Let your mom embarrass you at Bring Your Parents to Work Day

On Friday, Sept. 23, Amazon is doing a “Bring Your Parents To Work Day” from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Which is an easy thing to scoff at: Oh, millennials, they bring their helicopter parents on job interviews and now they’re bringing them to work?

But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of a Bring Your Parents To Work Day. Since my mom visited me at KIRO, she actually knows who I’m talking about and what I’m talking about when I talk about my job. She’s seen where I spend 40 hours of my week, a big chunk of my life. That adds value to our relationship.

Bring Your Parents to Work Day

LinkedIn started doing its own version of Bring Your Parents To Work Day four years ago, at its Dublin UK office.

“We did a survey and we found that one in three parents have no idea what their children do for work and we thought that LinkedIn could step in and do something about that,” said London-based LinkedIn Spokesperson, Darain Faraz. “The response was incredible. We had a few hundred people bring in their parents. It was heartwarming, it was slightly awkward, it was quite funny.”

Faraz says the experiment was such a success, they’ve invited companies around the world to join in — and hundreds of businesses now participate.

This year, on Nov. 4, LinkedIn will welcome parents again to visit for a few hours, starting around 10 a.m.

“Parents come in, we give them some nice breakfast and then usually a senior leader or an exec will give a presentation,” Faraz said. “[They talk about] what the organization is all about, how we make money, our values, our culture. We also like employees to stand up and talk a little bit about their individual role.”

Then they open it up for parents to ask questions, which can be a nerve wracking experience.

“The Q&A sessions are always quite amusing,” Faraz said. “Parents don’t hold back. I’ve done a lot of media events and I can tell you, some of the questions we’ve got were some of the toughest ones we’ve had to field.”

“I remember there was a lady in our Dublin office and her dad stood up and said, ‘These social media companies, they come and go. How can you guarantee my daughter’s job in the next five years?'” he said. “That was an actual question we got!”

Parents then get a tour. They get to see their kid’s desk and meet their coworkers and bosses.

“My mum has been known to make very embarrassing comments to my boss. In fact, she was inquiring about why I wasn’t married last time she was in the office. We all sort of cringed pretty massively and people were containing their laughter. It was massively awkward.”

But Faraz says the day is always a success. It helps parents and their children bond and understand each other, and it’s even good for the company.

“We teamed up with the London School of Economics and we ran a focus group,” he said. “We found that bringing your parents actually improves attitudes towards employers. It also drives loyalty for employees and those businesses. Interestingly, it delivers a real business benefit as parents become advocates of the company.”

“I guarantee that the thousands of parents who have come into LinkedIn offices are now going to tell their friends what a great organization LinkedIn is to work for,” Faraz said. “We’ve heard that time and time again from lots of other businesses that participate as well.”

People act different around their families, so you get to see your coworkers and bosses in a new light.

“We had our CEO, Jeff Weiner, he brought his parents into our New York office two years ago. It was really interesting,” Faraz said. “He went from being an incredibly charismatic leader, to sitting next to his parents. He became a son. And that gave us a different perspective as well of being a family person. You could see how proud his parents were sitting next to him. It’s been a really eye opening experience.”

LinkedIn’s  Bring In your Parents Day is Nov. 4, and they invite all companies to join them in the tradition on that day.

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