Comments on: Can You Hear Kids on Your Zoom Calls? Don’t Fire the Parents

By: Camellia

Camellia — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 15:19:29 +0000

In reply to grannybunny. Yeah, the old "Isn't it great when dads babysit!" Dads don't babysit, they parent.

By: grannybunny

grannybunny — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 10:47:23 +0000

In reply to Evil HR Lady. I agree. There's a tremendous double standard. As you noted, "moms still do most of the child care." As a result, we tend to overly-recognize and praise hands-on fathers, and just take for granted mothers doing the very same things. As more dads get involved in child care, hopefully, this double standard will lessen.

By: Evil HR Lady

Evil HR Lady — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 14:15:15 +0000

In reply to James. Yeah, usually people are a-okay with fathers but not with mothers.

By: grannybunny

grannybunny — Tue, 30 Jun 2020 12:59:53 +0000

In reply to James. Actually, parents can be a protected class, of sorts, in an EEO claim based on "sex-plus;" that is, gender plus parenthood. The Evil HR Lady alluded to it when she cautioned employers not to treat the appearances of kids in ZOOM meetings differently for a Father than for a Mother.

By: MariaRose

MariaRose — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 20:37:32 +0000

This merely brings up a biased attitude toward parents in the workplace based on the idea, children are not a visible part of the work environment. Children are only seen/heard when it is convenient to display them.
But the parents who have been complaining the most about the effect of the children on their work performance didn’t before the pandemic deal 24/7 with their children because they had put those children in someone else’s care for the majority of the day but fired that help, to avoid exposure because the help wasn’t a live-in but a per diem employee, as claims.
It is bad enough that in the USA , we don’t have adequate childcare and most jobs don’t offer childcare as a benefit. It is assumed that one of the parents will take care of childcare at whatever effect it will have on their career. The higher up the ladder in position, the childcare is expected to be less visible, but the need for childcare is important for all levels of income and needs to be available 24/7. And that childcare needs to be properly maintained with well paid trained staff.

By: James

James — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 11:36:52 +0000

I never realized how much people hated children and parents until Covid hit. Since then I’ve found that people have zero qualms about informing parents of exactly how much we’re ruining everyone’s life by having offspring. And fellow employees are often worse than bosses.

It makes a twisted sort of sense. Some people just have to hate others, and parents aren’t a protected class, so we’re viewed as fair game by such people. I suppose we’re the new scapegoats.

By: grannybunny

grannybunny — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 10:42:39 +0000

Who would want to work for someone who would fire an employee because their child was heard on a ZOOM meeting?