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?
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.
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.
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 kids are low maintenance. You’ve either been a lucky parent or you have no kids.
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
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
