帶着寶寶去上班 Office pass vending card

Child’s play: Lauren Picarello, top, and Marshall Wright, above, both brought their babies to work at ad agency T3

帶娃去上班：勞倫皮卡雷洛（Lauren Picarello，見上圖）和馬歇爾嘠禍（Marshall Wright，見左圖）都把自己的寶寶帶到他們工作的廣告公司T3去上班

After a few months of practice, Marshall Wright found he became expert at coding with one hand and feeding his baby daughter Maggie a bottle of milk with the other. “We got into a good routine.. bonding and you’re doing your thing at work.”

經過幾個月的練習，馬歇爾嘠禍發現自己已經能夠熟練地一手寫代碼，一手拿奶瓶喂他的小女兒瑪吉喝奶了。“我們形成了一種良好的生活規律……孩子也帶了，工作也做了。”

At that time — 2006 — Mr Wright, then a software engineer at T3, a Texas-based advertising agency, was the first father to participate in its programme allowing staff to bring their infants to work every day for six months.

那是在2006年，賴特是位於德克薩斯州的T3公司的一名軟件工程師。當時，賴特是公司裏首位參加允許員工連續6個月每天帶寶寶上班的計劃的父親。

Gay Gaddis, the agency’s founder, initiated the scheme 20 years ago when four key employees became pregnant. “As a friend I was very happy for them. As an employer I was worried about losing them.” When she suggested it to the women, all first-time mothers, they were horrified that it could distract from their professionalism. “They were nervous about how the babies would behave,” says Ms Gaddis. But the four women agreed to give it a go after their three-month maternity leave finished.

這家廣告公司的創始人蓋伊加迪斯(Gay Gaddis) 20年前發起了這個計劃，當時有4 名關鍵員工懷孕了。“作爲朋友，我爲她們感到高興。作爲僱主，我擔心會失去她們。”這4名員工都是初次做媽媽，當加迪斯向她們提出這個建議時，她們都十分害怕這會使她們無法專注於工作。“她們很擔心寶寶們會不乖，”加迪斯說。但這4名女士都同意在3個月的產假結束後試一試。

Almost 90 babies have regularly gurgled alongside their working parents. Typically, they come at three months (when the company’s paid maternity leave ends) and leave at nine months, or as soon as the child can crawl.

已經有近90個寶寶經常被父母帶去上班。通常，他們在3個月大的時候（公司的帶薪產假結束的時候）來，在9個月大時，或者一學會爬的時候就離開。

Mr Wright was nervous ahead of taking Maggie to the office after his wife’s maternity leave ended. However, he says, colleagues cut him some slack. “It was recognised that I wouldn’t be working at 100 per cent but that was OK.”

妻子的產假結束後，賴特打算帶瑪吉去上班，當時他有些緊張。不過，他表示，同事們很通融。“大家明白我不會百分之百地投入工作，但這沒關係。”

Ms Gaddis, a mother of three, is re about such parents’ reduced productivity. “This time is not all that long in the scheme of things. If the baby was at day care they might also be distract .” Mr Wright says his greatest critic was probably himself: “You put more pressure on yourself than others will.”

加迪斯是3個孩子的母親，她對於這些父母工作效率降低一事並不憂慮。“一般來說，這段時間並不是那麼長。如果嬰兒在日託所，他們或許也會分心。”賴特表示，他最嚴厲的批評者或許就是他自己：“比起其他人，你給自己的壓力更大。”

For Lauren Picarello, T3’s director of brand and business development, who started bringing her baby in to work this month, the scheme helps “foster more collaboration across teams”.

勞倫皮卡雷洛是T3品牌和業務發展總監。她從這個月開始將自己的寶寶帶來公司。她表示，該計劃有助於“促進團隊合作。”

At other companies, such as WS Badger, the natural bodycare products maker, the working day incorporates two unpaid hours in total when the parents can focus entirely on their infant.

在其他公司，比如天然護膚品製造商WS Badger，每個工作日都包含無報酬的兩小時，父母可以在這段時間裏全心照管自己的寶寶。

The relative popularity of such initiatives in the US, says Brad Harrington, executive director of the Boston College Center for Work & Family, is a sign that some companies are trying to address the government’s failure to guarantee paid maternity or paternity leave. He points to this week’s announcement by Netflix that it will allow up to a year’s leave to new parents as another example of companies taking the initiative.

波士頓學院(Boston College)工作與家庭中心(Center for Work & Family)執行主任布拉德哈林頓(Brad Harrington)表示，這些舉措在美國更受歡迎，表明一些企業試圖解決政府未能確保帶薪產假或者陪產假的問題。作爲主動採取措施的企業的又一個例子，他提及Netflix，該公司近日宣佈將爲新晉爲父母的員工提供長達1年的假期。

Giving parents responsibility for their babies is also cheaper and less bureaucratic for a company than setting up on-site childcare facilities.

對企業來說，讓員工自行承擔起照顧孩子的責任，比在公司裏設立託兒所花費更少，也更人性化。