Babies in the Workplace

to "get all the good times" in playing with the babies. She admitted that there were situations in which they would have an internal meeting and a baby would get too fussy to stay. But she said that it "wasn't a problem--we just dealt with it. The parent would take the baby out or someone else would help." She said that she didn't have a problem with other employees playing with the babies. She said that she believes that if she

   hires well and communicates clearly, it's
   not an issue. If someone's job
   performance is suffering, that's an issue no
   matter what the reason.

   She said that "five minutes of talking to a baby is not a problem." If companies are willing to be open to allowing other employees to spend a few minutes throughout the day playing with a baby, the rewards in employee contentment and long-term productivity will more than make

struggle to operate. As long as the children are well-behaved and don't get in the way, it's not a problem."

Susan Matthews at Borshoff recalled that she had one employee who loved babies and wanted to spend a large portion of her day playing with a baby instead of working. Susan said that she reminded the woman that she was at work and she needed to focus on getting her work done. Once she spoke with the woman, there were no further problems with the woman interacting with the babies to the detriment of her work.

Deborah Driskill commented that the biggest problem CDG had with its baby program was that employees "fought over who got to play with the baby during down time." She said that she has had only "positive reactions" to their baby program, and she commented on the "grandparent effect" in that other employees were able