The worst workplace perk ever: bringing babies to the office

In what might be the worst idea in the history of workplace perks, there is a growing movement by employers to allow new parents to bring their infant children to the office. And now, two Washington state employers are joining in.

The Washington State Department of Health and the Washington Traffic Safety Commission are allowing parents to bring their infants to work until they turn 6-months-old.

This can’t be a good idea. I’m sure the moms love it &#8212 in fact, I know they do. One mom told KING 5:

It was really exciting to know that I wasn’t going to have to bring her to daycare after eight weeks of being on maternity leave. Having this extra time with her has meant the world to me.

I have no doubt that she’s excited and loves this program. Her coworkers? Not so much.

I want moms and dads to spend time with their newborns, which is why I think it’s smart for companies to offer paid maternity and paternity leave, but I don’t think most workplaces are appropriate for crying babies. It’s incredibly distracting. Not only will the kid cry, but you’ll have the contingency of coworkers who will crowd around the baby, telling the mom how cute the kid is and no work will be done. Then you’ll have to whisper around the office for fear you’ll wake the kid up, when he finally gets to sleep. Not to mention, if you say publicly you don’t like this perk, the mommy bloggers will be out in full force to attack you as a misogynist.

But the Washington Traffic Safety Commission’s deputy director says I’m wrong, claiming, “In a lot of ways, it has helped for productivity. The morale is high and it’s been a good thing for this office.”

And their spokesperson, Shelly Baldwin, told ABC News there are rules the parents have to follow:

In the policy we do say if baby is having a bad day, is really fussy, or gets sick, mom takes baby home. We haven’t had to do that yet.

You mean to tell me you’ve never had an infant who was fussy and had a bad day? Really? I doubt that. I think they’ve created this rule to be pro-mom (which is awesome), but now they fear enforcing the rule because they don’t want to be perceived as anti-mom (which is awful).

What do you think of this rule? Would you want to work around a bunch of infants?