Infants in the Office

Picture this: the teller at your local credit union deposits your check while her six-week old son coos from her lap. The clerk at your favorite bookstore helps you find a new title while his two month-old daughter gurgles in a sling across his chest. Picture: babies at work, bouncing from a swing in an office doorway, sleeping in a snuggly at the edge of a cubicle. Not so far-fetched, says our guest, Carla Moquin. She’s founder and president of the Parenting in the Workplace Institute and author of Babies at Work: Bringing New Life To The Workplace. She joins us from Worcester, Mass., where she is also a part-time legal secretary and the mother of two girls.

We'll also talk with two employees of W.S. Badger Company in Gilsum, NH, which encourages parents to bring their newborns to work. Jay Smeltz is the company's human resources coordinator, and Melinda Garland is Badger's New Business Manager; a mother of two, Melinda has brought her kids to work.

For more:

Read Deb Baker's blog post for Word of Mouth
NYTimes.com's Motherlode blog interviews Carla Moquin
Time.com: "Bringing Babies To Work"
Christian Science Monitor: "Companies make room for baby"

(Photo courtesy yoz via Flickr/Creative Commons)