Babies in the Workplace

they like supporting a company that allows employees to bring their babies. Sandy Jaffe of The Booksource also noticed this effect--he said he has "heard from many people over the years about what a wonderful thing we're doing."

Dana Croy at Magical Journey received numerous positive comments from customers as well. She said that was one reason she thought that Willie, the owner, had allowed her to bring in her baby. He had previously allowed another employee, Charity, to bring in her newborn. Dana said that she knew Willie wanted to meet her needs as a mom, and that she knew he
also really liked getting the positive feedback from customers. She believed that, from the reactions Charity's baby had elicited from customers, Willie saw that letting his employees bring in babies directly helped his business.

Kelly Rawe of Schools Financial also noticed very positive member reactions. She said that sometimes she would be walking past a teller's window and hear a credit union member make a joke about the baby like, "Don't you think you're starting them a little early?" She said that when she's working with members and they hear the baby making sounds, they often ask what's going on. When she explains, the members "are always pretty amazed by the program and think it's really neat."

Fran Oswald, a branch manager at Schools, said that she had numerous credit union members stop in to her office--both men and women--to tell her how great they thought it was that Schools offered the baby program for its employees and how they wished they could have brought their babies in at their jobs. She said she never heard one negative comment from a member. She said that a lot of members actually became sad when