Employee Babysits Her Goddaughter In Her Office, Office Drama Ensues

• By Danish Faheem
• 4 months ago
• 5 minutes read

Mixing work and personal life can sometimes lead to issues. Today, we’re diving into a fascinating story about a woman who worked in an office and often looked after her goddaughter, Emma, during the day. Emma’s mother, Jen, works there too. After her MIL required surgery, Jen asked if OP could look after her daughter, and he happily agreed. While the office is family-friendly, some employees felt that OP was showing favoritism by spending extra time with Emma. The complaints concerned OP, as being the Vice President, everyone looked up to her.

Scroll down below to read the story!

Source: Reddit

Image credit: Kristina Paukshtite (not the actual photo)

1. Babysitting and working can be tough to manage at the same time. Let’s dive in!

2. The culture at the company where OP works, as a VP, is very relaxed and family-friendly. Workers are allowed to freely bring in their children and pets when there is no one available to look after them.

3. OP is godmother to her assistant, Jen’s, daughter Emma. The two are very close, both on and off duty.

4. When Jen’s MIL had to undergo surgery, she began dropping Emma off at OP’s office for the time her MIL was fully recovered.

5. OP had happily been taking care of Emma. The girl would enjoy her time in OP’s spacious office and wouldn’t cause any trouble.

6. Apparently, Emma didn’t cause any distractions, and OP would easily focus on both babysitting and office work at the same time.

7. One morning, OP found out someone had filed a complaint with HR about her babysitting Jen’s daughter.

I was waiting for this. Preferential treatment is a serious topic in the workplace. All employees want to be treated equally, and if one gets preferential treatment, chances are they wouldn’t complain, but others feeling inferior would raise their voices. Ethically, OP is doing the right thing. She is looking after her goddaughter. If there was anyone Jen would’ve approached for this task, it would’ve been OP. But things are different in offices. The dynamic is professional, not personal. And professional dynamics do not involve babysitting.

OP would have to take this complaint as a valid consideration and cater to the situation very carefully to make sure she doesn’t jeopardize her or Jen’s job. Let’s see what happens next. Scroll down below to continue reading!

Source: Reddit

8. OP said she would have never minded had anyone from the office asked her to look after their kids. She said the complaint was invalid.

9. She mentioned once again that the girl never caused any disruption and that she would easily manage her work with Emma around her.

10. HR has conveyed that employees at the office are taking the wrong message from OP babysitting Emma.

11. OP clarified she doesn’t want to make others feel she is favoring Jen. The matter was taken to the courts of the AITA community.

Source: Reddit

The AITA community was firm in its decision. Here’s what the members had to say about this:

12. There are issues in your company if you think the views of your employees are invalid.

Via christina0001

13. At the end of the day, OP’s job is to manage, not babysit.

Via Redditor

14. I would suggest following HR and doing as they say.

Via 20frvrz

15. Some workers are always eyeing an episode of preferential treatment and will report you as soon as possible. Make sure that doesn’t happen.

Via ProfessorYaffle1

16. At some positions, you cannot honor personal duties while catering to your professional duties.

Via indicatprincess

17. It is either babysitting or work. And from the way things are, currently, it feels like OP is focused entirely on the babysitting part.

Via Mammoth_Piglet_3063

18. Although OP’s heart is in the right place, the issue here is that Jen works for OP, just like all the other workers.

Via Unable_Ad5655

19. It is the whole room. Take off your blinders!

Via Transformermom2

20. OP doesn’t realize how big of a risk she is taking with this.

Via ShiftNo558

OP made a mistake by referring to the complaint as something “invalid.”. This kind of cemented the fact that something preferential was going on in the company. She still has the chance to save the ship by listening to what HR has to say. Actually, she must seek advice and act exactly the way she is told to. VP posts are not readily available, and I wouldn’t like to see Jen or OP fired for this. It can happen in structured organizations where equality is taken very seriously. I wish for things to happen smoothly for everyone because Jen needs OP’s help, OP knows she needs to help both Jen and Emma, but the corporate duties also have a major hold in this matter. Very challenging!

I really hope you guys enjoyed this one. Don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Stay tuned for more stories!

Via storyb00k

Dog tax.

“My friend’s dog when she pulls the rake out.”