I am not a parent. Never had kids. But these ever-changing COVID briefing times are giving me insight into how common work practices adversely affect parents, especially women parents. /thread
https://twitter.com/Tim_Bousquet/status/1365051998886916098
Although not a parent, my life is arranged in such a way that I do often have child care duties. I love this! It's good stuff, makes my life richer. Best of all: I get to the send the child home after a while, and so my responsibility is limited.
So, tomorrow I have child care duties at 3:15. And the briefing is scheduled for 1pm. No problem! I'll go to One Government for 1pm, it'll be over by 2 or so, and I'll take the bus and be home in plenty of time. Except....
Well, often the scheduled 1pm meetings are pushed back to 2pm, and sometimes to 3pm. Typically, the postponements aren't announced until 12 or 12:30. 2pm, I can probably make my child care appointment, but no way for 3pm.
I want to be at the meeting personally as opposed to assigning it, for a variety of reasons — I've been following the covid testing, numbers, etc, more than the other writers (who follow other stuff better than me), etc. But I could assign it.
But I see that many parents would be in this position: I could NOT DO THIS PROFESSIONAL THING that is a core part of my job, because I have to tend to child care, or I could risk attending, only to go AWOL at the last moment.
Both situations, obviously, would be detrimental to the parent's career.
It's the uncertainty of the timing that is the problem. If I knew for sure that the briefing was going to start at 3, I'd either assign it to someone else or find someone to do the child care. But by leaving it to the last moment, I don't have either option.
Not that big of a deal for me personally! But it gives me a tiny bit of insight into how workplace practices can serve to punish parents.
Needlessly, I should add. If they just picked a damn time and stuck with, people could make life plans around the time. But a bunch of bureaucrats, especially those who have a spouse at home dedicated to child care, really don't think about such things.
Anyway, just thought I'd mention it.
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