Babies in the Workplace

Although Willie Jones of Magical Journey thought that allowing babies to come in was very successful for his business, he said that companies "need to qualify it--if a child has health challenges, is in pain, or is crying a lot, it won't work. It needs to be a reasonably healthy baby." He explained that a company just "needs to be aware that there will be times when the child doesn't cooperate." He said that if you have a situation where the parent or another person can "get to the baby in a minute to take care of a problem and the crying stops, then it works." Companies can try to accommodate unusually fussy work babies by temporarily giving the parent an office with a door if one is available. Parents whose babies cry a lot are likely to feel uncomfortable bringing the baby in anyway, so in the majority of cases, parents are likely to take the initiative to find other arrangements for the baby if the situation doesn't resolve in a few days.

Company Retains Option to Send Baby Home

Companies should make clear when they first implement a baby program, as well as in any documentation signed by a parent who wants to participate, that the program is conditional on the parent being able to complete her work and on the baby being relatively content such that others in the workplace are not hindered in getting their work done. Even though the majority of babies who come to workplaces are likely to be very content and quiet (for reasons described earlier), there are going to be rare situations in which a particular baby will be too fussy or too restless for them to be able to remain in a work environment, and there will be times when parents aren't able to effectively balance their jobs and caring for a baby.