Elanso

By Debbie Schlussel

**** SCROLL DOWN FOR UPDATE ****

I've previously written about the absurdity of employees being allowed to bring their pets to work. Now, the latest trend is for people to bring their babies to their offices.

We're not talking about on-site daycare--which is bad enough. This is about mothers (and fathers) having their babies sit at their desks and inside their physical offices and cubicles. And it's equally as absurd as the pet thing. It's completely unprofessional. If you must have your baby next to you, maybe you should think about staying at home to raise it.

Try conducting business with a screaming or crying baby around the corner. And try having an employee be productive when her/his baby is sitting there wanting food, a diaper change, or some other form of attention.

I'm not sure how accurate the article is because it's written by USA Today's resident fabricator, Stephanie Armour (why she still has a job in "journalism" I'll never know, especially since Jayson Blair is gone):

At the T3 advertising firm in Austin, employees have a saying: It takes an agency to raise a child. [DS: Gee, that's original. Remember Hillary Rodham Cankles Clinton's book, "It Takes a Village"?]

The $261 million company, whose clients include Marriott International, Microsoft and J.C. Penney, lets a new parent bring his or her baby to work - every day - until the child is old enough to crawl.

Almost 50 babies have spent their infancy in the office beside their mothers or fathers, who generally tote in baby swings and playpens to set up makeshift nurseries. Some parents even take infants to meetings in BabyBjorn strap-on carriers.

It's not as unusual as it may sound. More than 80 companies across the nation allow babies in the workplace, according to Parenting in the Workplace Institute in Framingham, Mass. . . .

The number of companies allowing children at work on an occasional basis climbed to 29% last year, up from 22% in 2006, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. . . .

But the practice - a big step beyond the day care centers that began popping up in workplaces more than 20 years ago - continues to grow. Employers allowing workers to bring babies to work each day include retail companies, insurance firms, law offices and credit unions. In such arrangements, parents typically keep their children at their desks.

At T3, new parents are offered private offices. The babies are allowed to come to work daily until they are mobile, usually around 9 months old.

The perk isn't just for working mothers: 10 fathers at T3 have participated. Toys that one parent used often are passed to other new moms and dads returning to work with their babies, company spokeswoman Courtney Layton says.

"It's been fun," she says. "You can't be in a bad mood when there is a baby there."

Um, I beg to differ.

**** UPDATE: Reader GS send this pic and writes:

Deb-

Hey....... what's the big deal.....Airline Pilots can take their kids to work……???