i’m here at work. whoops, they’re gonna get me now!
ahem. anyway, my immediate supervisor is in the padded cell without door (AKA cubicle) immediately behind me. she met with her hubby at lunchtime, who surrendered care of their 4 month old baby over to her while he does something around the house.
said baby is indulging in the crankies.
this isn’t the first time this has happened here, either. they have an older (pre-school) daughter who also has spent time with mommy at the office. (and had some major whining fits because she wanted attention while mom was trying to work.)
now i’m not the mothering/motherly type. (no kids for me, unless you count the cats and horses.) i’m here to do my job. am i unreasonable to resent being forced to listen to whining, crying and screeching from bodies who are not officially on the payroll? (i do have to put up with same from real customers.) say extra prayers each night for those unfortunate enough to be assigned Help Desk positions.
it’s certainly distracting when i’m trying to concentrate. it’s unarguable annoying, when i have no kids of my own, to be trapped into enduring someone else’s kids when they’re being less than sociable.
Now I understand if it’s an emergency - no problem. My dad, a mechanic, took me to work with him a couple of times when I was a kid. Same with my mom, an accountant.
But this is a habit and it’s wrong. You’re here to work
Um, that’s quite a faux pas your supervisor is committing. A cubicle is not the place to have small kids during work hours. An office with a door is one thing; not a cubicle.
However ~ I’m unsure how you would approach it. She’s your boss? So you would complain to her boss? I’ve thought of some things you might say to her ~ but I don’t know her, so I don’t know how she would react. Is she reasonable? Easy going? or not?
I don’t think you are being unreasonable at all. I would be peeved too and also find it hard to concentrate. But, she is your boss and if you say anything you will probably wind up suffering more than you already are. Tough times out there and not always easy to land a job so my advice would be to suck it up and deal with it. Don’t forget. the squeeky wheel is the first to be replaced.
I’m with gvsantos. You aren’t being unreasonable, but then again, she’s the boss - unless her boss is willing to take steps, you have to suck it up – and if her bosses steps are to tell her to stop because its bothering you - your life may get far more difficult than putting up with a crying baby.
The question is “How does her boss feel about it?” Some bosses/jobs are fine about this sort of thing. And you may not know the whole story. She may have said when she was preganant with #2 “I’m going to have to quit” and they may have offered her this flexibilty to keep her.
I’d also offer that another question is “How do your other colleagues feel about it?” Going to your supervisor’s boss as a group may be more effective than going alone.
