Remote employee forced to come into the office after his 6-year-old daughter makes a cameo during a Zoom call: 'My CEO freaked out!'

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  • An employee's young daughter grabs his iPad while he's on a call.
  • My 6-year-old daughter appeared for exactly 3 seconds on a video call and my CEO freaked out.

    I'm a senior here, working fully remote, and I've been with the company for about 6 months. My working hours are very long; I'm usually online from 7 AM and finish after 8:30 PM, but I still
  • have the flexibility to do things like drop my kids off at school and pick them up in the middle of the day.
  • We have a standing leadership call at 9 PM. A few weeks ago, my wife had a family event she had to attend, so I was alone with the kids. I had my 6-year-old daughter sit with her coloring book in my office to keep an eye on her while I was in the meeting.
  • At one point, she came and stood behind me and glanced at the screen for a second. No one said anything, it wasn't a big deal, and I didn't think about it again. This is a normal part of life when you're working from home.
  • So imagine my surprise when I got a call from HR late on Thursday. They told me that the CEO was upset that my daughter appeared on the call, and that from now on, I would be required to work from a nearby co-working space at the company's expense.
  • I was completely shocked. I simply told them that this was not going to happen and that I would not be going to any co-working office. They eventually backed down after I pushed back, but
  • honestly, the whole incident left a very bad taste in my mouth. I feel like I can't continue in a company with this culture. Is this a normal reaction from any company, or
  • am I right in thinking this is a huge red flag? I'm genuinely curious if other remote-first companies are this rigid.
  • PFUnnamed99 Was there anything in your contract/policy about not being a primary caretaker while working from home? Could be something like that, and/or your CEO is just a sociopath, which would track.
  • Either way, maybe it's time to reevaluate whether or not working 13.5 hour days for a leader like that is worth the opportunity cost.
  • An employee's young daughter grabs his iPad while he's on a call.
  • Alternative_Swan... • Red flag. If it were a recurring interruption that affected your work, that would be a reasonable request. A one time interruption on a regularly scheduled internal call that happens well outside of normal working hours is something the company should be more accepting of.
  • If they were to seriously push back on this, I'd probably start with something along the lines of "That's fine, I will cease working from home and plan to be at the coworking space from 8AM-5PM from this point forward. Please reschedule all internal calls with my new schedule in mind."
  • TortoiseOn4Eleph... Forget the incident, your working hours are insane. Get out.
  • update: this is the end of me with this company, you all was right when you talked about extra time and I am totally exhausted I need time with my family and my little girl was just trying to know what her dad always busy with it is not a crime I think it is time to following my wife advice and having new job interviews

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