We do that here, as a province-wide thing pushed by the Ministry of Education, but it’s for Grade 9 kids (14-15-year-olds) as a preparation for future working life thing - not for little kids. Our department organizes activities, but geared towards providing information about career choices rather than fun and entertainment.
I think this has to be properly phrased for next year:
Put you children to work day!
As a hijack, why is TYKTWD on a school day? In less than a month they will be off for about 11 weeks - why not use a day in that time?
Because that would make sense.
Around here, the schools have started giving assignments, so that kids have to report what they learned. I can imagine some of the reports are…interesting.
My employer decided a couple of years ago not to play along in April any more. We have a day in August instead.
It’s a well-intentioned event, but in practice, not that effective, I would think. How many kids go home after a day in the workplace and say “Wow, I can hardly wait to grow up and get to do XXXX all day like you do!”?
GT
Well, it started out as Take Your Daughter to Work Day, and the idea was for young girls to see that their mothers also did important work outside the house. Ideally, the mother’s coworkers would have taken a few seconds to tell the daughter how important the mother’s work was in the office.
This would contrast with the only way the daughter had ever thought of her mother before: as a household drudge.
Then someone decided they should invite little boys, too, although there had never been any doubt in any little boy’s mind that his daddy did important work outside the home.
I never realized and never anticipated that it would turn into “Have a children’s party at your parent’s workplace” day.
There are schools that let out in May? Wow. I graduate on June 13th or so.
I would guess it is more productive to have a few TYKTW babysitters then to have each childowner mind their own crumcruncher.
So, where are you going to take your vacation next April?
Jamacia would be nice about then, don’t you think?
Jeez, you’re always having to stress about some disappearing kid, aren’t you! My sympathies.
Anyway, you know what would be cool? Staging a big, loud argument between co-workers, or between a supervisor and one of his underlings. All staff members would know about this in advance, of course, and there’s your entertainment!
My current company is similar - they only allow 10-16 year olds. My old company was a free-for-all, so we had newborns, toddlers, etc. It was a toss-up on whether the parents or the kids were the bigger attention whores.
They did a “here’s what this company does” thing first thing in the morning, the kids got special guest ID badges similar to our employee IDs, and then they spent the rest of the day with their parents. I was really expecting mayhem and Bedlam, but it was no noisier than usual in our neck of the woods.
[hijack] On a Take Your Grade 9 Kid to work Day a few years ago, my analytical chem prof brought his daughter. Clearly a “cool kid”, trying very hard to act mature and look cool enough to be at university. This is the first class of the day, fourth year chemisty, class size of about 16 students. Dan (the prof) starts lecturing about how fourier transform infrared spectroscopy works, but since it’s the first lecture of the chapter, he gives us a rundown about what causes the spectra. Molecular bond stretching, scissoring, twisting are the causes, and Dan starts acting these motions out with his arms, basically dancing around the lecture room waving his hands in the air and making noises “boinga-boinga-boinga”.
Much fun for us students, most of whom had had him before for another class and were familiar with the FTIR dance, so we start waving and punching the air too, acting like the dorks we all are (I mean, really, FOURTH YEAR Analytical chem?!?!)
Dan’s daughter was sitting in front of me, and when he started the noises, I saw her ears turn bright red, and she slowly s…a…n…k into her chair, covering her face with her hands.
It was hysterical.
[/hijack]
Thanks to jury duty, I managed to miss “Take Our Sons and Daughters to Work Day”, which, at my workplace, ought to be renamed “Help Mom With Her Filing Day.” 
I actually don’t mind, because I know most of my coworkers’ kids, and it’s nice to catch up with them. I won’t have to deal with this for a few more years, as the Princess is only 5, and my workplace only accepts kids age 9 and up for this event.