I have an emergency situation coming up in a couple of weeks. I’m a working single mother of a 3 year old in preschool. My son is cared for by a private sitter while I work during the day. I worked from home for nearly 2 years during the pandemic and we are now on a hybrid work schedule, but right now I am stuck in the office for while we are recruiting and training new staff. At the end of the month, my son’s sitter will be out for a week due to major surgery. I cannot find anyone else to watch my son for that week. The logical solution to this provoke would be to simply let me take my work laptop home and do my work at home while my son is at home with me for the week. There were many times when I worked at home while my son was home during the pandemic, and I still got my work done.
However, my boss refuses to let me work at home for that week. She says the union will no longer allow us to work from home if the reason for doing so is solely due to lack of childcare. They don’t want us to have our kids in the house while we work anymore. But I have no other option for that week, and due to having COVID not long ago, I used up all of my paid leave that I had built up. So I can’t just take off work that week either, because I have no paid leave left. This means I’m going to lose an entire week’s pay and not be able to pay my rent!!! And when I explained this to my boss, she could not have been more blasé and dismissive of it!!! She thinks I can just easily find a backup babysitter for the week. Well I’ve tried and I’ve had NO luck with it. She says her hands are tied because the union won’t allow me to work at home if my child is present.
So I’m going to talk to a union rep today and explain the situation to them. Surely they would rather have me DOING MY JOB at home for a week rather than be short staffed for a week and have me lose an entire week’s worth of pay. This policy is hurting their employees!!! Wish me luck!!