Summer is in full swing, and, among other things, that means your employees have an additional challenge to their work-life balance—their kids are home from school all day.
NJBIA’s Member Action Center has gotten a few inquiries from companies that want to know what to do if an employee requests to bring their children into work with them. I thought I would share some information on the topic.
Got a question? Contact the MAC at 1-800-499-4419, ext. 3 or member411@njbia.org.
Allowing children in the workplace should be carefully considered as it could expose you as an employer to liability if an accident, injury, or incident were to occur. As a result some employers adopt strict policies against this. Below are two sample handbook policies which address the issue.
As with any written policy at your business, this should be carefully reviewed by an attorney prior to implementation.
POLICY 1
Bringing children into the office is strongly discouraged. An employee with an emergency must have the supervisor’s approval prior to bringing their child to work.
POLICY 2
The presence of children in the workplace with the employee parent during the employee’s workday is inappropriate and is to be avoided except in emergency situations. This policy is established to avoid disruptions in job duties of the employee and co-workers, reduce property liability, and help maintain the company’s professional work environment.
If bringing a child to work with the employee is unavoidable, the employee must contact his/her supervisor as soon as possible to discuss the situation and obtain permission to have the child accompany the employee while working. Factors the supervisors will consider are the age of the child, how long the child needs to be present, the work environment in the employee’s area, and any possible disruption to the employee’s and co-workers’ work. Consideration will not be given to allowing a child with an illness to come to work with the employee.
A child brought to the workplace in unavoidable situations will be the responsibility of the employee and must be accompanied and be under the direct supervision of the employee parent at all times. (Source: Society for Human Resource Management.)
I hope this information has been helpful. And remember, the Member Action Center is here to help member companies with any questions or problems they may run into, so don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-800-499-4419, ext 3 or member411@njbia.org.
