Let’s work from home when the kids are sick, thank you great company that I am allowed to slave away for you while taking care of my sick kid! It isn’t even a US company it seems.
Edit: guess I should have posted to unpopularopinions instead!
I just wanted to add I cut off the photo of the person on purpose. She is posting that with her sick child in her lap and that photo has been taken by some other person, not a selfie. If you are not feeling that the content of the post is bad, you hopefully still agree that presenting your sick child in an almost professionally looking photo to the world for LinkedIn clout is not great.
Raving about working aside, what’s wrong with this? Kids get sick a lot and you definitely need 2 jobs to comfortably pay for them these days.
Loads of my coworkers work an extra day from home when their kids are sick and it works great. I’d say it’s probably one of the best reasons to work from home.
Edit: I work from home about 2-3 of my 4 work days. I only go to the office to see my coworkers voluntarily or for the physical meetings. I would not wish forced full time in person days for people who can work from home.
I think the problem is that it should be standard, but the LinkedIn poster is talking about it like her company is SO generous.
Yes and no. Multiple things are the problem.
1st - what you said, this shouldn’t be a thing worth highlighting and its sad it is
2nd - just the usual online clout generating using your sick child. The image below is the poster with her sick daughter in her lap, I cut it off on purpose. I get it, images are more powerful than words but using your child for online clout is a hard no for me, triple that when your child is sick
3rd - the image is taken by another person. Often you see this sort of post with the person taking a clear selfie, here its almost a professional quality photoshoot type of picture, I know its still probably just a mobile phone though, not saying they hired a photographer for this. So who is that person? I’d hope the dad, but why is that person there able to take that picture but not taking care of the child. Sure, maybe same situation, working from home to also take care of the child and they take turns. But then that’s a bit dishonest not to mention you are sharing responsibility but instead celebrate yourself as an awesome “working mom”
4th - if the dad is also home, why can he not maybe even take care of the child alone?
5th - just like how sick leave should be normal, having leave to take care of your children should be the norm too. I know I am having a privileged perspective here, I live in a Scandinavian country where we have such a “taking care of sick children” leave. And its great! So yeah, if you don’t live in a country like that, you look at this and feel like its not so bad, from my perspective it is
Just to comment on your first point, while in Utopia it wouldn’t be worth mentioning, the fact that not every companys job listing even includes home office, that makes it not just worth mentioning, but means it needs to be highlighted. People look for jobs that allow some or full time home office (for whatever reasons, or in general). How are they supposed to find them if it’s not mentioned anywhere?
The simple fact that we aren’t at the point where everyone has access to this kind of work environment MINIMUM completely defeats point 1. If you ever want to get to the point where this isn’t worth highlighting, it has to be ubiquitous, otherwise it is absolutely a highlight.
If no one in the city has access to water, suddenly a job offering water is a huge highlight.
If you want to make these practices not a highlight anymore, you have to make it ubiquitous, and the only way to do that is by spreading the idea. Is it perfect? Nope. But move the bar a bit more, and then it actually won’t be worth mentioning anymore, and we can mention the next small step.
For me the issue is that this is presented as a great thing that only hybrid offers. But it is the thing that full remote offers, too. And you’re quite lucky to WFH 3/4 work days (also to have a 4-day work week, I guess, if that’s so I’m really glad at least someone has it already)
My company doesn’t enforce office at all, it’s just a measly 40 working days per quarter that we are required to come to the office. I agree that it makes sense to see each other in person every now and then, it’s just the way it’s done doesn’t really encourage planning to gather a team at the same location, just ticking the checkboxes
My company is so generous that they’re letting me work from home while my baby is sick. I’m so glad I work for a company that cares. That’s why when people ask me why I don’t just take the day off to care for my sick infant, I tell them I can’t afford to take that many vacation days.
It is a great attitude, yes. Some people actually enjoy work and do work of meaning. Some people also love their kids and want to be there for them. Some companies treat their employees with respect.
