Bringing Babies to Work

By Tiffany Sharples

Correction Appended: Jan. 7, 2008

A cooing baby in the next cubicle? It may sound like a recipe for distraction to some, but programs that allow parents to take their infants to work are growing across the country. The newly established Parenting in the Workplace Institute has a database of more than 70 U.S. companies that allow babies at work, and founder Carla Moquin says she is constantly including more. "I believe that this is actually a lot more prevalent than I've found so far," she says, adding that many companies are slow to establish formal policies but often make ad hoc arrangements for individual employees.

Those informal agreements are paving the way for official policies, particularly as more women move into protocol-setting positions. While working as the executive director of her state's trial lawyer's association earlier in her career, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius took her two infant sons to the office and has been an advocate for workplace parenting ever since. Today, 21 state agencies in Kansas allow parenting in the office. "We live in a society where too many people make workers choose--do you want to be a good parent, or do you want to be a good worker?" says Sebelius, whose oldest is now 26.

Advocates know that permitting babies on the job is not a universal solution. It wouldn't work well, for example, with certain jobs, like doctoring and teaching, or for particularly fussy infants. But even naysayers may be surprised by the results of research conducted by Mary Secret, a social-work professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her 2005 analysis of 55 businesses with baby-friendly policies found that people often anticipate disaster but there is rarely a negative effect on co-workers or productivity. What's more, she learned that having babies around can boost morale among colleagues. "We have tended to have this myth of the separation between work and family," Secret says. "In reality, that never existed."

Of course, studying how babies affect a workplace is one thing, and experiencing it is another. Here are some views from people who have:

The Working Mom

Susan Goodykoontz, 42, epidemiologist, Arizona department of public health, Phoenix.

At various times, she took three of her four kids to work. "I felt as though I had a before-and-after experience with my children," she says. "It's a great benefit, you have more time to find day care, and it's obviously a cost-saving." Still, it does require some adjustments. "It definitely takes some getting used to," she admits. "Some things are difficult, such as talking on the phone when your baby wants to talk too."

The Business Owner

Debra Pierson, 40, Pierson Consulting Co., Mechanicsburg, Pa.

She lets employees bring babies on a case-by-case basis. "I don't think a baby is any more distracting than talk about Dancing with the Stars or what you did over the weekend," she says. "I really think it's the best of both worlds for those women who can bring their babies to work. They can care for their own child and not miss those firsts."

The Opponent

Collette Liantonio, 58, president, Concepts TV Productions, Boonton, N.J.

A mother of three, she thinks a child-care option at work is a good idea but babies shouldn't be allowed in open work spaces: "I think it's totally inappropriate. Why should the person in the next cubicle be subjected to that distraction? It's disrespectful."

The Convert

Don Herrington, 50, bureau chief for epidemiology and disease control, Arizona department of public health, Phoenix.

He has no children and initially opposed the program. "It couldn't have been more the 180DEG opposite. Any reservations I had are gone," he says. "The babies were a great source of morale. Everyone enjoyed seeing them--they were happier people."

The original version of this story incorrectly stated that Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius worked as an attorney early in her career. In fact, Governor Sebelius served as the executive director of the Kansas Trial Lawyer's Association, but was not an attorney herself.