At a time when people are spreading awareness of having an essential work-life balance, when many companies are taking steps to support their employees emotionally, one man decided not to get off work on one of the most significant days of his life – the birth of his child.
One guy on LinkedIn posted how he decided to “Work From Hospital” instead of ‘work from home’ on the day his wife delivered their first child.
“I can still be committed to my work while happily taking a peek at my baby girl,” he wrote.
He went on to add how working from the office would have made things “difficult” because he’d have to take a few days off and hence, “lose the continuity of work”.
Have a look at his full post here:
Screenshots of the post were shared on Twitter by a user:
Peak horrific LinkedIn pic.twitter.com/1Pqx0ZOjeF
— Sam Hodges (@SamHodges) June 20, 2021
And people online weren’t impressed. They had one important question – couldn’t he have taken the day off?
This makes me so sad. If my husband started working so shortly after I’d given birth rather than being fully present for a life changing event I’d be upset for him and for me. Are they that hard up financially that he couldn’t stop work for a few more hours?
— Zella (@ZellarinaP) June 21, 2021
It’s the phrase “Taking a peek” for me.
Like the baby is some kind of zoo attraction to be admired in between slack messages and zoom calls – rather than fed, changed, nursed, cared for whilst mum gets some rest?
My god this is infuriating.
— Lauren Wilden (@laurenwilden) June 21, 2021
Hey guys, I can see the baby’s head coming so I may have to put myself on mute for 10 minutes, I’ll be right back to discuss our growth strategies
— KJ (@KrisJ1111) June 21, 2021
Oh my god I mean even if he doesn’t have paternity leave doesn’t he have any annual leave? At all?! Horrendous!!
— Alex Valk (@AlexValk) June 21, 2021
I mean, I could just about understand if the guy had a crucial deadline that he just couldn’t get out of, and his future income depended on having to work from hospital, but no, dude was just posting waffle on LinkedIn when he should be focused on here and now and thems two.
— Owen W-G (@OwenWG1976) June 21, 2021
Some others said that if they had been in the wife’s place, they wouldn’t have allowed their partner to prioritize his work on such an important day.
He needs to get in the bin. Sans laptop. Or, put the laptop in the bin, and actually be present. I would be absolutely furious with him.
When our daughter was born, the only device hubs was allowed to bring was his kindle. Work was NOT allowed to invade our daughter’s birth.— GameDev Mum (@GameDevMum) June 22, 2021
It’s interesting that so many people interpret “work-life balance” as “having both my work and home accessible to switch between at all times” and not “able to focus exclusively on one as the highest priority in certain situations, like THE BIRTH OF MY CHILD”.
— Sarah Bastien (@SarahBastien1) June 21, 2021
“Working from the office would have made things difficult. I’d have to take A FEW DAYS off and lose continuity of work”. Ohh the horror! These are the same people who fire women just before their maternity break.
Taking a peek at the lil one is NOT = being a father!
— Chhavi (@chhavi96) June 22, 2021
Really sad story and what terrible pressure to put on people that they have to advertize putting work before their own family in the most intimate of situations. Capitalism is truly broken when employers demands are so immoral.
— Mary-Ellen (@HullLecturer) June 22, 2021
I am actually genuinely curious what this man was working on at the time.
In a +20 year career, I am yet to come across a situation where I could have legitimately said to my wife, ‘I know you are having a baby but I’m going to be over here working… this is really important’— FergusMckee (@FergusMckee) June 21, 2021
As a father, I’ll say this: whatever you think you’re doing that isn’t 100% oriented to your wife and new baby, you need to just stop it. Your wife, especially, needs your laser focus on her needs and situation, and will for some time postpartum.
— Peter Kretzman (@PeterKretzman) June 22, 2021
There isn’t a job in the world that could have convinced me to open my laptop within the first week (let alone hours) of my son’s birth.
No job is that important.— Scott of the Dead 💙 (@scottofthedead1) June 21, 2021
What do you think of this incident? Tell us!