Millennials: No Matter What LinkedIn Says, Your Mom Does Not Belong at Your Office

15 thoughts on “Millennials: No Matter What LinkedIn Says, Your Mom Does Not Belong at Your Office”

1. It’s hard to imagine how anyone — other than the so-called “helicopter parents” — would think Bring Your Parents to Work Day is a good idea. If one’s parents happen to be in the area, and drop by to meet an employee for lunch, checking out the employee’s workspace and meeting a few co-workers on their way in and out, that’s fine. But, that’s as far as I would go, in the way of parental contacts with their adult child’s workplace.

   1. Totally agree.

   2. exactly. In the course of my career, I’ve certainly had family members, including parents, drop by my office on a few occasions when we were on our way, say, to dinner in the area or something, and I introduced them to a few people, but that was the extent of it.

      And that’s the sort of thing everyone does – including my 60-something bosses (although with them it’s more along the lines of their adult kids or spouses dropping by in the same circumstances).

      (The only person everyone actively wants me to bring to the office is my brother. But that’s because they’re all convinced he works for the CIA. He doesn’t – he just works in crazy places overseas most of the time (right now he’s in Beirut working with Syrian refugees). I always tell them that if he actually worked for the CIA, I’d be telling them that he lived in Des Moines.)

      1. My sister (who got the bosom, the hair, and the makeup genes) was in town one day and came by my then-office to go to lunch with me. After she had come and gone, I said something to my boss and a co-worker about how my sister and I were total opposites. My boss breathed, “Yeah. Your sister just exudes sensuality.”

2. I saw that article on LinkedIn and a shiver ran through my spine. To condense what you said, it’s just plain creepy. I’ve known parents and children who’ve formed teams because they’ve kept their business in the family but that’s different than bringing one’s parents to work. Like it or not, work is a place where we are able to express ourselves as ourselves or at least, as close to our authentic selves as possible. With our parents in the vicinity, we are their children. There’s no way around it.
   But more than that, I worry that it would open the door to mommy or daddy calling the boss to discuss issues with their little darling (not that it stops them without it). But I think that having a whole day for bringing one’s parents to work would not just open the door, but open it using some sort of incendiary. That’s hyperbole, of course, but still, do not give parents the idea that they can call on their adult children’s behalf to discuss anything other than life threatening absences and even then, only to ask for time off (including FMLA).
   The most shocking phone call I had was being threatened by a terminated employee’s mother. Her daughter couldn’t possibly have done what we claimed she did and she was seeking legal counsel. I told her that was her right but until then, I could only discuss the issue with the employee. Makes for good campfire stories, though.

   1. You know, my mom said it was weird when she’d visit her parents and go to church with them. Even though she was (then) in her 50s, suddenly she was a mere child again to all her parents’ friends who had known her since she was a young girl.

      We’re supposed to grow up and lead our own lives. That’s successful parenting.

      1. It’s just a weird hierarchical thing again. No matter how old we get, we will always be their children, sadly. But work has to be removed. That one instance in dealing with the ex-employee’s mother was surreal.

3. That can’t be real, can it?

   Want more career advice from your parents? By all means, ask for it – they might appreciate being treated like someone with a clue for once – but don’t, for all love, don’t bring them to the office for anything more than a quick hello.

4. Does LinkedIn know that someone is using their name on a parody website? (Parody would not be copyright infringement)

   This can NOT be for real.

5. Oh, EHRL, you are absolutely one of my favorite bloggers ever, because of lines like this one: “I’m blaming their parents for being overbearing twits.”

   Onward to the actual point of the article: You call your mom to ask her for advice in her own field of expertise, not to ask her how to do your own job. There’s a key difference between asking parents for advice when they have special knowledge versus just asking your parents how to run minute details of your life. At some point, you should be the expert in running your own life, above and beyond your parents’ beliefs and ideals.

6. I’ve had employees ask to bring their parents to orientation for help learning about their benefit options and parents call me to ask about the plan choices their child has made. It’s terrible, but at this point I take a little joy in telling them that as their child is an employee and over 18, I can’t release their health information to them without the employee’s written consent.

   1. See, that’s where you are a far better person than I, because I have to admit I would probably like telling parents that their adult children should be making their own adult decisions.

   2. The *only* caveat on this one that I could see is that now that the ACA requires parents plans to cover children to age 26, and those parents may know much more about what their plan actually covers, for people between 18 and 26, they may actually want to know whether it makes more sense to have their kids stay on their plan or switch to the new employer plan.

      But that should be handled by having the kid bring the plan documentation home and comparing them AT HOME.

7. Wait. There are some parents out there who are withholding career advice to the extent that TWO-THIRDS want more? Inconceivable.

   1. Yeah, someone is making stuff up here.

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