These are not things to shit on
This is a perfect example of perfection being the enemy of good.
Allowing, even encouraging, employees to work from home in order to temporarily care for a sick child is a good thing. The complainers must work somewhere that when you take off from work, someone else just comes along and does all your work for you. Needless to say, that’s a rarity and also sucks for your coworkers.
Yea this is insane people are shitting on WFH, we’re moving in the right direction, yea its not perfect but damn…
Incremental steps are largely lost in society now. At all levels. From corporations to individuals, it’s instant gratification, all or nothing, do or die.
I’m perfectly fine with just moving the bar we call normal a bit more in a positive direction. This is a good thing.
What you say is correct, and nothing of what you say I see in the posted screenshot. That very much feels like an advertisement for “return to office but just like not 100%, only like 90%, you gotta understand, man”
You’re making the comparisons from different spots, so of course the outcomes look vastly different.
You’re looking at it from a utopia, where the world is as it should be already. From where you metaphorically are, this looks like a shit position, because it’s… Well, worse. Objectively.
I, and I suspect the guy you replied to, are looking at it from the perspective of what we actually have now, in our lives. From that perspective, this kind of attitude - of allowing some degree of flexibility, ability to dynamically change your work life balance as you need to is unheard of, practically. It’s SO much better than what the majority (in the US at least) see. And it’s so incredibly easy to achieve. Having an attitude like this is just setting the bar of the bare minimum a bit higher, and that’s good for everyone. We keep doing that, we may eventually get to utopia.
I think OP is just bitter AF.
Hey, OP, I work fully remote. I also discuss any possible role with a “work from home is non negotiable”.
Ive not been in an office for years
Eh, I used to be full remote for 5-ish years, but for the last 2-ish, I’ve been going in 2-days/week. I like that schedule, since I get to actually be with my team in person. I find it’s a lot easier to collaborate because you can easily tell if someone is busy, whereas chatting someone can feel like an imposition.
We have a very flexible work policy:
- we stay home if we’re sick
- we stay home if a family member is sick
- we stay home if we have an appointment
- we stay home if we have an important delivery
- we’re good to WFH when traveling
We don’t have a formal policy other than it’s expected to come in these two days/week and occasionally other days in certain circumstances (e.g. our CTO comes to visit, we fly in remote team members, etc). That happens maybe 2-3x/year, it’s really a non-issue.
If I had two otherwise equivalent offers where one was full remote and the other was 2-days in office (close commute), I may end up taking the second, just because I find actual value in face-to-face interaction and think prioritizing that promotes good work culture. But I’m fine with either, so it’s not a strong preference.
My wife is unwell. I’ve taken her to the doctor’s. I’m sitting here now, on my laptop and working. Because I can and there is stuff I want done. She’s leaning into my shoulder, and I’m typing this. It’s good for her. It’s good for me. I see no issue with that article.
That lady I’m sure could take the day off, but sick kids are pretty low maintenance. So why not get work done? The mother isn’t sick.
Sick children mean bad nights, frequent interruptions and a lot of stress. It isn’t healthy to add a normal work day on top of that, even from home.
Sick kids are low maintenance. You’ve either been a lucky parent or you have no kids.
It depends. If it’s the usual stuff they mostly sleep and bitch about how bored they are, sure, but sometimes it’s not. No reason to circumscribe the conversation to “how sick kids usually get”.
Yup, as a parent of 3, I can totally confirm this. If our kids are legitimately sick, they either read or watch TV. It sucks way more at night if they need to get up every few hours for medicine or something, but I’m not going to be working at that time, so it’s irrelevant.
I enjoy what I do for work. I like being with my kids. Sometimes I work while snuggling a sick kid while they watch TV or something. It works. I just let my team know I’ll be a little distracted, and they’re pleasantly surprised at how responsive I am.
Am I taking crazy pills or are people actually saying this is a good thing?
Jesus fucking christ you people are so dependent on the system you literally can’t even comprehend the fact that nobody should need to be working when there’s a higher priority like family.
