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How to Set Up a "School" Area in the Office
We are working to accommodate parents with school age children during the pandemic. A Zoom session was held with parents and myself to assess their needs and mastermind ideas to meet those needs. My company prides itself on being a family friendly environment and we want to do everything we can to help our families through these very difficult and unprecedented times. An area with cubicles has been designated for school aged children to utilize during office hours. Fortunately, we already had this area which is perfect due to the single person cubicles with built in partitions which will serve as perfect safety barriers for each child. The people normally working in the cubicles have gladly agreed to move into our rather large training room which is not in use due to current restrictions. The training room is large enough to easily allow for social distancing. The anticipated number of children that will be in the office is no more than 10 and we have 20 cubicle spaces. We are installing cameras in the cubicle areas so that parents with children in the area can keep an eye on their children from their offices. This area is not open to the public and is not an area that is easily accessible to anyone not working the office. Masks are already required in our office and that requirement will be effective for school aged children as well. I encourage all businesses with the capabilities to set up a learning space for employees' school age children to do so and I would love to hear ideas as to how it is being implemented. We certainly do not have all of the answers, but we are willing to try to come up with some solutions. Our work families are worth it.
Wow! This is great...I love it! Companies like this really get the ideal of working parents not having to make difficult work/life balance decisions. Kudos to y’all!
Julie, I am so impressed by the way your company is providing a welcoming, family-friendly space for all workers! The fact that you are taking the time and energy to listen and learn more about what your employees need during these uncertain times is to be commended. Thanks for sharing!
We have 3 children in school (elementary and high school) and are setting up spaces for each to attend their Zoom meetings and work together as they often enjoy helping each other learn and share throughout the day (i.e. from what we learned in March/spring semester). In the spring, several colleagues and I was asked to share a parents perspective at our college about K-12 Online Learning Resources and Advice...in case it's helpful, here's the blog/article with some thoughts: https://provost.ncsu.edu/news/2020/04/k-12-online-learning-resources-and-advice/ Every family and situation is so unique, I think a lot of the planning is identifying what each individual and family needs. Wishing you and yours peace and safety! Thanks again for sharing, Julie!