As offices across the country celebrate Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day on Thursday, April 28, they’ll likely have a variety of fun and insightful activities planned, from office tours to pizza parties to on-site scavenger hunts. Employers often spent months perfecting every detail, such as fine-tuning the theme for the panel discussion, designing branded T-shirt swag and picking out the best foods to have on-site.
The Foundation states it aims to encourage kids of both genders to dream big and think imaginatively about all elements of their futures — family, work, community, etc. — and to connect their academic passions to real world careers.
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Aside from the official event established 23 years ago, many modern offices are now making flexibility their norm. Today, it’s not uncommon to see children in the office at any time of the year. While these moments can sometimes be a distraction — especially when office guidelines and activities aren’t established — they also present learning opportunities for children, parents and other employees. Here are six ways to make the most of those times there are children in your office.
Keep them occupied. While you shouldn’t take on parenting someone else’s child, it may not be a bad idea to fill a communal department filing cabinet with some random kid-friendly items, such as paper plates for birthday celebrations, Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day decorations, office supplies and more. Stocking up on coloring books, crayons, puzzles and other quiet activities can come in handy in the future.
Offer to be shadowed. Even if you don’t have a daughter, son, niece, nephew, grandchild or neighbor to bring to work with you on April 28, leverage this opportunity to get involved and make a positive impact. Offer to take a colleague’s little one under your wing for an hour or so. Let them shadow you as you work and explain what you’re doing and how you do it.
[See: 6 Kinds of Annoying Co-Workers and How to Deal With Them.]
Accept certain levels of distraction — they’re only temporary. Even with planned activities and assigned shadowing pairs, the reality is you may still find these days distracting. Realize this is likely a temporary situation and the child probably won’t be in the office every day for an extended period of time. Will it be hard to concentrate? Perhaps, depending on the nature of your work. When necessary, grab a conference room for some quiet as you make a call or write.
Set positive examples. Having kids around the workplace should hopefully help curtail unprofessional behavior you shouldn’t be participating in anyway. Whether you regularly complain, gossip or swear, take the opportunity to develop better habits. It’s ironic, isn’t it? By teaching children the best behaviors for a professional setting, we’re also re-teaching ourselves these habits. Make the decision to hold yourself to the highest professional standards when kids are present, and treat them as you’d like to be treated: look them directly in their eyes, address them by name and learn more about their interests.
Show them the ropes. Parents, take the premise of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day to heart. If you’re not closing a deal or on a confidential phone call, why not involve your daughter or son in a meeting so they can really see what you do at work? Keep the goal of the day in mind: For example, take them on a field trip to the payroll department and ask a co-worker to show them how payroll works. You may want to go so far as to create an unofficial workday schedule for your child — they’ll feel like they’re really immersed in the working world, and you’ll be sure they’re occupied and learning throughout the day.
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Choose a low-key day (when possible). If you’re the parent and deciding which day during a weeklong break to bring your kid into the office, try to choose a more low-key workday. Mondays full of department meetings? Not so wise. Casual Fridays with pizza parties? There you go. While you can’t expect your colleagues to babysit for you, at least a lighter workload can afford you the bandwidth to watch over your child without feeling like the quality of your work (or the work your colleagues are doing) is suffering.
Remember, the experiences children have inside the office can make (or break) their impressions of the working world — so make it count!
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