Many working mothers are forced to drop their infants off at day care. But a California bank offers a unique employee benefit: After taking maternity or paternity leave, new parents are encouraged to bring their infants to the office every day until they turn 6 months old or start to crawl.
Alyssa Palomino works at a Schools Financial Credit Union in Roseville. She went back to work Tuesday with her 8-week-old twins, Brielynn and Mayana.
"It was one of the reasons I was interested in coming over here," Palomino told WFAA. "I knew we were going to start a family at some point, and a huge benefit was being able to bring our babies to work for six months."
The twins are the 129th and 130th babies to participate in the program, which began in 2001. While mothers are the primary beneficiaries of the program, nearly 20 percent have been new fathers.
“Even though you get to have time off under the law and all that, some people can’t afford to take off as much time as others,” said Lisa Mackay, the vice president of human resources at Schools Financial Credit Union. “So they end up being forced to come back to work sooner than they would want, and [have] to put their child in day care. This gives them the option to come back to work, but still be able to stay with their baby.”
While it’s true that infants can be noisy and demand a lot of attention, Mackay says that is not a problem.
“We know going in the employee is not going to be 100 percent productive. That is just part of the program, and it’s part of the intention of the program,” she said. “It’s not a problem.”
It certainly makes the transition easier for Palomino. She is back at work earlier than she would have been otherwise — and is happy to be there.
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