Bring Yer Kid To Work Day... Why?

smashinator · Post by **smashinator** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:26 am

So today is bring your spawn into the office day at my company.

I don't get it. How much more boring could it get for a kid than sitting at an I.T. company all day? We're not like the dot coms who had wacky, fun offices full of toys and excitement. We're your basic, huge, corporate machine of oppressive beige and quiet typing.

I could see it if we were a manufacturer. Who doesn't like factory tours? Or if we did SOMETHING that involved making physical things you can see and interact with to a degree. But I.T. is kinda... cerebral. We sit drinking coffee, pale from a total lack of sunlight, sporadically typing as we puzzle our way through the latest challenge.

I can't think of anything less interesting to watch for ANYONE, much less a kid. We don't even have a server room in this building for them to tour.

Furthermore, I doubt kids are in any way interested in our particular "products." Shoot, most adults could care less about what we do, at least until they need it and our stuff happens to break.

Poor kids.

I dunno, maybe it's fun for the kids just being with their parents, though it seems the kids are all being shipped off to the conference rooms for most of the day to keep them out of our hair.

Bigshankhank · Post by **Bigshankhank** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:45 am

I always thought it was a during-the-school-year kind of thing, why do it in the summer?
That's one perk of working in construction, NOONE brings their child to a construction site unless you are in the final cleaning/landscaping phase. Of course, if you are that far along, noone is going to bring their kid because the cool interesting work is completed and what kid wants to tour an finished, empty building?

MoraleHazard · Post by **MoraleHazard** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:58 am

Almost as bad to bring your kid to work at an insurance company day. Here kid, read this 300 page insurance policy and explain to daddy what Joint and Several Liability means.

goose · Post by **goose** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 10:44 am

MoraleHazard wrote:Almost as bad to bring your kid to work at an insurance company day. Here kid, read this 300 page insurance policy and explain to daddy what Joint and Several Liability means.

Daddy! I think that means you're like a houseguest at the Neverland Ranch.

rc26 · Post by **rc26** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:31 pm

goose wrote:
MoraleHazard wrote:Almost as bad to bring your kid to work at an insurance company day. Here kid, read this 300 page insurance policy and explain to daddy what Joint and Several Liability means.
Daddy! I think that means you're like a houseguest at the Neverland Ranch.

You guys kill me...

Post by **DerGolgo** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 1:33 pm

I think it's to teach the kids, in the time when we no longer teach our offspring our own trade and they don't yet get a bloody job at 12, lazy buggers, not to make the same mistakes as their old men.
"You want to have an interesting, fun job? FOR GOD'S SAKE; DON'T LISTEN TO ME!!"

motorpsycho67 · Post by **motorpsycho67** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 2:52 pm

I think it serves to insure that your kid won't follow in your footsteps.

Zim · Post by **Zim** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:33 pm

My in-laws took my 3.95/yr old (4 years?! Already?!) up to the farm to help sort/pack blueberries. First day of the harvest. Blueberry pancakes and their maple syrup until we puke. (no complaints)

But if I took her to work, well, she would just have stayed at home with me like any other week-day. Poor girl.

I did take my twins to work today (again, meaning they just stayed home) and they shit themselves out of spite. If I were still driving a truck though, and I took my son, he would have shit himself out of glee.

sun rat · Post by **sun rat** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 4:55 pm

i used to take my kids to work on the weekends and they helped me do software updates on users machines, or move equipment around.

but then it was a fairly kid friendly office and they are teens.

roadmissile · Post by **roadmissile** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:25 am

motorpsycho67 wrote:I think it serves to insure that your kid won't follow in your footsteps.

Shit man, going to work with my parents as a kid made me not want to work at all

/RM

MoraleHazard · Post by **MoraleHazard** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:53 am

Though I have to admit when I was 10, going to my dad's work (he was in IT) was the biggest treat. The world is different when you're 10 and so are cube farms.

SidVicious · Post by **SidVicious** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 2:57 am

I think if someone would have showed me, as a kid, what i would be doing today, I would have payed more attention in school.

Bigshankhank · Post by **Bigshankhank** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 5:51 am

MoraleHazard wrote:Though I have to admit when I was 10, going to my dad's work (he was in IT) was the biggest treat. The world is different when you're 10 and so are cube farms.

Especially if they are only there one day, as opposed to week after week month after month.

I remember my Dad bringing me to the bank where he worked, this was in downtown Louisville and the bank was one of those old bank buildings with 80 year old desks and woodwork everywhere that would make today's carpenters weep at the beauty. Ironically it made me want to be a carpenter instead of a banker.

Vespalina · Post by **Vespalina** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 7:00 am

The "National" Take-Your-Kid-To-Work day always falls at the end of April, sometime around my birthday (which is the 27th) (according to the official web site, it's the 4th Thursday in April)

It actually started out as "Take your DAUGHTERS to work day" and it was meant to help empower young girls so that they could realize that they can grow up to do anything that they want and that they didn't have to grow up to traditional "women's" rolls.

