10 ms·

OK, I'm completely baffled by this. Am I the only one who thinks taking your young children on a conference call is somewhere between totally unprofessional an

• krisgenre 10y ago
  I agree it might be unprofessional but I would totally love to work with a team that doesn't find this annoying.
  • iDemonix 10y ago
    On the flip side I totally love working in a team that does find this annoying.
    • unzagi 10y ago
      oh you
    • webmaven 10y ago
      Hah, my first LOL this week. Good for you! Bonus points if you ever leave the webcam on while changing a diaper or breast feeding. :-D
  • mmjaa 10y ago
    I work in a professional team, and one of the things that makes us even more professional is when we all get our kids together for a gathering, and let our kids inter-mingle. It has helped us become less of a group of cold-hearted single-minded professionals and more of a coherent, self-interested group with aligned survival potential.
    • nojvek 10y ago
      Having kids sometimes come over while we work is pretty cool. They ask questions about what we're doing at times and we have to ELI5, it's great practice. My desk has a number of puzzles and they have a ton of fun playing with it. Sometimes they draw on the whiteboard or write a quote. A++, would definitely recommend bringing kids a couple of times a year.
      • mmjaa 10y ago
        I've found it really breaks the ice between colleagues .. especially when our kids make friends/make drama independently from the office politics - it somehow unites us. :) Of course it helps to work in a company producing things that might be actually interesting to kids in the first place. If all you're doing web-blah, ymmv..
      • ajford 10y ago
        The ultimate form of Rubber Duck debugging is trying to explain what you're doing to a 5 year old in real life.
        • shostack 10y ago
          The ultimate reward for good parenting... the kid solves your problem in a way you never even thought about.
  • lucaspiller 10y ago
    One of my colleagues has a large dog who is often asleep, snoring, during conference calls :-)
    • JackFr 10y ago
      Yeah -- I blame it on the dog too.
  • quantumhobbit 10y ago
    I had a video call interview recently and my interviewer was being attacked by his new puppy during the call. Although distracting it made me want to work there.
    • WhiteSource1 10y ago
      The comparison between kids & pets is amusing. So many workplaces are pet-friendly (despite people having allergies or phobias) but try bringing your toddler to the office.
      • magic_beans 10y ago
        Ok... there's a pretty huge difference between a puppy and a toddler. A toddler is a lot smarter, and a LOT more disruptive than any puppy (not to say puppies aren't, but they don't have two hands either).
      • webmaven 10y ago
        Oh, there is no freaking comparison. Pets won't swipe stuff off your desk, practice their infinite regression of "why" on you, yank your pony tail, hand you stuff they swiped from another desk, knock over your empty-soda-can pyramid, try to eat a nerf dart, or demand your attention so they can explain to you how they are super-special and going to heaven because Jesus loves them. No, I am not kidding or making up any of the above, though it wasn't all the same kid, nor all the same day (or even the same workplace), and admittedly I have no phobias or allergies.
• emperorcezar 10y ago
  Depends on the kid. I could easily have mine on at 3 as long as I put something out to entertain him. You wouldn't know that he's there. What it comes down to is a trade-off. If you want me working on the off hours and working 50+ hours a week, or working on days I'd otherwise take as a sick day, I get to bring my kids to calls.
• elcapitan 10y ago
  The reality of many people who work from home is that this is the case anyway - the children are around and make some noise, because they live. Making this transparent and show who the kid is I think makes it actually easier for the other people in the call to feel empathy. If that is unprofessional, then so is working from home, I guess.
  • randlet 10y ago
    I agree they make some noise, but having them in your lap during a conference call is over the line imo. If you have kids in the house then you need an office with a door. I've worked from home for 3 years now with 2 kids aged 0-5 and they understand that when the door is closed, Dad is at work and they don't come in.
