Whether you are physically carrying the baby or an expecting father, your work life will change when welcoming a child to the family.  Everyone understands that; everyone expects that.  However, enter a new policy by your company that allows you to bring your children to work, and you're looking at not only a change to your work environment, but a change to your fellow employees’ work environment as well.
 
What?! How unfair, right?

In an effort to become more “family-friendly” and promote “work-life balance,” non-traditional companies are allowing people to bring their babies into work.  I’m not talking about a soundproof daycare center located on the first floor either.  This is in the next cubicle over.  The next desk over.  The next office over.

The real quandary is how does this affect the productivity of the parent bringing the baby in, and the cubicle neighbors of that parent?

Don’t get me wrong; I’m all for finding work-life balance.  I quit a job that didn’t allow for a social life, and I am following a new career that allows for a life, but better yet, will allow me to be a working mother in the future.
 
Even with my passionate feelings over a work-life balance, I can’t seem to grasp how this could possibly work!  Unless there are closed offices or a nanny comes with the baby, this seems a recipe for a disaster.

Is this occurring at your workplace?  If so, what are your thoughts on this new family-friendly concept?

This is a guest post by Lauren Kleinman.