The last time I worked somewhere where this happened - and it happened three times in the eight months I was there, and once when I was still WFH for them and making a flying visit - I noticed that though all the women in the office gathered round and cooed and gossiped for ages, the men tended towards a perfunctory "Oh, isn't [she|he|it] lovely" before going back to work (or to the sandwich shop, as the sprog-bearers tended to arrive at lunchtime and it was easy to say something brief as one scuttled by).
On one occasion it was the father on paternity leave who actually worked there, yet he still managed to get his wife and child past the security systems designed to prevent such incursions [1]
Anyway, I always assumed that one of the benefits of being a contractor is that none of the permies expect you to give a tulip about this stuff. If you aren't expected to coo yourself, you don't have a problem.
Ignoring the crap that permies get up to in the office is one of the most important skills a contractor can have. At one place they'd have elastic-band-gun battles; at another, they'd throw a large inflatable cruise missile back and forth across the office. Somebody wheeling a pram into the place is nothing compared to stuff like that. Being a contractor means getting crap done whilst this crap happens. Happy Families stuff makes the permies happy and, being permies, they don't have many things that do that for them
[1]
Broadcasters have always had strict premises security because of the need to prevent loonies and revolutionaries invading, getting into the studios, and getting on the air. Then there's stalkers. You should have seen the security at TV Centre after Jill Dando was killed.
On one occasion it was the father on paternity leave who actually worked there, yet he still managed to get his wife and child past the security systems designed to prevent such incursions [1]
Anyway, I always assumed that one of the benefits of being a contractor is that none of the permies expect you to give a tulip about this stuff. If you aren't expected to coo yourself, you don't have a problem.
Ignoring the crap that permies get up to in the office is one of the most important skills a contractor can have. At one place they'd have elastic-band-gun battles; at another, they'd throw a large inflatable cruise missile back and forth across the office. Somebody wheeling a pram into the place is nothing compared to stuff like that. Being a contractor means getting crap done whilst this crap happens. Happy Families stuff makes the permies happy and, being permies, they don't have many things that do that for them
[1]
Broadcasters have always had strict premises security because of the need to prevent loonies and revolutionaries invading, getting into the studios, and getting on the air. Then there's stalkers. You should have seen the security at TV Centre after Jill Dando was killed.
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