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Why I hate "Take your Child to Work Day"!

April 27, 2006 on 6:45 pm | In Uncategorized | No Comments

I’m not entirely sure why, but 99% of the time when everyone thinks something is a great idea I think it’s asinine. Today my grumpfest is “take your child to work day.”

I’m sure you’re all asking, “Gee Steve, how could you be against something as benign as taking your kids to work?” Let me explain…

There was a time when generations of men would work in the same profession. E.g., generations of men would become police officers, blacksmiths, farmers, firemen, miners, etc. It made sense that if your son was going to do the same job as you, that you should take him to work to get acclimated to that work environment.

But then women groups started complaining that girls didn’t get to go to work so “Take Your Daughter to Work Day” was born. The ultra PC in this country thought it was unfair to exclude boys so it’s now in its present form.

In this present form all I see is a parade of “cute” kids, dressed in their Sunday’s best, going from office to office while their parents shows them off to other employees.

In other words, the concept has transformed from a very practical notion of early job training to an excruciating wankfest where the world is obligated to “ooh and ah” over a bunch of kids. To make it even worse some employees even bring in candy to pass out to the kids as they come through. Thus it’s essentially a springtime version of Halloween except our employers are paying for it through an utter loss of productivity.

Of course everyone I bitch to says, “It’s fun.” As if “fun” is somehow a basis for anything work related. I think it’d be “fun” to spend my day driving a race car, but somehow I doubt that my employer would find that a sufficient basis to buy me the car.