    • randlet 10y ago
      I guess after today I should amend my original comment to specify that the door must have a lock too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5A1wg5FA-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5A1wg5FA-g
      • elcapitan 10y ago
        Haha just was going to post this in addition :D
    • deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
    • QuantumGravy 10y ago
      In my experience, no, kids that young do not understand that. Furthermore, if you have the door closed for the length of a conference call with a child that young, I'd expect there to be another adult (or responsible elder sibling) there in the first place, such that the burden of not bothering you was never on the child. If that can't be arranged, you reschedule the call.
      • 10y ago
• problems 10y ago
  It might be unprofessional, but I'd laugh and roll with it even as someone without kids. Especially for internal calls within your team, probably not a bad thing to do - you want to have a fairly relaxed relationship with them generally, so this kind of stuff is expected and perfectly fine as long as it doesn't get in the way of work too much. With clients, I can definitely see it being a bigger problem. Maybe this is just evidence that a lot of people I work with just aren't developers because they love development that much - they like it enough and it pays enough to get the things they want in the rest of their time and there's nothing wrong with that.
• _nalply 10y ago
  I even took my older son, 4 years old, to a two hour meeting because my baby sitter called in sick. I just packed toys for him and told him that I needed to work and he accepted that. It worked out fine for one hour and 45 minutes.
  • caseysoftware 10y ago
    I note and completely understand the 15 minute difference.
• uptownfunk 10y ago
  I work at a consulting firm. On internal calls, it's usually totally fine generally speaking, but perhaps a different matter if it is a client call. Frankly given the hours people work, I respect that they're taking time to be with their kids and trying to find some balance in between the insane hours we work.
• csixty4 10y ago
  It depends on the kid. And the call I guess. I've had my infant on video calls and he mostly wanted to see all the people. And I've had to turn off my camera to change diapers before. But everyone's been cool with it. Clients seem to like seeing him. On the flip side, I've been on calls with people whose toddlers were running around their home office screaming, and that's not cool.
• shiven 10y ago
  On my "geographically spread" team, I have no issue with a team memeber having their kid in their lap while discussing the intricacies of postgres. Perhaps, part of this empathy is driven by having a 3 year old myself. I can totally imagine myself in the same situation if I had to join a meeting before daycare opens (or if I want to drop off my kid a little later, for whatever reason). Compared to my kid, all else is secondary. I realize that I may not always have the freedom to work with a kid-friendly employer, but it will be an overriding criteria in terms of my workplace/career choices. I'll happily negotiate on other terms, but my time and priority for my kid. And if an employer does not agree, it's their loss, not mine.
• gregorymichael 10y ago
  "Professional" is subjective depending on your workplace. Jeans and a t-shirt is "unprofessional" if your profession is banking. Fortunately, developers these days have the luxury of choosing a workplace where the standards of professionalism suit them.
• caseysoftware 10y ago
  My two year old is super chill and rarely makes a sound. If he does, I give him a clicky pen and he's set for another 5-10 minutes. If I open a cartoon on Youtube (muted), it buys me another 5-10 minutes. I get your concern but it's a non-issue here. Edit: Thinking more about this.. If my team was deeply offended by this, I don't want to work there. My boys are important to me and if they're not willing to accept that, I'd rather find a new job than raise f-d up boys that don't feel loved.
  • simonswords82 10y ago
    Your boys will feel fucked up and unloved because you don't invite them on to your teleconferences?
    • shiven 10y ago
      Umm, I guess you have never given this thought in the first person, i.e. placing yourself in the shoes of the parent or the child?
    • webmaven 10y ago
      No, it's because suddenly their parent is ignoring them for no reason they can understand.
  • elastic_church 10y ago
    "If I disagree with this one thing which wasn't apparent from any glassdoor review, recruiter, interview, unique set of benefits and perks, or compensation package, then I don't want to work there" - Says person with desirable skills in a hot job market who never changed jobs since graduating college
    • caseysoftware 10y ago
      Oh you. Let mom or dad back on the computer and go finish your nap. You'll feel less crabby after.
  • devopsproject 10y ago
• adrianm 10y ago
  I think this really depends on the context. Some teams may find it unprofessional, but others don't. Someone on my team has a baby and we all enjoy seeing her in meetings. It's not a constant thing so it doesn't get annoying. It's just nice and if anything, brings the team closer together.
