ajcjobs > BlogBreak > Archives > 2008 > September > 04
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Do good parents make good co-workers?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sarah Palin’s choice to run for Vice President of the United States while being the mother of five children, including a special needs infant, has created a lot of discussion on AJC blogs this week. Yesterday, MOMania approached the subject from the mother’s perspective. But let’s now look at this from the opposite side. How does a working mother’s (or father’s) choice to balance their parenthood and their career impact those around them in the workplace?
I have worked at jobs where employees without children were constantly having to pick up the slack for those staff members who were parents. “Sue had to leave early because her son Timmy is sick, can you close the office instead?” Or “We have to reschedule the staff meeting, John is going to be late because he has to take his daughter to a doctor’s appointment.” Or an exhausted co-worker would show up late and say to their colleague, “You’ll have to do the presentation. I can barely keep my eyes open, I was up all night with the baby.”
These employees were particularly annoyed that they were always expected to cover for their absent co-workers without complaint, as if management never considered they would have anything important going on in their personal lives just because they were childless. The parent that skipped out of work frequently for child-related reasons seemed to think they were entitled to this privilege, and no one should question their motives. This crippled the teamwork and trust that is needed to make any workplace successful.
Have you had co-workers that seemed to abuse their parental roles in the workplace and forced others to pick up their neglected job duties? How should bosses confront these situations?
.JPG)
-1.JPG)
Services »