There's even a whole foundation devoted to this: Take Our Daughters And Sons To Work® Foundation

Now the thing that I always think is so funny is that companies plan all these activities for the kids to do when you bring them to work.

I used to work at Lenox China as a graphic designer - pretty creative work environment in itself. The kids could see new sculptures being carved and painted, ride the conveyor belts in the warehouse, and play with Photoshop on the computers in the creative department.

In the creative department, we'd spend a whole week creating hands-on activity stations for the kids that would come through our departments in little groups, sorted according to ages.
It was lots of fun for the kids, but they honestly didn't learn about anything that we did there.

If work was THAT MUCH FUN all the time, I would never have complained about going.

Now I work at a large University Hospital place. I don't even bother bringing my daughter to work, because it's more of the same stuff here. They bring all the kids to the cafeteria and give them breakfast, then plan games for the rest of the day.

It's like glorified (and free) day care, one day a year.

There were times that I had to bring my daughter to my office when daycare options fell through. She was happy to color or draw or read to occupy herself. She also saw first hand what a pain it is to sit in an office all day and take orders from others. I think she got her fill of "take your kid to work day" from those rare occasions.

I think we should go back to the apprentice method - like the olden days. Or just have more co-op high school programs so kids can get a feel for what it's like to work in the "real" world.

Now GET OFF MY LAWN!

Bigshankhank · Post by **Bigshankhank** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 9:09 am

Vespalina wrote:
I think we should go back to the apprentice method - like the olden days. Or just have more co-op high school programs so kids can get a feel for what it's like to work in the "real" world.

+1 A lot of construction superintendents bring their children to work once they reach the ripe age of 18 and can be coveed by liability insurance. There are some who take to it, most realize that its HARD work and they'd rather sit at a cellphone accessory kiosk at the mall.

Jonny · Post by **Jonny** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 9:56 am

Jonny: Liam, I want ice in a mixing glass and two martini glasses chilled.

Liam: Ahhh goooooooo.

Jonny: Liam, wash 6 olives and give me two lengths of lemon peel

Liam: Ggggwwwaaaaa.

Jonny: Liam, stop dribbling on the bottle of Tanqueray!

Liam: Nom nom nom...

Yeah, that's not going to work for a few years yet. And hopefully by that time I'll be out from behind a fucking bar.

GOSTAZ · Post by **GOSTAZ** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:10 am

I took my daughter to a TYDTWD, and she had fun. I was working as a contract IT geek at Pfizer at the time. The folks at Pfizer had a day set up to show the girls how we worked together. We did not get shitall done that day, and no one cared. I enjoyed meeting the other kids, and my daughter did too..

She was about 6 or 7 at the time, and did not stay all day. My now ex-wife showed up to pick her up. Her first comment on getting in the car? "Mommy! All the ladies at Pfizer are REAALLY PRETTY, and they LOVE DADDY!".

I worked supporting regional sales managers and the ladies in question were quite attractive, and they did like me, because I fixed their broken computers.... But the comment from my daughter never sat well with the wife...

Vespalina · Post by **Vespalina** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:41 am

GOSTAZ wrote:She was about 6 or 7 at the time, and did not stay all day. My now ex-wife showed up to pick her up. Her first comment on getting in the car? "Mommy! All the ladies at Pfizer are REAALLY PRETTY, and they LOVE DADDY!".

ROFL!! CLASSIC!!!
Out of the mouths of babes, huh?

tucko · Post by **tucko** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 4:41 pm

Bigshankhank wrote:
Vespalina wrote:
I think we should go back to the apprentice method - like the olden days. Or just have more co-op high school programs so kids can get a feel for what it's like to work in the "real" world.
+1 A lot of construction superintendents bring their children to work once they reach the ripe age of 18 and can be coveed by liability insurance. There are some who take to it, most realize that its HARD work and they'd rather sit at a cellphone accessory kiosk at the mall.

+2 I went through a trade school for H.S and JC and came out with an A.S degree in building construction. After college, a 4 year union apprenticeship ...I'd die in a cubicle.

Zim · Post by **Zim** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 3:59 pm

I took my daughter to work one day. Not on the official day, and when I had a job. She loved it, but of course didn't know any better.

tucko wrote:I'd die in a cubicle.

+1

smashinator · Post by **smashinator** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 11:57 am

zimquidl wrote:I took my daughter to work one day. Not on the official day, and when I had a job. She loved it, but of course didn't know any better.

Yeah, I've got some awesome memories of forklift rides, watching a cnc mill, and seeing test runs of prototype machines when I was little. I can see bringing your kid to that kind of job. It's just my office in particular that I can't see bringing a kid to. I mean, as far as I can tell, my job is a poster for NOT continuing through higher education. Go to college, be bored!

...Actually, my job is pretty righteous, but still, it's far from "cool."

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Bring Yer Kid To Work Day... Why?

Bring Yer Kid To Work Day... Why?