The Boston Sunday Globe features an article by Maggie Jackson on companies that are experimenting with allowing employees to bring their infants to work with them. It's a controversy magnet of an article, but worth considering the underlying issues it exposes.

Bottom line for me, if I were running a company, I would say let's give it a try and see what happens. If an employee feels they can be more effective if they are able to bring their newborn/infant to the office...and if it fits the office dynamic, it might be good for everyone involved. It might be the difference between another new mom who decides to "never come back" and someone who, in a supportive work environment, finds a way to balance things.

But there are so many issues...

• Although infants require less attention than toddlers, the first baby is always more effort because it is all new to the first-time mom. It is a little insulting to suggest that some women could continue doing their jobs, occasionally tending to the baby, while others stay at home to raise their kids. But that's a parenting judgment and really nobody's business.
• We all carry around work ethic ideas, even in our changing workplace, that we fall back on. No matter how flexible the schedule or how good the employee is at communicating expectations, there is still something magical about 9am and 5pm (plus or minus a few hours in some industries). A baby in the office disrupts people's assumptions and they don't know what to do with that. Is she working hard enough? Is she being distracted by the baby? Am I being distracted by the baby? It is funny how people get judgmental about others work habits so quickly, but it does boil down to an issue of fairness...people want to be treated as equals or better. But what does fair/equal mean when you try to compare people at different life stages? E.g. singles vs parents?
• Babies and kids in general just make some people uncomfortable. Frankly, they make me uncomfortable. I love my kids, but I'm just not a "baby person." I had never held a baby before my first born and I think I still have not held anyone else's child. But again...so what? Nobody is asking you to hold the baby at the office...don't fear what hasn't happened yet :) So many of the "what if" negative questions are really just things bound up in people's individual neuroses and shouldn't be allowed to get in the way of something that could be positive for everyone.

I think companies should keep an open mind and if an employee wants to give it a shot...go for it. But everyone should recognize that while it is an opportunity for growth, it many not fit the company. If it doesn't work out, then the manager will have to make a difficult decision and deal with the consequences. But perhaps if all that is discussed openly up front, it can be managed without too much disruption and bad feelings.