• tonyedgecombe 10y ago
  >>Am I the only one who thinks taking your young children on a conference call is somewhere between totally unprofessional and, well, very annoying? The fact some people think like that is what dismays me with the corporate world, I'm glad I got out and I'm never going back. Thanks for reminding me.
  • danellis 10y ago
    It doesn't seem that uncommon for companies to recognize the importance of families, although perhaps it's more common in those with more older employees.
• awinder 10y ago
  I've seen much bigger disasters during conference calls than someone having a kid with them. Usually from people paid a good deal of money.
• firewalkwithme 10y ago
  You are not alone. I find this disrespectful and very irritating. Probably depends on the tempo of your workplace. I am dodging meetings all day long, and when I join one I expect everyone to be prepared and fully focused
  • onion2k 10y ago
    I find this disrespectful and very irritating. I am dodging meetings all day long... Hmm.
    • firewalkwithme 10y ago
      Yes, the way I wrote that made it look bad. But I get 5 invitations per work day on average. In Outlook I have the option to Accept, Decline or set as Tentative. If I click Accept on 5 meeting invitations in a work day I will not be able to write a single line of code. So 3 out of 5 meetings I Decline with a message describing why. And yes, my organisation is obsessed with meetings, we are working on that
• arghIdontwantto 10y ago
  I work from home with a great team. I had my son jump into two calls. Both times he was completely naked and had just ran away from his mother after a bath. Both times I was greeted with fun and interaction from the team. When I apologised after about the interruption, I got a private message from the CEO to never even think about it. They are happy he was on the call for a few minutes and everyone interacted with him. I guess it depends on the team/clients, but my kid comes first, 110% of the times. I don't care. I do good work, if a 5-10 minute interruption on a call because my kid wanted to say 'hi' to the people in the computer is enough to piss people off, I won't work with them.
• shoefly 10y ago
  I've worked on distributed teams where kids pop into conference calls to say hi. It actually does some good when everyone is getting pissed about some shitstorm or another. If a kid (or kitten) pops on the screen, everyone calms down and the shitstorm magically evaporates.
• logfromblammo 10y ago
  Unless your company is directly contributing to clinical immortality, children are always a priority for long-term development. That's where all the future owners, managers, employees, and customers come from. Once a kid knows how to behave appropriately in public, any exposure to their parents' jobs also teaches them how to behave appropriately at the workplace, and what to expect after leaving school. If you don't accept this at your own workplace, you are pushing that burden onto someone else's workplace, or accepting by default any cultural shift that may occur in future workplaces. As I would not expose my own kids to a workplace environment that I did not find to be minimally acceptable, seeing kids around is to me a sign of a healthy work environment. Not seeing them is a red flag, but it could just be because your workplace does not allow visitors. This is the same principle that causes me to lower my opinion of employers that do not hire people with zero experience. You are simultaneously pushing the burden of assimilation and training onto other people, stunting the development of the people you do hire--as they are denied mentorship and leadership opportunities--and passively accepting that you have a much reduced role in shaping the future of the industry.
• jinfiesto 10y ago
  I occasionally have my 1 year old with me on calls. Besides the occasional burbling, the only issue is that she occasionally farts or burps and then cackles loudly to herself. I wouldn't have her with me on large calls, generally only on 1-on-1 calls.
  • magic_beans 10y ago
    I still laugh at my farts and burps. ...
    • jinfiesto 10y ago
      Hahaha, occasionally I do too. It's amusing how much entertainment she seems to get out of it though.
• webmaven 10y ago
  > OK, I'm completely baffled by this. Am I the only one who thinks taking your young children on a conference call is somewhere between totally unprofessional and, well, very annoying? Probably not, but I usually don't mind. For that matter, the gloss of "professionalism" is highly overrated (I'll take empathy plus moral, ethical, and responsible conduct over "it's just business" type "professionalism" any day of the week). Of course, it does depend on the behavior of the kid in question. I would expect a parent whose kid is disrupting the meeting to excuse themselves, or at least mute the mike on their end. That goes double for pets.