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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?
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Do you use your PTO wisely?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Many U.S. employers have lumped all employee benefits (sick, personal, birthday, etc.) days into a single bank called “personal time off” (PTO) or discretionary days. This initiative was to help employees create a better balance between work and their personal life.
Before PTO, using your sick days for reasons other than being sick was an integrity issue. The real beneficiary were those who never missed a day of work for being sick.
PTO allows you take off from work to care for a sick child, spouse and parent or attend the parent-teacher conference, without being penalized.
It’s okay to use these days to clean out the garage or extend your weekend, assuming you don’t run out of days when you may really need them.
To keep your attendance record on track, be sure to bank those extra days and save them for the real emergencies. If you have PTO or discretionary days, use them wisely.
As an employee, would you rather have separate sick days, vacation days and personal days, or do you like all of your days off lumped together into PTO?
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Now that’s a weird job!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In honor of the upcoming Labor Day holiday, let’s take a look at some really weird jobs that people actually do to earn an honest living. The list compiled by JobProfiles includes some gag-inducing gigs (hair-boiler, dog food tester, cow hoof trimmer) and some wacky jobs that actually sound fun (fortune cookie writer, cartoon mascots and my personal favorite - “whiskey ambassador”). For the skeptics, here’s a picture of a dog food tester in action.
What is the weirdest job you have ever had? Send us photos of you on the job at your odd occupation.
Need some inspiration to find an unusual job of your own? Check out Why I Love My Job, a weekly feature showcasing interesting jobs that people do right here in Atlanta.
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Does your job depress you?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
With such dreary weather this week, let’s take a look at what Chandra Fox has to say about those with depressing occupations:
Let’s face it, many people have very depressing jobs. Typical jobs that can be emotionally devastating include personal care workers, prison guards and counselors for abused children. The good news is that you can learn to balance your work and personal life without being overwhelmed by a job that seems hopeless.
A prison guard I spoke to said that dealing with inmates is typically sad. “The same criminals are back through the system over and over. Many times the intellect you are dealing with is very low and the difference between good and bad does not seem to resonate.” In a similar way, child abusers cannot change overnight, if ever, and the impact on their victims will last a lifetime. When counselors focus on rehabilitation of these individuals, the process can be long and cumbersome. From these examples, you can see that change is difficult and your job can seem more bad than good. So how do you overcome it?
Train yourself to keep things that are handled at work only in your mind during work hours and allow yourself the time to escape when you are not at work. Many professionals handle workplace pressures with exercise like yoga to combat the stress or depression that often accompany particular jobs.
What are the most stressful or depressing aspects of your job and how do you cope?
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Employees gone wild!
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A web video has been circulating showing a Burger King employee, an adolescent appropriately nicknamed “Mr. Unstable” taking a bath in the restaurant’s kitchen sink. (Note: may contain explicit language.) And yes, he appears to be completely naked. His explanation? It was his birthday. The video hit the Internet and he was promptly fired. Burger King also terminated several people present on that sudsy shift who either ignored or cheered on his actions. No big surprise there.
As I was reading various comments about this story, I was surprised by how many people said “Oh, get over it, if you ever have worked in a restaurant, you know this is nothing.” No doubt shocking acts by employees happen frequently at restaurants and at workplaces in other service industries. So readers, let us know, is the actions of the Burger King bathing bonehead that big of a deal or have you seen far worse actions take place at your job? Give us the details (minus specific names of people and companies), and yes, keep it clean!
Latest comments
I am real uncomfortable being taken to lunch by the bosses on “Hallmark” days - birthdays, etc. but I can’t get out of it. I’m a picky eater and am kind of shy and it’s scary to sit there with bosses at a fancy place that intimidates... read the full comment by Uncomfortable | Comment on Business lunches can make or break career Read Business lunches can make or break career
No one is condeming parents as the scum of the earth, we all had them and most of our parents worked when we were kids. We are tired of those parents who think their children are an excuse for them to be treated differently. A lot of parents... read the full comment by Betty | Comment on Do good parents make good co-workers? Read Do good parents make good co-workers?
I like female coworkers that have been married for at least seven years. They seem to be easy picking to have a casual affair with. Also, you can generally convince them to do really kinky things.... read the full comment by Mike D | Comment on Do good parents make good co-workers? Read Do good parents make good co-workers?
It really depends. Being single, I’ve always been the one asked to cover for those with families. Whether it’s the holidays, the company events, etc., it’s those with families who have gotten off early, taken extra time, made... read the full comment by lovelyliz | Comment on Do good parents make good co-workers? Read Do good parents make good co-workers?