free of charge to start and maintain a baby program, including providing policy documentation, legal waiver forms, and documentation for parents and coworkers to maximize the effectiveness of a program.  We can be reached at carla @ babiesatwork.org or (801) 897-8702 for more information.

February 19, 2008

Babies at Work on Huffington Post

We were fortunate enough to be asked to contribute a blog for the Huffington Post; it was posted today.  It is about babies at work and their potential for increasing the number of people-friendly programs in workplaces.  It was posted on the main page and in the business section:

A Peaceful Revolution:  Bringing Humanity to the Workplace

February 18, 2008

Babies at Work Coverage Goes International

A major Brazilian television show, Fantastico, just aired a piece yesterday on babies in the workplace that included video footage of my explanations of these programs and repeatedly showed the Babies in the Workplace website. The piece is about 5 minutes long and is in Portuguese. It is visually a very beautiful piece and has a very positive focus:

In the United States, parents bring babies to the office and increase productivity at work.

February 15, 2008

Working With Kids--Sometimes It Depends on the Kids

Since the Institute is starting to get funding, it's enabled me to justify cutting back my hours at the law firm in which I work.  Starting this week, I'm going to be spending two or three days a week focused on Institute work (instead of squeezing everything I need to do into lunch breaks, during the kids' weekend naps, and in the early morning hours) and the other days doing the legal secretary thing.  Today I had an Institute-focused day, but I needed to print out a couple of things prior to replacing my recently-deceased printer.  So I stopped by one of my firm's offices, taking my daughter, Alpha (who is 6), with me.  She was fantastic--she drew on my laptop, drew pictures on paper, played on my phone, and was friendly to everyone in the office.  I was able to get my work done quickly and efficiently because she was so accommodating--and she was just happy to be with me, even though we didn't get to play much on this particular morning.  Everyone who saw her seemed very glad to see her and asked me to bring her in more. 

Since Alpha was old enough to understand, I've made it clear to her that she could occasionally come to the office with me (like on weekends or on a day off if I had to drop by for a bit) but only if she was respectful of the office environment.  She understands very clearly what the expectations are and knows that the reason I continue to take her is that she is very well-mannered and nice to be around. 

I think making those sorts of expectations clear to children (and, of course, understanding your child's individual personality and working within that framework) is critical to a parenting-at-work program.  All too often,  when people think of children at work, their first thought seems to be something along the lines of "toddlers running madly through the halls destroying the computers."  That's obviously not what I'm advocating.  Part of raising children is teaching them social norms--and when a parenting-at-work program is set up with clear expectations, those "disaster" scenarios are very unlikely to happen.  What happens, instead, is that the children who come to work are the ones who are well-behaved (or, if they have a bad moment, their parent temporarily takes them away from the social situation), and they learn quickly to adjust to the culture of the workplace--so the workplace benefits from the enjoyment-of-life attitude that children exude, with none of (or very little of) the "inappropriate" behavior that so many people seem to fear about children at work. 

Children are far more intelligent and sensitive to their surroundings than many people realize.  Successful parenting-at-work programs acknowledge and enable the best in parents and children, as well as the best in society.

February 09, 2008

Recent and Upcoming Items

Sorry, again, for the delay in posting.   It's been a very busy few weeks, but very good ones for the parenting-at-work concept.

The Arizona Daily Star printed a long article about babies at work:

Office shows that it can work for tots, moms, co-workers

The Parenting in the Workplace Institute was featured in a piece on the Today Show on January 31, 2008:
Bringing Babies to Work

Then, on February 3, 2008, the NBC Nightly News aired a similar piece which also featured the Institute: 
Can't Part?  Take Your Baby to Work

A widely-watched variety show in Brazil, Fantastico, is planning to air a piece in the next few days on babies in the workplace which will include the Institute. 

What I find most exciting about all this is that the concept of babies in the workplace is finally starting to be recognized as a viable concept--one that might have widespread applicability.  There is obviously still a large proportion of society that is very skeptical of the idea, but part of the Institute's work is to help to overcome that skepticism through evidence--such as by helping major companies to start successful baby programs.

The increasing support for the Institute and for the possibilities of parenting in the workplace is going to enable me to devote a lot more time to this work in upcoming days, so posting here will be a lot more regular.


January 04, 2008

Time Magazine Article / Global Possibilities

Time Magazine just published an article (online as well as in the issue on newsstands today) about babies at work which mentions the Parenting in the Workplace Institute:

Who's the Boss?

I found it really interesting that the one "naysayer" in the article doesn't appear to have actually tried a babies-at-work program.  These programs are very different (and scarier) in theory than in practice.  Everyone I've talked to at companies that have formal programs believes that they are beneficial and successful in practice (even many people who previously thought it was a really bad idea in theory).

On another note, this article today from the United Kingdom (Pressure on New Parents to Return to Work) talks about how economic factors are forcing mothers back to work when their babies are very young.  The potential impact of babies in the workplace is evidently not limited to the United States...

January 02, 2008

Non-Profit and More Companies

As a result of the increasing interest in babies-at-work programs, I founded the Parenting in the Workplace Institute in December, 2007.  PIWI is a non-profit devoted to promoting, educating, and providing resources for successful implementation of parenting in the workplace structures nationally and worldwide. 

I also recently added twenty-eight more organizations to the Babies in the Workplace website Companies List, bringing the total to more than 70 organizations and more than 1,000 babies (that I am aware of) that have successfully come to work.

November 18, 2007

Television Clip about Babies at Work

The Fox News clip from November 15 was actually archived and is available on the main Fox News website.  Here's the link:

Parenting at Work

We'll see what this week brings...

November 16, 2007

Babies at Work in the Media

The book is still coming along--not done yet, though.

Things are getting busy in other areas regarding babies in the workplace.  I was interviewed for an article in the Boston Globe which was published two days ago, on November 14:

Child Care Bridges Two Worlds

That led to Wendy Matusovich (the mother whose picture appeared in the article) and myself being interviewed on Fox News yesterday (the 15th).  It seemed to go really well.

Seems as though this concept might really be starting to take off... 

Interestingly, many of the comments to the Boston Globe article were quite negative.  I'm coming to the conclusion that people seem to fall into three general groups in their reactions to babies in the workplace. 

1.  People who work in a company with a structured program--they tend to believe that these programs are successful and generally are very enthusiastic about the benefits.

2.  People who had very mellow babies, took their own children to work, or knew someone else who did it successfully--they also tend to be very enthusiastic about how well it can work.

3.  People (generally not business owners) who have never seen a structured program--many of these people tend to be very resistant to the idea.  The negative comments to the Globe article seemed to all fall into this category.  Our culture has been indoctrinated for a long time with the false impression that all babies scream and that mellow, content babies are rare or nonexistent.  It seems that many people just have no framework for imagining that babies could be happy in a work environment, or that guidelines could be put in place that alleviate or eliminate potential problems.  It's a completely foreign concept.  Also, because most adults aren't around babies until/unless they have their own children, they're not familiar with the effect a happy, friendly baby can have on those around her.  Happy babies and children tend to bring out a nurturing instinct in many people--but many of us have lost touch with that because children are so segregated from society most of the time.

I hope to help our culture reach the point where babies at work is so common it's considered to be a "non-event"--as it is in dozens of companies already.