Make all the “oh but they’re easy to take care of/if the person wants to work/the company is a good one for this” coping excuses you need to feel good about how shitty working lives have become, I guess.
Don’t bother responding if you’re going to make more excuses why “this is good/okay”, you’re speaking to a wall.
It seems a controversial topic, I didn’t think so either but here we are.
American liberals are so fucking brainwashed they don’t even see the insanity of their posts. You can see it with the CHUD brigade rolling through this post.
You know, it’s considered completely normal to take paid time off to take care of sick relatives in other developed countries? And it doesn’t affect their entire month of paid time off to use for recreation?
Why are y’all so proud of being slaves?
Don’t be the enemy of better in pursuit of total perfection.
Sick days shouldn’t exist. You or a dependent is sick? Don’t come in. Such a simple concept
I’m fortunate enough to have a good enough job that my wife didn’t need to work while taking care of our children. That said, after a while, she got restless and sought out WFH opportunities. It turns out, spending all day with a screaming child is stressful, and being able to switch gears and feel productive is helpful.
We don’t know this woman’s situation, whether she needs to work to pay the bills, or chooses to work because taking care of a child full time is a different kind of stressful. At the end of the day, it should be the woman’s choice if she works.
Fundamentally I agree that work shouldn’t need to be a priority in this situation if the individual doesn’t want it to be, but this is like basically the optimal scenario. I wish more companies respected their employees’ time and strictly valued results over the appearance of business.
This seems like an infinite step up from having to be in the office for 60-80 hours a week just to look impressive, while accomplishing little after the 35 hour mark. I would take this lady’s position in a heartbeat.
Productivity went up when WFH was pushed during covid. Even though there were fully remote companies before it. The only people complaining are the retail and landlords of commercial rental properties. WFH should be the standard now, there is 0 downside to it.
Also, productivity is exactly what companies now state as the reason for pushing everyone back to the office
Yep, which is complete bullshit and I think most people now see that it’s bullshit. It seems to be just the old guard trying to keep their grip on power.
Yup, which is why I’m glad my boss stuck with his agreement when I was hired during COVID: at least 3 days WFH per week, other than exceptions. I only work in office more than 3x/week if someone is visiting from out of town (some C-suite exec, full remote team members, etc).
Our company tried to force us to work 3x/week in the office, so we tried it, our productivity went down, so we went back to 2x/week in office.
We did full remote for 2-ish years during COVID, and I think I honestly prefer coming in 2x/week. Yeah, commuting is a waste of time, but I think our meetings are more productive (and shorter) in person, so it’s a more pleasant work experience.
This is one of the rare occasions, where I don’t get the problem with this “I am a proud working bee” stuff. I have kids and they are sick very seldom, but if they are sick, they are mostly sleeping half the day. I want to be with them, but I also can get stuff done. Maybe my point of view differs because I am freelancing.
Sick time/days should not exist. Staying home when you or a dependent is sick should be the norm not the exception. Why is that such an insane thought? I fucken hate touching people’s computers when they’re snotty as fuck. Likewise, I’m sure they don’t like me doing it when my own health is visibly worse.
Like anything else, we can’t have the because people will abuse it, and if people abuse it, management needs to fire the abusers. So every time you take time off, you have to be worried about whether your boss will see it as abuse.
That’s why sick days exist. People can only abuse up to the limit, and get exemptions if they need more.
That said, I also prefer to combine sick leave and vacation so I can take the time I need, whether I meet the definition my HR department has for “sick” or not. It’s none of my boss’ business if I’m sick or just bumming around. I’m entitled to use this days off, whether I’m sick or not. It’s much simpler.
That said, my company’s policy is to WFH if we’re sick, and we generally can work less on those days as well. That’s honestly a really fair compromise, I can WFH if I’m feeling up for working but need to be home to care for myself, or I can use my time off instead.
Im so angry, you dang kids and your work-from-home! Back in my day…
