We interviewed a number of candidates for an junior software engineering position last fall. During one of the screen sharing, code challenge calls, the candidate's 3 year-old son woke up from his nap.
He apologized and asked for a brief break. Then got his son, talked to him, explained the situation as well as he could and set him up with an iPad for the remaining half hour of the interview.
Although he was apologetic and very polite about it, he completely owned the situation. We assured him it was not a problem, talked about our kids and asked a few questions about his, before continuing the interview.
That incident showed us more about the candidate than any interview question ever could, no matter how well-crafted it is.
Not only that he would have been a great cultural fit for the team – I saw someone who keeps his cool under pressure. Someone who can be assertive and empathetic, and who can handle a situation professionally and politely.
My 3 year-old crashes home office meetings on a regular basis. People love seeing and talking to him for 30 seconds and he is fine to walk back out after saying hi.
I realize it's easy for me to say this given my role, but the message I'm trying to get across is: There is absolutely nothing unprofessional about having a family!
The same goes for pets, relationships, or any kind of personal issues. There will always be things that take over your life for a few seconds, hours, days or longer. The way you handle those is what may be professional or unprofessional.
I tried writing up a general recipe on how to handle a situation professionally, but really it comes down to just treating everyone involved kindly and with respect. If there's something you need to tend to, say that and tend to it with your full attention.
So, if you're in a leadership position and don't have kids/pets/difficult relationships/health issues or any other problems, at least remember that you were an annoying toddler with no boundaries at some point yourself.
Giving someone just that little bit of time to fully focus on handling some situation often goes a long way and takes a lot of stress off that person. It's also a way to attract and retain talented people.
