>Published Sunday, May 23, 1999, in the San Jose Mercury News
>Bringing up baby at work? Employers coo over successes
>
>Mary Secret wants to know more about an important option for working
>parents.  "I'm studying the practice of bringing infants to work and
>taking care of them yourself," said Secret, an assistant professor of
>social work at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. "It seems such a
>normal thing to do. Of course, it's been done before, but it's a new
>approach for this day and age."
>She's not talking about occasional backup or sick-child care-she means
>every day. Though it's not for everyone, it sounds like a good idea to
>me.
>Secret is co-author of a new report, "Parents in the Workplace: A Study
>of a Unique Infant Child-Care Program." Co-authors are Ginny Sprang,
>also an assistant professor of social work at the university, and Judith
>Bradford, director of the survey and evaluation research laboratory at
>Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
>Underlying the study, Secret says, is the fact that "over half of
>working mothers in the U.S. are parents of toddlers and infants."
>Companies that allow parents to be their own babysitters usually do so
>informally, so there is no record of how many do so.
>"But I think it's growing because managers want to retain good
>employees," said Elissa Bassler, public policy program director of the
>Day Care Action Council of Illinois. "It's almost a version of
>telecommuting, but instead of working from home, you work from the
>office-and your co-workers get to coo over the baby."
>Secret and her colleagues studied a division of a large university with
>a staff of 125 people. Its informal program began in 1989 and since that
>time 11 babies, a majority with nursing mothers, have been cared for at
>work. Four infants currently go to work with mom.
>"There are no formal rules, but there are well-understood practices,"
>Secret said. "It's up to the mother to make sure others aren't
>disrupted, to have the equipment she needs and to get her work done."
>The mothers, who have private offices, use the arrangement for four
>months to a year. They report they bond better with their babies, are
>more productive and more loyal-and have free, quality child-care.
>According to Secret, co-workers say that having the infants at work in
>no way lessens their own ability to do their jobs. Of 30 co-workers
>interviewed, 52 percent reported interacting with the babies; 44 percent
>said having the babies there increased their job satisfaction; and 92
>percent said they were proud to work for an employer "that recognizes
>the needs of parents."
>Other companies also report positive results.
>"It makes it a happier place to work because there's less of a
>separation between work and home life," said Laura Nell Soules, public
>relations specialist at T3 (The Think Tank), a marketing and advertising
>firm in Austin with 60 employees. Nine babies have been through the
>program.
>Gay Warren Gaddis, founder, president and mother of three, started the
>program in 1995 when she was concerned about losing "great people."
>Right now, one new mother is bringing her baby to work. "We hope it will
>be a prototype for other companies," Soules said.
>In February, when Kimberly Paszkiewicz, 27, took her infant son T.J. to
>work, she "couldn't have been happier."
>Paszkiewicz is client service manager at Legacy Personnel Group Inc., a
>staffing agency in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that has 300 employees and has
>allowed babies at work since 1993. "I brought in toys, a walker, high
>chair, bottles," she said. "I sat on the floor in my business suit and
>changed diapers. It didn't disrupt business at all. They all loved him."
>Now that T.J. is more active, he stays at home with a nanny.
>And Paszkiewicz is grateful for the time she had with him at work. "I
>would do anything for the company," she said. "My child means the world
>to me."
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>------
>--
>Carol Kleiman writes this column for the Chicago Tribune. Send e-mail to
>[log in to unmask] or write her in care of the Careers Editor, 750
>Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, Calif. 95190.
>
>

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