Childfree Employees Are Tired Of Having To Always Cover For Co-Workers With Kids
Raushan_films | ShutterstockAt work, it makes sense that the time for holidays be split fairly, although that is often not the case. Some workers are finding that it is even more difficult to be a team player when they are forced to cover for co-workers who take time off for their kids.
A survey by ResumeLab found that 72% of employees, both with and without children, think childfree workers are treated unfairly at their jobs because they don't have kids. Basically, they get saddled with picking up the slack for employees with families because their free time is somehow less valuable.
Employees without children don’t want to continue covering for those who do have kids.
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One employee wrote into The Cut for advice on this very issue. The anonymous worker stated that they are the youngest employee at their company, which values work-life balance, something they appreciated. Unfortunately, this balance doesn’t seem to extend equally to all employees.
The employee stated that “a good portion of employees here have joined the ‘three kids club,’ and it’s kind of a running joke in the company." Because of this, the employee had been asked to cover for co-workers with children.
Things that were previously not their responsibility are now falling into their lap. Even though their boss has returned from parental leave, they are still covering for them as the boss is struggling to find childcare. The employee claimed that this is ruining their plans outside of work.
Overall, their argument came down to one thing: 'My time outside of work is no less important than anyone else’s just because I don’t have children.'
The advice columnist, Allison Green, sympathized with the employee. “In the decade and a half that I’ve written a workplace-advice column, I’ve received a steady flow of letters from people frustrated that they’re expected to pick up additional work for their co-workers simply because they don’t have kids,” she said.
Green also offered some solid advice. She wrote, “Policies and practices that only consider the needs of parents while leaving everyone else behind only serve to pit parents and nonparents against each other, which conveniently shifts attention away from employers’ responsibility to make jobs sustainable and compatible with people’s lives.”
The issue is such a hot topic that career website Glassdoor posted a TikTok video featuring the advice column.
According to Glassdoor, “Because our society prioritizes people who are partnered, people who have children, those of us who might be single or not have children, or, let’s say, caretaking for a parent, are made to feel like our lives are less worthy – that whatever we have going on is not as important.”
Additionally, they underscored that the issue is not between co-workers. “It is not about you and your co-workers having beef, you being upset that they have children and are left to cover. No. It is that the company should be figuring out how to deal with this new situation.”
A woman named Andra also discussed the issue. She stated she was a Gen Zer who once worked for a company where Gen Xers and millennials were allowed to work from home if they had children, but she was not.
“And then one day I discovered every time they went to go and work from home, which was very frequently, they were really just mostly blowing off work that day,” Andra stated.
She bemoaned the fact “that all these millennials and Gen Xers who decide to have kids are given all this leeway to like work from home and take time off, and the rest of us aren’t even allowed to take like a mental health day where we can work from home at nearly the same frequency.”
While no one is begrudging workers the right to have children, it is concerning that so many employees without children are being made to feel like their lives matter less and their time is more expendable. This seems like an issue that needs to be addressed by employers, the sooner the better.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.
