Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Visiting Workplace

Children might be curious about what their parents do at work. I enjoyed following my parents to their workplace when I was young. I found out that in my Singapore office, I am allowed to bring my son to work place. I told my son about the plan and he loved it.

The first concern was whether he could stay quietly without disturbing my work. My wife had experience bringing him to her workplace few times before. She helped me to prepare some activities for him. A night prior to the visit, my son was so excited and he prepared his "worksheet" in advance together with his mum. And my wife did a fantastic job educating him that he should not "disturb" my work.

Upon arrival, he wanted a visitor badge. But the receptionist refused to give him because children were not required to have any badges. He was a little bit disappointed, but very soon he was happy when I served him a hot "Milo", taken from the drink dispenser inside the office. Look at him here in the photo, he was a little bit nervous, but happy.



He started to do his "work" after that. He played with some stickers, and then later he did his "Jumbo Book" English worksheet. I should praise him as he was very obedient. He talked very softly such that the person in the next cubical could not have heard him. He did not even ask any questions when I was concentrating on my work. Instead, he waited patiently when I finished my work or when I happened to stop doing my work. Impressive..

I took him to cafeteria where he enjoyed a cold chocolate drink and a hot chicken pie. He continued his work after that. In total, he "worked" almost 3.5 hours continuously without disturbing me. Really Impressive! As a result, he finished doing almost 20 pages of worksheets, reading a story book, and playing a game with his sticker book. Productivity for both of us were high!

Before we left, I let him try my seat. Please take a look at his happy face?



The visit increased our father and son bonding. And his two-year-old sister said, "when I grow up, daddy must bring me to workplace, ok?" I would definitely like to do so...but I wondered whether I would be working for the same company. So, I just smiled and told her "It's my pleasure to do so, if I can."

2 comments:

恩轩至佳 said...

How long did he stay in the office? half day? This policy is great! I dont think I can do it in Malaysia..

An ordinary person on earth said...

Yes, half day... Intel Penang has that policy, unfortunately, Agilent/Avago does not.