Office shows that it can work for tots, moms, co-workers
By Rhonda Bodfield Bloom
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
When Angela Verburg had the opportunity to take her daughter to work, she took it.
And we don't mean for a one-day peek at the inner workings of corporate America.
Katelyn Verburg literally came to work at the Arizona Department of Health Services at the age of 8 weeks, when her 31-year-old mother came back from maternity leave, until she was 6 months old.
Katelyn is one of 50 "office babies" to date at the health department's main Phoenix office.
Nationally, it wouldn't be fair to call bringing the baby to work a growing trend.
But it's getting more visibility — and a recent mention in Time magazine — as workers continue to find ways to balance work and home life.
In Katelyn's case, her mother, who monitors behavioral health services for children, set up a playpen in her cubicle and brought the baby to meetings with her.
"I tried putting her in day care when I first came back, but I couldn't do it. She's never going to be this little again, so this bonding time has been really important," Verburg said.
Katelyn is now in day care, but just a few cubicles over, 3-month-old Oliver is nestled in his mother's arms as she types and makes copies and does all the things that administrative assistants do.
"He sits in on meetings and thinks everyone is talking to him. It's like the 'Oliver Show,' " jokes his mother, Julia Spooner, 25.
At least 70 companies are participating in similar programs around the country, according to a list being compiled by Parenting in the Workplace Institute, a non-profit organization that serves as a clearinghouse for such baby-friendly practices.
"Budgets are tighter, and companies are looking for unique ways to keep employees," said Carla Moquin, who founded the Massachusetts-based institute in December. "Plus, more women are in management, and they're insisting on trying to find a better balance."
She has found that skeptics come in both genders. And although Moquin has come across the occasional horror story, those tend to stem from poorly structured programs with little advance planning, she said.
That's why guidelines are important, she said: Tell parents they either have to comfort the baby or leave the work area if crying is a problem. And they need to realize clearly that work still has to get done.
"You don't want resentment from co-workers," Moquin said.
Formal policies are good for babies, she said.
"When parents understand the babies can't be disruptive, they tend to be very responsive — holding them a lot, cuddling them, giving them a lot of social interaction."
The state health department's program got its start in 2000, when a worker in the nutrition office asked if she could bring her baby to work while she was nursing.
Margaret Tate, who was overseeing that office, was an immediate advocate, in part because of the benefits of nursing for children and mothers, and then because of her own, more personal experience.
As a working mother before coming to Arizona, Tate had to pump breast milk in a storeroom that didn't lock. She had to walk through the office, making a public declaration that she'd be pumping and would have appreciated privacy. "It was very uncomfortable," she recalled.
The health department program worked so well that it outgrew the nutrition office and went departmentwide four years ago, allowing nursing mothers to bring their babies until 6 months of age, when they tend to become more active and more vocal.
Then, in October, the department got a request from a father who was considering whether to bring his infant with him. The department expanded the program at that time to strip out the nursing requirement altogether.
In addition to the other benefits, it has been a useful recruiting tool, Tate said.
Tiffany McRae took notice when she saw the department's lactation room and heard about the program. "That was one of the selling points for me," said McRae, who manages the state program for infants needing intensive care.
McRae lived in Chicago when her first son, 5-year-old Torrey, was born.
"I took him to day care when he was 6 weeks, and it broke my heart — especially being a first-time mom," she recalled.
Tyler was born in mid- September. In mid-November, he came to work with Mom, where he has more grandmother- and aunt-type figures than McRae can count.
By the time Tyler is 6 months old, McRae said, she'll feel more comfortable about finding a day-care facility.
There are some limits in the program.
First, the job has to be appropriate for allowing babies at work. Employees running tests in sensitive lab areas, for example, can't participate. Neither can workers at the state's mental health hospital.
Second, the employee must sign an agreement acknowledging, among other things, that he or she is still responsible for acceptable work performance.
Don Herrington, bureau chief of epidemiology disease control, acknowledges that he was skeptical early on.
"My initial thought was that infants at work would require lots of attention from Mom and Dad, and it would be disastrous from a productivity perspective. Then I thought, with crying and other noises babies make, that it could be disruptive for the rest of the staff."
Herrington kept his concerns to himself, though, and closely watched what happened when the first mom came through. He found that workers were happier after seeing the baby. Morale went up. The staffers interacted more.
Plus, he said, the presence of a baby helped to reaffirm all the things his department preaches about health, from immunizations to hand-washing. "It brings home why we do the things we do," he said.
Now Herrington is one of the program's biggest boosters, saying he has yet to receive a complaint.
"It was 180 degrees just opposite of what I expected."
Babies often are so popular that their names go on the office in-and-out boards, and they've been known to get their own work badges. And when they turn 6 months old, the staff often holds a nice "retirement" party, complete with cake.
Granted, it's not for everyone. Health officials note that some women tell them it's hard enough juggling two roles without doing it simultaneously.
And not all babies are cut out for it, as Jennifer Jennings discovered.
Jennings works at Logan Simpson Design, a landscape architecture and environmental planning firm with offices in Tucson, Tempe and Salt Lake City, where a similar program allows employees to bring babies under 6 months old to work.
Jennings, a 36-year-old project manager, was the first to try it out in the Tucson office. Her Katelyn, now 6 months, was active, needing lots of playtime and attention. The dynamic duo lasted only a few days.
"I couldn't get anything done," Jennings said.
This Katelyn is now happily in the care of her grandmother.
Still, Jennings said, it was nice to have the option.
"Everybody loves a baby," she said.
● Contact reporter Rhonda Bodfield Bloom at 573-4118 or rbloom@azstarnet.com.
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